The Lucifer Effect: When Good People Become Bad

We are all capable of torturing another,  says renowned researcher and psychologist Phillip Zimbardo. All it takes are the necessary conditions to turn good people into bad people. This phenomenon is called the Lucifer effect.

Zimbardo’s claim is based on the idea that we all have a good side and a bad side. The side we show depends on which version of us is best suited to the situation.

We must resist the idea that badness is abnormal or pathological. No one is completely good or completely bad. We are just a spectrum of gray areas in which sometimes the white predominates and sometimes the black.

The experiment that led to the Lucifer effect

Pope John Paul the Second has said that  heaven and hell are within us and therefore we cannot escape them. You don’t have to be a Catholic to understand this claim – it allows us to accept the reality that we are not always good to others.

Darth Vader was the ultimate villain, until we could see that he too was just a human who let himself be carried away by his emotions and ambitions, turning him into a villain dominated by his dark side. (As a side note, we can mention that the Star Wars example is perfect for teaching kids what is right and wrong.)

Returning to the experiment where the Lucifer effect originated,  Phillip Zimbardo and his team decided in 1971 to set up a fake prison in a permitted section of Stanford University.

The volunteers who took part in the study were examined beforehand to ensure that they were psychologically, physically and emotionally stable. They all seemed healthy students who wanted to be part of such a unique study and who were aware of what it entailed.

Each of them was randomly assigned a role, as prisoner or guard, for an experiment that would last two weeks. But  after six days it had to be stopped because of the things going on in the basement, which had been converted into a prison. The experiment became too realistic: the inmates quickly became submissive and depressed, and the guards quickly became sadistic, aggressive and mean.

These people became so absorbed in their roles that they started to behave dominantly and authoritarian towards the other participants.  They had not been indoctrinated, they had only been told they were prison guards. But the Lucifer effect got to them.

As explained in the book of the same name,  the Lucifer effect happens as a result of situations where social power is appropriate,  pushing you into the path of evil.

The Stanford Experiment on the Big Screen

The film industry wanted to bring this impressive research to the cinema, so they produced the film Das Experiment . Here’s a trailer for the movie:

There is no doubt that man possesses a lot of kindness, but can also be very sinister and mean. We are tired of seeing this in the news every day. But  you can prevent evil from settling within you and determining your way through life. Being aware, changing and controlling the Lucifer effect is certainly possible.