The Lucifer Effect - Essay Example

What makes people behave cruelly? We notice people doing something immoral every day but is it possible to understand the core reasons for these bad actions by putting people into several conditions? In the review of Philip Zimbardo's book "The Lucifer Effect" Hong reveals the fundamentals of Zimbardo's views on the issue and comes to the conclusion that it is a system that makes people behave cruelly.

The article by Hong starts with the case of Sergeant Russell and inquires about the reasons for his sudden cruelty. The author answers the stated question by the principles described in the book "The Lucifer Effect". Still after describing Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment Hong argues that the results of the experiment are not convincing enough to reveal the core reasons why good people turn evil. The main question is whether people act evil because conditions force them to do so or their evil nature is revealed by these conditions. If the reason is the system then why do we blindly follow its rules? Zimbardo asserts that we are led by the need to belong to some system, and that's why its commands automatically become authoritative for us. However, the example of Abu Ghraib soldiers' abuses seems to show that it is not the system that fails and forces people to go mad but the people themselves. But upon a closer view, it becomes obvious that the system just is harmful to its participants. Thus Hong assumes that the system should be changed fundamentally. That's why in order to understand what makes good people evil we should look at the systematic factors that provoke people and make them bad. The experiment is definitely important for the field of psychology as the problem of uncontrolled aggression appears in the most problematic realms of science. Although some scientists conclude that the results of the experiment don't really show the complete solution to the issue as they describe only one aspect of the problem (Brady and Logston 1988).

We always think whatever bad happens we are able to resist it and stay moral people but sometimes stressful conditions make us uncontrollable and we act immorally. Even though Hong's arguments are quite reasonable still it seems that we cannot exclude people themselves and their specific nature that actually wants to be revealed in an evil way. The author explains our willingness to obey authority by describing how parents teach children to behave well and this becomes a reason why we are used to obeying for life. But though, why do children do evil things when they have an opportunity? Perhaps, it is not conditions that evoke these wishes in their minds but it is their nature that wants to be revealed. Thus Zimbardo's prison experiment definitely shows one aspect of the fundamentals of human aggression but it doesn’t include human nature itself and blames the system and conditions for the human tendency to abuse others. That's why it is very hard to explain the Abu Ghraib case precisely, as besides conditions and authorities, a human factor also plays a big role. Analyzing the prison experiment we can notice the same thing: even though the guardian wasn't fully familiar with their responsibilities, still for some reason they decided to choose an aggressive behavioral line instead of trying to take wise control of the situation.

People are definitely tended to follow authorities and agree that frequently we just become influenced by circumstances and conditions we face. Still we also have the understanding of some moral imperative and it is our decision whether to follow authorities' rules, even if we don't agree with them, or to go against the system.