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Essay: The Lucifer Effect / Stanford Prison Experiment & Milgrim Experiment

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  • Subject area(s): Literature essays
  • Reading time: 6 minutes
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  • Published: 18 June 2021*
  • Last Modified: 29 September 2024
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  • Words: 1,774 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 8 (approx)

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The book, “The Lucifer Effect”, is about American psychologist, Phil Zimbardo, and his famous experiments, including his Stanford Prison Experiment in addition to his Milgrim Experiment. Both experiments focus on how good people can be corrupted to perform horrible tasks. This is due to their conformity to higher powers accompanying the disgraceful occurrences at the Abu Ghraib prison amid the battle in Iraq. The novel’s title, “The Lucifer Effect”, attributes to the severe life-changing circumstances from moral to immoral that God’s cherished angel, Lucifer, was subjected to, and adds a background within that analyzes inferior changes in humans from good to bad. Zimbardo’s central idea is that although people should abide liable for their own behavior, we essentially need to investigate the circumstantial in addition to fundamental causes that form a person’s demeanor. His three examination types include person, situation, in addition to system. The book concludes with the proposition to carry on the analysis of the competence of situational and systematic coercions that are able to alter ordinary people to perform inhumane actions, yet likewise amidst the idea of changing that force in the line of cordial demeanor.
In addition to being the author of “The Lucifer Effect”, Philip Zimbardo, is also a teacher at Stanford University. Although he is known for his Stanford Prison Experiment, many individuals disapprove critically of for humane in addition to systematic reasons. Since his most famous work, Zimbardo has written multiple preparatory psychology books, including “The Time Paradox” and “The Time Cure”.
“The Lucifer Effect” was inscribed in a one-of-a-kind approach that is unlike the alternative writings composed earlier to it. The work progresses to cultivate a catastrophe of humanity in addition to the modification of our good to bad. It does not just address the immoralities from multiple cases, such as the genocide in Rwanda, in addition to Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. He binds it to distribute the cognitive directives and additional study verdicts to introduce what Zimbardo appoints as a badness that is within the ones that enforce wrongdoing. He created this writing as a reaction to what occurred in his confinement study and confirmed that the actions of the wardens were product of organized forces, though they were still accountable for their individual conducts. The national display of what arose in Abu Ghraib emerged in the United States, which made Zimbardo want to distribute his data in his prison experiment, in order for him to present that an imitation occurs. Assuming that we were accustomed comparable situations, we are able to perform these abominable deeds.
The essential basis of the Lucifer Effect is that, indeed, virtuous individuals are capable of doing awful tasks. In a fascinating anecdote, Phil Zimbardo connects both of his known experiments, the Stanford Prison Experiment in addition to the Milgrim Experiment on submissiveness to authoritative powers, alongside the disreputable happenings appearing in the Abu Ghraib prison while the war in Iraq occurred. Of course, the title, “The Lucifer Effect”, refers to how one of God’s prized angels turned evil in addition to how a human could become bad themselves. The main idea in the book was that even though people are in charge of their actions, certain factors, situational and systematic, are the ones that form their own oversights. Zimbardo’s path to criticizing these determinants, rather than only the individual components, may assist readers immunize their systems opposite to corrupt nature. Particularly, discreet standards should consist of refraining the assumption that people are invincible to circumstanced forces, being careful of the heightened potential of these forces in innovative positions, in addition to knowing that apparently favorable particulars present in them are able to acquire bad effects, which can expeditiously become fractious. The book can likewise be detected as serious warning to take better responsibility in conspiring the structures we consume to maintain the operation of institutions, in addition to take care in the guidance of institutions. The proof that Zimbardo uses for the Lucifer Effect is outlined by way of multiple heinous orders of power that wound up perpetrating barbaric infractions against humankind. These include Homer’s story of the Trojan War, where Agamemnon commanded that the murdering of Trojan women in addition to children take place, Hutus killing the Tutsis in Rwanda, which occurred in the beginning of the 1990’s, in addition to the Japanese massacre of Chinese citizens in the time of the second world war. The wretched mechanization in addition to ethical withdrawal that assisted these barbarities is noticed in Zimbardo’s most famous lab experiments and the Abu Ghraib prison. I do believe that the evidence is sufficient to support Zimbardo’s premise. Although, I think there was definitely a better way for him to perform his experiment to prove that obedience from authority would make good individuals do awful things.The beginning of the Stanford Prison Experiment is about featuring the aspects of Palo Alto, California, which is where the participants in the Stanford Prison Experiment are taken from. Zimbardo contrasts the components