The Lucifer Effect Summary

• Zimbardo, P. Resisting situational influences and celebrating heroism. In The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, New York: Random House, 2007, pg. 444-488.
The popular image of a hero is skewed by media’s overrepresentation of born-leaders, who are valiant, risk physical injury or even death, and are known to save damsels in distress. However, I like how this reading broke this limited perspective of heroism because not all heroes fall under that same category. I strongly agree with the visible model that showed the full spectrum of types of heroism. For example, in opposition to previous views, a hero can also be passive, civil, and situational. Going off of this idea, I was struck by the banality of both heroism and

Even if these three terms were meant to be the overarching qualities that encompass other related ones, like academic and emotional intelligence, I do not think it is enough to account for other important traits like dedication and ambition. In addition, I was still a bit confused with how Sternberg differentiated wisdom and intelligence. Also, I spent some time pondering over what Sternberg meant by how leaders who are too intelligent can hinder effective leadership. This didn’t and still doesn’t make sense to me. What Sternberg might be trying to say is that a leader who depends too much on his hard knowledge alone might overlook the other important details. In this case, I can understand how a leader’s inflexibility is a drawback to a group’s common goal but since intelligence can be in terms of academic/analytical or practical/emotional, it is hard for me to agree with all that Sternberg

I believe that this resulted not only from society’s improvements in becoming more inclusive, but also because of society’s increased value for different perspectives due to different backgrounds. Simultaneously, this chapter noted the new difficulties of homogenizing this increased diversity. The reading calls it problem for the leaders, but I think of it just as another challenge of their leadership abilities to be more open-minded and comprehensive. I believe that when the leader can fully integrate and implement all the diverse ideas, they will find their team that much stronger than before. I remember how in volleyball, our setter had to go through the trouble of learning and memorizing each spiker’s preferences. Even spikers in the same position varied greatly in what they preferred. Even though both Helen and I were middle hitters, she liked her sets short and far while I liked mine high and tight. As the crucial mediator between defense and offense, the setter has leading role over who hits. If she thinks a clean kill is needed to boost momentum, she might choose one player. Likewise, if she thinks that a sneaky tip is necessary to break the streak of the other team, she might set another player. Overall, the setter needs to be able to react on her feet, interpret game’s situation well, and determine the course of action to ultimately help the team become