Zimbardo The Lucifer Effect Analysis

Under some circumstances, some people will become cruel. Like Stanford Prison Experiment; it was an experiment using college students conducted by Zimbardo that studied the behavioral and psychological results of being a prisoner or guard. Some participants developed their roles as guards quickly and enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some prisoners to psychological torture. Additionally, from the article “Bad Apples or Bad Barrels? Zimbardo on ‘The Lucifer Effect’” written by Eric Wargo. The author states that good people can become bad people. There is a line between people’s mind, and this line can be gone through. She shows that when people are dehumanizing, their responsibilities can be diffused. In this way, good people can turn bad people. Stanford Prison Experiment and Wargo’s article suggest that “normal” people are capable of evil behavior when they are deindividuating as a member in a group with diffused responsibility and unlimited power.

As shown in the narration of “Stanford Prison Experiment”, some guards behaved very cruelly. During the experiment, prisoner#416 rebelled by refusing to eat. The guards tried to handle it. The rule stated that prisoner #416 should be put in the solitary for one hour, but the guards put prisoner#416 in the hole for three hours. The guards had unlimited power that they could do whatever they wanted, and they would not be punished when they did something wrong. The guards abused their power. They enjoyed the power of controlling others. It was the unlimited power that made them control the prisoners and made them become