The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

First, I originally came across this video and then this video from my good friend Laura S., who is using them in her research for her senior thesis. This post is about the content and findings of the latter, which is embedded below.

Second, this post is a two hour commitment: The latter video itself is nearly two hours long, and without watching it, much of this post will probably not make sense. I will not at all be offended if you decide not to watch it for that reason.

Third, to give credit where it is due, the speaker in the below video, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., has authored a book, from which came the crux of the talk he gave at MIT (in the aforementioned video). To go to the website for his research, the book, and more information, check out The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo.

Fourth, I will do my best to keep the rest of this post, meaning my commentary, to a very brief coverage of the thoughts I had, which were far more extensive, even in the areas covered, and covered a far wider range than the issues I'll address. Now for the video:

*Warning: Explicit material (see below)*


Please ignore the brief use of vulgar language, and the instances of nudity (in the Abu Ghraib photos), and the biases against the former President and his administration, and against the war.

Now- His overall thesis that blames a faulty system and situation for the travesties of man is based on one fault in his foundation: Man is basically evil, while he contends that most of us are "good people."

The odd thing is that one of the primary things he found is that when people wear uniforms and masks, when they have "anonymity" (Greek: state of having no name/identity), they are capable of acting much more evil, especially when an authority tells them to. In Christian-ese we call this accountability, and how when it's gone, we (humans in general, not just Christians) can commit the most extreme of sins.

In my mind, that means his research actually makes the case for original sin, as much or more than for situational-causality of sin (meaning the situation causes a neutral or good person to do a bad thing).

I also found it interesting that he claimed that psychology is not excuse-ology, nor does he belittle the role and importance of personal responsibility. And he wilfully offered that psychology has not been dealing with evil like it should, and that he wants to tackle it like theologians and historians have been.

One major fallacy created by his belief in man and hatred of the corrupt system, is that the system and situation are created by men, whom he claims are basically good. As you can tell, this creates a problem, a paradox of sorts, and the reasoning is just too circular to stand on its own. But, if you introduce original sin, fallenness, and the influence of evil spiritual forces at work in the world, far more becomes feasable.

While I disagree with a lot of what he's saying, and many of his "blaming the system," I do think he has struck gold with seeing evil as evil, and trying to find ways to change people, things, and institutions that cause and facilitate evil.

"My work, and especially The Lucifer Effect, is a celebration of the human mind, and its infinite capacity to be selfish or caring, to be heroic or villainous, to be creative or destructive. The human mind can do anything: We can be Mother Theresa, or we can be Saddam Hussein; because anything that any human has done, we have the capability of doing it in that situation, in that setting." From the video, around 1:09:00-1:11:00.

He understands that we're made in the Imago Dei, and doesn't even realize it.

I hope you guys "enjoy" this post, as much as it can be enjoyed. I think it's important that we remember the words of Arthur Holmes: "All truth is God's Truth," even if it's in the form of a liberal and quarky psychologist, who has a heart set against evil in the world.

I am definitely interested in the discussion that will follow this post, but "unfortunately," I'll be in Hawaii this coming week, so I'll see how it goes when I get back.

-R.T.