of the society with Bronx, New York in addition to him explaining a study he administers that compared the care of a deserted car in every community. He found that the vehicles in the Bronx were ravaged not long after being left, however, similar vehicles in Palo Alto were not touched at all. In that backdrop, the beginning of the arrests of the Stanford Prison Experiment participants commenced. The detainees and wardens are put into their various roles, but it does not take long depravity starts. The orders of the penitentiary district were purposely destined to devise a balanced environment. Nevertheless, amidst the participant’s titles and clothes, the guards affirmed brand-new power with imaginative corruption, whereas the convicts became fairly compliant. Each individual becomes immersed in their role each day and a few prisoners start to rebel in addition to becoming so worked-up that they are taken out of the study. Eventually, family members of the jailed participants were able to visit the confinement to see the intellectual and substantial cost that the experiment had taken upon them. They leave believing that the fake prisoners are strong, instead of reasoning to investigate the impression in maintaining to perform such a study that would be so hard for their loved ones. Specifically, inclinational determinants are used to bypass facing the evidential and analytical imperfections that have appeared. At this time, Zimbardo sensed that he was encased in his part as a prison administrator in addition to not being unprejudiced researcher any longer. A priest is invoked to talk with the captives and he even becomes absorbed into act put upon him by the fake prison. Two substitute participants are added to the experiment as prisoners. One of them was an assistant instigator, who worked for Zimbardo. He ended up turning to help his fellow substitute participant, who starts to conduct a fight against the guards by beginning a hunger strike. A parole committee is assembled, which is constituted of a man, who was previously discharged from the prison order. Regardless of being rejected by multiple boards along with his long sentence, he is unsuccessful in acting graciously toward the prisoners. He is overwhelmed by the circumstances in addition to being taken down into his part on the opposite point of the table. While questioned if the culprits would be able to forfeit their fee for the study in a trade for their exemption, they complied, even though they still authorized themselves to be handcuffed and taken back to their rooms. At this point, the roles have come to take over the member’s mental state in addition to their logic. Zimbardo is later met by a PhD grad. She states that his experiment was awful for his participants and her statement was resisted by Zimbardo. Eventually, Zimbardo gave in and decided to end the experiment. As this decision was made, the authorities were inflicting the prisoners to humiliation sexually. This also made one of Zimbardo’s helpers to state that the study should end. Zimbardo was amazed at the type of ethical re-education that occurred in addition to one of the guards questioning why someone did not stop him when he was abusing prisoners. Zimbardo outlines that convicts displayed an inertia, reliance, and despair, similar to Martine Seligman’s theory on learned helplessness. Transformations reminded people of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
What caused this dire alteration was a circumstance, both accepted in addition to continued by a experience that Zimbardo structured. Main conclusions were comparing prisoners treatment to Nazi doctors in the time of the Holocaust. Zimbardo emphasizes that the circumstantial and methodical way will avert one from building the central ascription mistake by which all criticism and attention are accustomed to the person. Likewise, he outlines the human bias for false reason after the experiment. The Stanford Prison Experiment took multiple righteous critiques, containing the absence of entire informed agreement by participants as Zimbardo had no idea what would occur in the study in addition to it being uncertain. Also, the participants being arrested did not agree to being jailed at their houses. The prisoners were not told this partially on account of concluding approval from the real law enforcement was not given just before the members of the experiment agreed to participate, in addition to partially because the experimenters desired for the arrests to surprise others. Nonetheless, this was a gap of the morality of Zimbardo’s deal, which all of the experiment’s participants signed. Members of the experiment that played prisoners were not shielded from mental harm, being humiliated and distressed. For instance, a prisoner was discharged following 36 hours in the experiment due to frantic eruptions of shrieking, sobbing, and fury. Yet, according to Zimbardo, the hysterical pain experienced by them would not have been anticipated from the start. The approval of the study was accustomed by the Office of Naval Research, the Psychology Department in addition to the University Committee of Human Experimentation. They did not expect that the prisoners’ reactions would be so extreme. Alternate methods were considered to generate lesser distress to members of the study, but also give the craved knowledge. Thorough group in addition to individual interrogating meetings took place, and all of the participants returned surveys after the experiment many weeks later, then one months later, in addition to years later. Zimbardo came to the conclusion that there were not any continuing pessimistic effects. He argues that the advantages achieved around our comprehension of human demeanor in addition to in what way we can advance civilization should adjust the agony made by the experiment.

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