The Lucifer Effect

Are we what we wear? where we are? who we are told to be?
or is there some innate unshakable being within us that truly defines us?

In 1971, Professor Philip Zimbard conducted a study in Stanford University where normal college students were randomly assigned to play the role of guard or inmate for two weeks in a simulated prison. The experiment quickly grew out of hand. "Prisoners" suffered and accepted sadistic and humiliating treatment from the "guards". The experiment had to be called off in 6 days instead of the original 2 weeks due to extreme distressed suffered by the "prisoners".

If perfectly fine and intelligent student volunteers can be conditioned into being victims and abusers, can you imagine what really happens to inmates and guards after being confined to the prison, and their respective positions year after year?

The video below show a good summary of the Stanford Prison Experiment . At 3:47 of the video, one of the most abused prisoners, #416, and the guard known as "John Wayne", who was one of the most abusive guards, confront each other in an "encounter session" two months later.



The professor has written a book called The Lucifer Effect. Hope i can get it from the library and read it before school starts.