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Bad system creates the bad person. This is the meaning of the lucifer effect. The lucifer effect was the research on and the situations that come with a bad environment. The situations that were used in this experiment were verbal abuse war experiences and environmental issues.An example would be in Abu gharbi “Cruelty became sexualised: one guard sodomised a male prisoner with a chemical light; another raped a female detainee. Bush, grandstanding in typical fashion after the event, vowed that the 'wrongdoers will be brought to justice” The Author makes very valid facts and reasons to support his stance on it's a bad barrel effect instead of a bad apple. Zimbardo made this books so helpful and made it completely understandable with social
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, and Kendra Cherry’s article, “The Milgram Obedience Experiment”, the comparable fear factor, and naive mindset of individuals put under dire circumstances leads to the corruption of society and rise of evil in humans. Fear factors are an influential resource, and useful tactic leaders use to instil dominant power in their citizens, if this power is abused, evil and chaos occurs. For example, in Lord of the Flies, when Samneric get captured by Jack, Jack terrorizes them, snapping, “What d’you mean coming here with spears? What d’you mean by not joining my tribe?” the twins try to escape but fear takes over their morals and they, “...lay looking up in quiet terror” (Golding 182). As Jack threatens
A Delusion of Satan was written in 1995 by Frances Hill, and published by Da Capo Press. Frances Hill, an accomplished writer and journalist from London, has been writing for a decent period of time. Aside from publishing two novels, Hill has written fiction reviews for The Time (London) and has worked as a reporter in in both New York and London. With such an accomplished journalist, reporter, and writer, we are due to receive a good read in A Delusion of Satan.
Ultimately, mans inhumanity against man was a big part between the novel "Night" and the film The Stanford Experiment maintaining status quo to treat them horridly. Deprivation of basic needs makes people go and do things they shouldn't. Lastly separation of power makes people feel superior to others. To conclude over all mans inhumanity against man is occurred when there is given too much
This method is presented accurately when discussing how the first juvenile facility in 1825, The House of Refuges, would discipline it’s youth. “The children were divided into five categories, based on their perceived character[...] On the rewards front, the best of the lot could aspire to a distinctive badge, the punishment system was more elaborate.” This example heavily emphasizes cause & effect based off the fact that the inmates would be rewarded with a badge for their good behavior, or if they were acting up their disciplines would vary from loss of “play hours” to even corporeal punishment. Cause & Effect can be conveyed throughout the whole book if you look at the aspect that the kids who grew up with a corrupted household usually resort to violence, it will then get them sent to prison which furthermore leads to your rights violated. On the other hand if you do have a stable support system, or good behavior you have a lesser chance at being sent to prison. The whole idea that a simple aspect of your life that you have no control over like a corrupted household can affect your life in a positive or negative way is really eye opening because for those kids who do not have family support have to learn this on their own which can be hard, given that they are only
Twenty-four average men were entered into a fake prison setting, twelve of which who had been given the role of prisoner and twelve with the role of guard. Throughout the course of the experiment we see the environment effect negatively on the actions of the group of guards, clearly demonstrating that situational forces can force a person to cross the line between good and evil. We see this heavily embodied in the guard Dave Eshelman AKA ‘John Wayne’ – nicknamed by the prisoners in the study – the most brutal guard of them all, the one who demonstrated all the findings on the influence of power and authority and human behaviour. “I was kind of running my own experiment in there, by saying, “How far can I push these things and how much abuse will these people take before they say, ‘knock it off?'” But the other guards didn’t stop me.
“Our young research participants were not the proverbial “Bad Apples” in an otherwise good barrel. Rather, out experimental design ensured that they were initially good apples and were corrupted by the insidious power of the bad barrel, this prison (229).” Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect, created an experiment of twenty-four college age men. He randomly assigned these ordinary, educated, young men with a role as either Guard or Prisoner. He questions whether or not good people will do bad things if they are given the opportunity. After the experiment is complete, he begins to compare the situations that occurred in the Stanford Prison Experiment with real life situations in Abu Giraib and Guantanamo Bay Prison. He points out many similarities that parallel the Stanford Prison Experiment. In every situation depicted, there is a good person in a seemingly “bad barrel” – or a bad situation that brings bad actions out of a good person.
