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cezarywojcik's review against another edition
3.0
Though many of the ideas presented in this book are genuinely interesting and thought-provoing, this book could easily be condensed into a shorter format by eliminating the author's many rants - especially in the second half of the book. It was clear that the author was fixated on some things to the point that he ignored his own teachings in pursuit of his fixations, which was rather frustrating to read. The descriptions of the SPE (Stanford Prison Experiment), the prison at Abu Gharib as well as some of the factors that contributed to what happened was well-presented and interesting. There were also interesting bits about other social experiments done to test out the notion of "situational" factors on behavior. I wish the book had left it at that as a cautionary tale instead of trying to pursue a political agenda.
ollie_again's review against another edition
- "they could leave any time, so why didn't they?" Maybe because you gaslighted the first guy who wanted to leave. And did so repeatedly with other "prisoners".
- the experiment did not make sense from the beginning, even the priest said, the participants did not create a realistic prison
- the set rules were tossed out of the window pretty much right away
- weird description of women, his female students more specifically
- racist slurs and stereotypes, which I could get past if this book was published in the 70s but not in a book published in 2014...
- and the description of the experiment itself are pretty tedious as he talks through the every of 6 days in the first 190p of this book... he did not seem to regret it truly, it more read like *how could I know this is bad*
- this book or what I read from it gave me an idea of who ZImbardo is as a person... and it is not this psychologist who had a misguided idea about what he was doing... it felt very systematic and he got sucked into this idea of a breakthrough experiment which will make him famous in the field... whatever the cost so I guess he succeeded in that... what he did was wrong from the very beginning
- so I have no need to read his self-righteous yammering for another 300p
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: War, Rape, Torture, Sexism, and Gaslighting
Minor: Racial slurs and Racism
shaunireads1's review
4.0
In this first half of this book, Zimbardo describes his 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment in lengthy detail, and uses it to argue that situational factors are much stronger than disposition or personality in making good people do bad things. He also uses several other lab examples, including the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures, and the Asch conformity experiments to build his case.
In the second half of the book, Zimbardo moves on to real-life cases, such as the Holocaust, as well as torture by American soldiers and the CIA at the Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay, to show how psychologically normal people can turn into brutal monsters under the "right" circumstances. He closes the book by giving examples of heroism, and offers practical suggestions for resisting negative social influence.
In my opinion, this book could have been at least 100 pages shorter, but it's still very well written, and makes a very compelling (and humbling) case that all of us are susceptible to situational forces, and need tools to recognize and resist negative conformity and groupthink.
In the second half of the book, Zimbardo moves on to real-life cases, such as the Holocaust, as well as torture by American soldiers and the CIA at the Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay, to show how psychologically normal people can turn into brutal monsters under the "right" circumstances. He closes the book by giving examples of heroism, and offers practical suggestions for resisting negative social influence.
In my opinion, this book could have been at least 100 pages shorter, but it's still very well written, and makes a very compelling (and humbling) case that all of us are susceptible to situational forces, and need tools to recognize and resist negative conformity and groupthink.
megatsunami's review
3.0
Interesting read, but flawed. I recommend that you watch his excellent TED talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFEV35tWsg
and then if you are really interested in the topic and want lots of details, read the book. The TED talk is concise and hits the main points of this book.
In addition to examining theory and research on this topic, a large portion of the book consists of a blow-by-blow account of the Stanford Prison Experiment and detailed info on Abu Ghraib. I found the SPE stuff interesting but it might be too much information for some, and the Abu Ghraib part got a little tedious with lots of jargon from military memos etc.
On to the theory: Basic premise is that people's behavior is shaped primarily by situational forces rather than dispositional (i.e. individual temperament or nature) ones. He makes a strong case for this but ultimately he falls into the opposite trap of blaming everything on the situation. First of all, even in these scenarios people do not all react the same way, so individual differences clearly come into play (although he makes a great point that, at least in many studies, it wasn't possible to predict ahead of time how people would react).
But also, in real life, most situations will not exert as powerful an influence as the SPE or Abu Ghraib, in which people are totally separated from their normal web of relationships. My interest in the field of restorative justice is partly about how relationships form a primary basis for our moral sense, which Zimbardo doesn't really explore. (Like another book on this topic which I read recently, this one makes no mention of Carol Gilligan and her work on morality being based in the context of relationships.)
The final section on heroism was very short and didn't really give much to work with. (If I recall correctly, the TED talk actually had more substance on this topic.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFEV35tWsg
and then if you are really interested in the topic and want lots of details, read the book. The TED talk is concise and hits the main points of this book.
In addition to examining theory and research on this topic, a large portion of the book consists of a blow-by-blow account of the Stanford Prison Experiment and detailed info on Abu Ghraib. I found the SPE stuff interesting but it might be too much information for some, and the Abu Ghraib part got a little tedious with lots of jargon from military memos etc.
On to the theory: Basic premise is that people's behavior is shaped primarily by situational forces rather than dispositional (i.e. individual temperament or nature) ones. He makes a strong case for this but ultimately he falls into the opposite trap of blaming everything on the situation. First of all, even in these scenarios people do not all react the same way, so individual differences clearly come into play (although he makes a great point that, at least in many studies, it wasn't possible to predict ahead of time how people would react).
But also, in real life, most situations will not exert as powerful an influence as the SPE or Abu Ghraib, in which people are totally separated from their normal web of relationships. My interest in the field of restorative justice is partly about how relationships form a primary basis for our moral sense, which Zimbardo doesn't really explore. (Like another book on this topic which I read recently, this one makes no mention of Carol Gilligan and her work on morality being based in the context of relationships.)
The final section on heroism was very short and didn't really give much to work with. (If I recall correctly, the TED talk actually had more substance on this topic.)
johndroid's review
3.0
Half the book was spent on the Stanford Experiment (which is to be expected, I suppose), but I would have appreciated a more in-depth application of his thesis to other historical examples (although I think the Abu-Grahib chapter was well handled).
But I found his conclusions convincing enough to re-examine many of my own premises.
But I found his conclusions convincing enough to re-examine many of my own premises.
carla_09_14_39's review
3.0
a review of the stanford prison experiment. in a way its interesting how zimbardo thinks about the effects of this experiment 30 years later. and in comparison to the abu ghraib incidents he shows the importance of his results. but there is nothing new about his descriptions.
niniane's review
3.0
90% of this book is a detailed hour-by-hour transcription of the Stanford Prison Experiment. This was too detailed and also too painful for me to read. I stopped after a couple chapters, and skipped to the last chapter that contains a positive discussion about heroism and how to avoid falling prey to evil-inducing situations. The characterization of heroism was too clinical, and focused on technicalities of what constitutes the strict definition of a hero. Who cares whether Mother Theresa technically qualifies under definition A vs definition B? I just want to know how to make people behave more heroically. They had a few pages on this. Those pages were good, and I mostly skipped the rest of the book.
big_ass_brain's review
2.0
A lot of unnecessary detail and liberal moralizing—equates prison riots with atrocities committed by prison guards.