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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.
readingslug's review
2.0
I only got through the part about the Stanford Prison Experiment (well almost) and it's just too detailed. I understand why but it took me so long to get through just that part that I gave up. I have other things to read!
quentin_adr's review against another edition
Will get back to it, the day-to-day from the Stanford Prison Expirement started to become boring