Book - The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

by Philip Zimbardo. Winner of the William James Book Award. Paperback, 550 pages, published 2008. Very good used condition. Minor cosmetic wear around the edges, and I found one page with an underline (see pics) but otherwise this copy is in solid shape. The spine is strong with no cracks. No ripped pages, no highlighting. "What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it? Here, Zimbardo tells the full story of the Stanford Prison Experiment, the landmark study in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards” and “inmates” and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within one week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. The Lucifer Effect explains how situational forces and group dynamics can work to make monsters out of decent people. By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once-upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib."