Karla Eaton’s Reviews > The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil > Status Update

So sad. What a debacle on every level. Yes, the prison guards were wrong but the circumstances of that prison led to all of that horror, like cars on a collision course. How could those in charge not gave seen that tragedy coming?

I am fascinated with the information on Chip who was part of Abu Gharib's scandal. The idea of shyness and conformity is profoundly important to me because I see it and fight it all the time in class. You cannot gave a good discussion about literature when the majority of the class is too shy to counter another's ideas. It is easy to imagine those being easiest to manipulate.

This is really hard to read because you see the ugly truth in each and every example. For each, I could point to a modern equivalent, like the Kitty Genovese case where people heard her being attacked but did nothing. Just like the Lulu Lemon murder last year in DC, the store next door heard all the noise and violence but did nothing.

Fascinated by the teacher/learner volt experiment. That list of 10 steps to lead good people to do evil is so true. You can extrapolate that to so many scenarios, from bad institutions like the car company that does issue a recall to criminal activity in governments. All acts by good people who fell prey to one or more of those factors.

I love that Doug used the trauma of this event to direct his career. Very cool!

Seriously I will stop soon BUT I like the discussion of the uniforms for the guards and prison smocks. They say clothes make the man and here it is shown so true. We all feel worse when we have a cold if we jeep lazing in our pjs but if we get up, shower and dress, we feel better. Same with dressing for success at work. Your outside appearance can mold your internal attitude.

I need to stop posting but if I don't I will forget. The discussion about the nazi doctors having to choose who to kill is like a serial killer, like BTK who was a deacon in his church: "radically different psychological constellations of self" which allows a person to be so evil and so good in the same lifetime.

Omg this book is soooo relevant. 1) the debriefing on the role of prisoners is like a winners manual for the reality series Survivor! 2) Then Jerry remarks that those who broke down have extrinsic identities, not intrinsic. This is the exact conversation we had about Gatsby! Fascinating.

I am fascinated with how everyone in this scenario has bought into this, even to the point of manufacturing the scenarios of the "crimes" they committed. This makes me think of the lies the girls manufacture in The Crucible which they tell so often they start to believe it.

I am fascinated with how everyone in this scenario has bought into this, even to the point of manufacturing the scenarios of the "crimes" they committed. This makes me think of the lies the girls manufacture in The Crucible which they tell so often they start to believe it.