Nothing says, “I know the way you think!” quite like a well-groomed beard.
Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the shocking but enlightening Stanford Prison Experiment, is back on the scene (is there a social psychology scene? not so sure..) promoting his new book, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil” (Random House). The NY Times features a short Q & A with Zimbardo, relating his study to the Abu Ghraib prison incident and other examples of human atrocity. If you’ve never heard of the SPE, these are good reads, and they’ll leave you wondering… are we all all just bad seeds on the inside? How much can our rationality and “will” take before being overwhelmed by situational pressures? Are the shamelessly sexist, arrogant expats at Ladies’ Nights in Shanghai just products of their hedonism-condoning environment?
I believe the answer is – as always - it’s not that simple. Call me Capt. Obvious, but I think it’s important to remember that it’s a combination of external and internal forces that turns people into monsters. Not every soldier in Iraq did what those at Abu Ghraib did. And not every expat in Shanghai is a sleazebag. Institutions may enforce, even promote evil, but it’s in us – the free/random-willed beings that we are – to act and react. Ah the blessing (and burden) of civility.
(And for an interesting perspective on exactly what our “free will” entails, this article on the emerging field of Neurolaw from the NYTimes is worth a read.)
