University of East London Homepage

The Lucifer Effect: psychologist reveals how good people turn evil at UEL public lecture

Wednesday 25 April 2007

Professor Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the world-famous Stanford Prison Experiment, and was recently an expert witness in the Abu Ghraib abuse hearings, visited the University of East London’s (UEL) on 19 April to give one of only three UK talks and launch his new book, The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil.

An audience of over 240 attended the lecture, held in the Great Hall at UEL’s Stratford campus. Professor Zimbardo drew parallels between the results of his own experimental research and more recent examples of sadistic behaviour.

In 2004, Professor Zimbardo was called as an expert witness in the court-martial hearings of Sgt Ivan (Chip) Frederick, a US Army reservist and Abu Ghraib prison guard, accused and convicted of the mistreatment and abuse of inmates.

Professor Zimbardo said: “Understanding how good people turn evil has been a major preoccupation of my life and a central focus of my lengthy career in psychology. Growing up in the Bronx, I saw many of my peers and friends fall into a life of crime, drugs, prostitution and imprisonment. I have often asked myself since: why them and not me?

“Unlike Donald Rumsfeld, I am not prepared to accept that evil deeds are the inevitable result of ‘a few bad apples’. At Abu Ghraib, the whole barrel was bad; those involved were simply responding to the situation they found themselves in. The system itself was at fault.

“Situational analysis is the key to explaining how good people turn evil; people carry out terrible deeds due to the contexts in which they are living and working. If we can create the conditions to encourage the escalation of abuse, we must surely be able to create the conditions in which to minimise its growth and develop crucial respect for human dignity.”

Over the past six decades, Professor Zimbardo has taught and researched at Stanford, Yale, New York and Columbia Universities. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in the summer of 1971, twenty-four normal American students were randomly divided into inmates and guards as part of a planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life, but it was ended after 5 days as several ‘prisoners’ broke down under the cruelty of the ‘guards’.

Professor Zimbardo was elected President of the American Psychological Association in 2002, has twice acted as President of the Western Psychological Association and is currently Director of the Stanford Centre on Interdisciplinary Policy, Education & Research on Terrorism.

The lecture was Professor Zimbardo’s second visit to UEL; he previously gave a talk in 1992. Dr Mark McDermott, Research Leader in UEL’s School of Psychology, organised both events.

Dr McDermott said: “Professor Zimbardo is one of the most influential social psychologists working in the world today. His research has had an enormous impact on successive generations of psychologists, myself included, and I feel very privileged to have the honour of welcoming him back to the University of East London.

“Throughout his career, Professor Zimbardo has sought to make a positive difference to the lives of others and act as an agent of social change. To this end, he has publicly - and, arguably, heroically - opposed his own government, particularly in relation to the Vietnam war and the current situation in Iraq.”

The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil by Professor Philip Zimbardo is now available through Random House. Further information on Professor Zimbardo's life and research can be found at www.zimbardo.com.

The UEL School of Psychology offers London’s largest BSc (Hons) Psychology degree programme and is one of the UK’s leading centres for postgraduate professional psychology training. For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk/psychology

Ends/.

For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

Information for screenreader users:

For a general description of these pages and an explanation of how they should work with screenreading equipment please follow this link: Link to general description

For further information on this web site’s accessibility features please follow this link: Link to accessibility information