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The Lucifer Effect Zimbardo

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When an officer puts on his/her uniform, they have to be careful to not let the power they might feel change them. Even in an experiment, a person might feel a rush of invisibility, or that they have power over others. When prodded by those individuals with authority over an officer, it is very important to have a firm understanding of right and wrong and when to say enough is enough. In the Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, he attempts to understand the transformation at work that causes good people to do bad or even evil things. What makes us, as humans, lead moral, righteous lives, while others seem to slip easily into immorality and crime? Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving shields allow us to believe that each of us are above average on any test of self-integrity (Zimbardo, 2007). The Stanford Prison Experiment took place in the summer of 1971. Young men were divided into the roles of Prisoner and Guard and put in a prison-like environment in the basement of the Psychology Department at Stanford University. The study was meant to last two weeks. But the brutality of the guards and the suffering of the prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days (Shake Creative, 2008). …show more content…

The participant believed he was delivering real shocks, but the learner was a confederate who pretended to be shocked. Once the 300 volt level was reached the learner would bang the wall and demand to be released, or become silent and refuse to answer questions. The experimenter instructed the teacher to treat this as an incorrect response and to deliver a further shock. Out of the 40 participants, 26 delivered the maximum shocks while 14 stopped before reaching the higher levels. Many of the participants became extremely agitated, distraught and angry at the experimenter (Cherry,

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