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  • The Lucifer Effect

  • Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
  • By: Philip Zimbardo
  • Narrated by: Kevin Foley
  • Length: 26 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (24 ratings)

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The Lucifer Effect cover art

The Lucifer Effect

By: Philip Zimbardo
Narrated by: Kevin Foley
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Publisher's Summary

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? Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect

Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women. Zimbardo is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here, for the first time and in detail, he tells the full story of this 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 a week, the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. 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. He replaces the long-held notion of the "bad apple" with the "bad barrel" - the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around.

This is a book that dares to hold a mirror up to mankind, showing us that we might not be who we think we are. While forcing us to reexamine what we are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics, though, Zimbardo also offers hope. We are capable of resisting evil, he argues, and can even teach ourselves to act heroically.

©2007 Philip G. Zimbardo, Inc. (P)2011 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Zimbardo challenges readers] to look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective responsibility for the world's ills." ( Publishers Weekly)

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Reading. Like. A. Robot.

Honestly, I wish Zimbardo himself was the one reading this; he’s so communicative and interesting to listen to. Unfortunately the guy reading The Lucifer Effect is so boring and lifeless. Even worse, it’s difficult to understand. As. He. Inserts pauses. Everywhere! I do hope he gets better as I am still in the first hour… But right now it’s hard to say if it would have been a better performance if they got Microsoft Cortana to read for 26 hours.

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Fascinating!

I have wanted to read this book for a while but I wasn't sure about the length. I am so glad I did end up listening to it. it was fascinating hearing how humans behave in certain situations. I think the description about the actual prison experiment was quite lengthy and I enjoyed the psychological analysis much more. But over all the book was insightful and it was the first time I had heard about the certain atrocities (Rwanada genocide, Abu Ghraib) that have happened in detail. A but gory at times but it was real.

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Complete

This book is my taste. Very complete with plenty cases those peeks into weaknesses of human natures. Glad that I grabbed this book.

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