A review by cezarywojcik
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip G. Zimbardo

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.