In this study Zimbardo chose 21 participants from a pool of 75, all male college students, screened prior for mental illness, and paid $15 per day. He then gave roles. One being a prisoner and the other being a prison guard, there were 3 guards per 8 hour shift, and 9 total prisoners. Shortly after the prisoners were arrested from their homes they were taken to the local police station, booked, processed, given proper prison attire and issued numbers for identification. Before the study, Zimbardo concocted a prison setting in the basement of a Stanford building. It was as authentic as possible to the barred doors and plain white walls. The guards were also given proper guard attire minus guns. Shortly after starting the experiment the guards and prisoners starting naturally assuming their roles, Zimbardo had intended on the experiment lasting a fortnight. Within 36 hours one prisoner had to be released due to erratic behavior. This may have stemmed from the sadistic nature the guards had adopted rather quickly, dehumanizing the prisoners through verbal, physical, and mental abuse. The prisoners also assumed their own roles rather efficiently as well. They started to rat on the other prisoners, told stories to each other about the guards, and placated the orders from the guards. After deindividuaiton occurred from the prisoners it was not long the experiment completely broke down ethically. Zimbardo, who watched through cameras in an observation type room (warden), had to put an end to the experiment long before then he intended
We live in a society where each individual has their own set of thoughts and beliefs. Occasionally one will modify their beliefs and behavior to coincide with a group. This is an example of social influence. Social influence has three main components; conformity, compliance and obedience. The concept of compliance is similar to conformity, however there is a slight difference. Compliance only requires a person to perform a task. The person does not have to agree or disagree with the assignment, just simply complete it. Conformity requires the person being influenced to change their attitudes and or beliefs. An example of this aspect of social psychology is the holocaust in World War II. Adolph Eichmann was a Nazi officer responsible for filling up death camps in Germany. After the war he went on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. On May 31, 1962, he was sentenced to death for the horrible crimes he committed. His defense was "Why me? Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the death camps. Why not hang them for not wanting to be shot? Why me? Everybody killed the Jews". A few months after the start of Eichmann’s trial, Stanley Milgram instituted an experiment testing ones obedience to authority. He wanted to find out if good people could do atrocious things if they were just obeying authority. Was Eichmann and millions of others in Nazi Germany decent people who were just following orders? Some other famous experiments that have taken place to test the waters of social psychology are Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment and Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments, all ...
Evil can be a difficult thing to speak on, as it makes people uncomfortable. There is inherent evil in everyone, and Philip Zimbardo presents a compelling and frighteningly true case showing this. Zimbardo is the psychologist who headed the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, and was also an expert witness at Abu Ghraib. He has a book out called The Lucifer Effect, which explores the evil’s of the human mind, and how people will change when put into the right (or wrong) situations. Needless to say, Zimbardo is more than qualified to seriously explain the evils of the human mind.
It is only corrupt institutions that make them venal,” human nature is neutral, but seeing cruelty can negatively impact person’s psyche. Modern life offers plenty of various examples supporting the idea. People returning from wars, for instance, some American soldiers who came back to their homes from Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq, could not sometimes forget the horrors of the war that continued constantly torturing their mind. Society also did not pay enough attention to their problems and was not supportive enough, so they were quite likely to become aggressive or, on the contrary, close themselves from the outside world and look for relief in alcohol or drugs. However, it does not tell anything about their “basically bad” nature, but only proves that the fact that pain and suffering are very powerful negative factors significantly damaging the human psyche. Wells shows that when the narrator, Pendrick, returns to England, he cannot recover from shock and becomes afraid of people, so he goes to the countryside where he may devote his life to science and experiments (161). The examples of American soldiers and Pendrick show that people turn to be immoral because of social ignorance. So, I believe that people have bad behaviors because of negative outside forces. They do not have constant personalities, because they can be changed easily by their
Many controversial events have occurred throughout time, for example, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the mid 20th century is one of the many occasions where humans have failed to stay civilized.The themes represented in both Lord of the Flies and the Stanford Prison Experiment reflect upon malicious intentions when given superiority. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of British boys being evacuated by plane from a war zone have their plane shot down, stranding them on an undiscovered island. Losing touch with society, the boys start showing primitive instincts, like bloodlust and amoral behavior. These ideas resemble the theme of the Stanford Prison Experiment, a movie based on a psychological experiment simulating a prison with randomly chose guards and prisoners studying how a difference in power affects individuals. The upbringing of individuals provides the basis of who they are, yet when given unchecked authority over others, they become hungry with greed, which in turn, leads to violent actions towards others. Lord of the Flies shows how boys lose their socially inflicted morals the longer they remain separated from society while the Stanford Prison Experiment resembles how humans can express savagery
Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is more reason for him to follow an evil path instead. Even so, Milton uses literal and figurative imagery in the description of Satan’s character to manipulate the reader’s response to the possibility that Satan may actually be a heroic figure. As the plot of the story unfolds there are moments where the reader can identify with Satan’s desires and relate to his disappointments.
The human mind, has the tendency to desire acceptance in society. As social creatures, it is rather difficult for an individual to constrain from being influenced and being adapted to the environment around them. People will readily conform to the social roles that they are expected to portray in certain environments. The Milgram Experiment, and the Stanford Prison Experiment are great examples of how much the environment controls individual behavior, and how obedient people are to authority, despite their moral beliefs. The 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' portrays such examples of how it relates to the experiment. Even though the details of his life as a slave occurred over a hundred years ago, his findings concur with that of
Zimbardo asked a question, “What makes people go wrong?” He stated that evil is part of human nature. I believe everyone has a predisposition to do wrong or evil, but it is up to the social factors to either inflate or minimize the amount of evil, which is one part of Zimbardo’s Lucifer
Zimbardo, P.G. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House