The Lucifer Effect: When Good People Turn Bad

We can all become torturers, says the prestigious researcher and psychologist Phillip Zimbardo. It all depends on whether or not the necessary conditions are met for good people to turn bad. This phenomenon is known as the Lucifer effect.

So to speak, Zimbardo’s claim is based on the fact that we all have a good part and a bad part. Which one we highlight will depend on whether a specific situation occurs that favors one or another version of ourselves.

We must eliminate the idea that “evil” is something out of the ordinary and that it is even pathological. We are a whole and nobody is totally good or totally bad, but we are a gray scale in which sometimes white is more predominant and sometimes black is more.

The experiment that shaped the Lucifer effect

It is interesting to bring up the statement of Pope John Paul II about Heaven and Hell. As he said, Heaven and Hell are within us and that is why we cannot escape from it. We do not have to be Catholic to understand this statement, it is simply brought here for us to examine the reality that we have not always behaved well towards others.

Darth Vader was a terrible bad guy until we could see how he really was a normal human who was carried away by his emotions and his ambitions, becoming a villain in which his dark side reigned. (One additional note: the Starwars metaphor is wonderful for explaining the concepts of right and wrong to children.)

Returning to the description of the experiment that gave rise to the concept of the “Lucifer effect” … It was in 1971 when Phillip Zimbardo and his team decided to implement a prison in an authorized area of ​​Stanford University.

The volunteers who worked in the recreation of the prison were previously examined to verify their psychological, physical and emotional stability. Apparently, they were all healthy young university students wanting to be part of such a unique study and aware of what it meant.

Some unexpected results

Each of the volunteers was randomly assigned as a prisoner or prison guard for a practice that was planned to last up to two weeks. However, after 6 days it had to be canceled due to everything that was happening in the basement made prison.

The experiment became too real, the prisoners quickly became submissive and depressed people. Just as quickly, the guards turned into sadistic, abusive and cruel people.

These people got so into their role that they adopted dominating and authoritarian behaviors with their peers. They had not been indoctrinated at all, they were simply told that they had the role of prison guards. But the Lucifer effect took hold of them …

As explained in the book that bears the homonymous title, the Lucifer effect occurs as a consequence of situations that favor social power, since these facilitate driving down the path of evil.

The Stanford experiment brought to the big screen

The film industry wanted to take this impressive study to the cinema by producing the movie “The Experiment.” Here is the trailer for this movie:

There is no doubt that the human being keeps in himself the most immense goodness and the most terrifying and sinister evil. This is something that we are tired of seeing day after day in our lives and, without going any further, every day on the news.

However, only a good person can prevent evil from nesting inside him and thus redirect his path. Because by becoming aware of this, changing and even controlling the Lucifer effect is possible …