Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect

In accordance with the assigned readings, heroism is an plausible antidote to evil. For instance, as explicated by Zimbardo in Chapter 16 of The Lucifer Effect, he defines the notion of heroism, by which he writes, “ … they serve as powerful reminders that people are capable of resisting evil, of not giving in to temptations, of rising above mediocrity, and of heading the call to action and to service when others fail to act” (Zimbardo). From this, he demonstrates how heroism is illustrated as one’s resistance to acts of evil, which may include acts of violence, or anything within the scope that is not beneficial to the receiver. In his view, a hero is one who is able to break the mold, an individual who will not sit still if a wrongdoing is

But rather how ordinary individuals, who thought themselves to be incapable to commit acts of evil, can become the very evil they thought impossible. Subsequently, he constructs the Stanford Prison Experiment as a mean to explain how such factors can effect how someone may go about in the given circumstance, and how the perception for our moral standards can be overcome. As outlined throughout the book, he illustrates how the experiment transpired in a chronological format. As the experiment continued, he uses specific case examples, and allows the audience to take a glimpse into the past, as the dialogue and inner workings of the participants progressed. For instance, he uses the character of Vandy amongst many, as a way to demonstrate how an individual thought to be sympathetic, still choose to abuse his authority, and became harmful to the prisoners. He later substantiates his findings from the Stanford Prison Experiment, and uses the work of others such as the Milgram experiment, and so forth - in order to prove his thesis. In particular, I did find Zimbardo to be quite bias with his conclusions. As I wrote in a prior discussion question, it appears the experiment was created in the manner to encourage acts of cruelty, specifically instances for psychological torture. There were no safeguards to protect the prisoners against any form