Bithika Mohanty

“The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational force”

– Philip Zimbardo

The Lucifer effect is a word coined by the psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, who conducted the famous Stanford Prison experiments in which normal people were grouped as ‘prisoners’ or ‘guards’.

Within a short span of time, the guards became extremely aggressive towards the prisoners, so much that the experiment had to be shortened due to the severity of their treatment. The Lucifer effect describes when a situation turns normal ‘good’ people into perpetuators of immoral or ‘evil’ behaviors.

The name comes from the mythological story that Lucifer was a good angel who became evil and was banished for his actions.

Lucifer was once an angel.  He was the most exalted. His name means “bringer of light” but he fell from grace because he refused to recognize that of God which was in His creation, Adam. He was banished to Hell and became the embodiment of evil, the devil. The devil made it his aim to expose the evil in man through the temptation to do bad things.  And according to Zimbardo, it is this metaphor that has inspired him to focus his research on:

“Transformations of human character not as dramatic as this one, in which ordinary, even good people begin to engage in bad deeds, for a short time or longer, that qualify as “evil.”

During the experiment, when a group of students was randomly assigned to the role of prisoners or guards for 2 weeks on conforming to social roles. The guards took to their role so well that quickly they began to bully and harass the prisoners and dehumanize them.

In fact, Zimbardo himself even lost his detachment and became engrossed in his role as a prison governor.  His fiance who was visiting the mock Jail brought Dr. Zimbardo to his senses and the experiment, now brutal and out of control, was terminated after only 6 days.

Yet it is had achieved its aim, demonstrating how good people can learn quickly to do bad things.

This was the time where Zimbardo decided to make it his life’s work to understand the “Lucifer effect” and how can we protect ourselves from it.

Zimbardo identified that the main problem was dehumanizing of the people that meant taking away the humanity of the victim and reducing them to a lesser, more animal-like status which is achieved through propaganda

Some examples of the lucifer effect are:

HITLER AND THE JEWS

The jews were portrayed as greedy and looking different in weird clothes with a lot of racist stereotyping, that is using physical differences to lower intelligence, cunning, degenerate nature. The jews were portrayed in a negative light for the children.
In the camps the clothes were taken away along with the hair and name, the Jews were forced to live in a certain environment that made them thin and hence they looked less human.

FACES OF ENEMY
when we use stereotypes of faces, uniforms, or other characteristics to inspire hatred so that we know how a person that should be hated or behaved in a rather dehumanizing manner should look.

STRANGE FRUIT:

The strange fruit referred to dead bodies left hanging from trees.

Trophy photographs taken by the people at lynchings were like those taken by big game hunters, serving to turn dead young black men into the dead game.

Trophy photographs were taken by Lindy England et al at Abu Ghraib showing naked Iraq prisoners in pyramids and being led around naked on leads and forced to commit acts that were sacrilegious to their religious beliefs

Zimbardo is convinced we can beat the lucifer effect by most of all being mindful of our own context, feelings, and circumstances
If we admit our mistakes and do not waste our time justifying ourselves and move on, along with it if we are aware of our behavior to others, the lucifer effect can be prevented.

We should never sacrifice our freedom for the illusion of security and always oppose unjust systems, and always be aware of the consequences of the decision we take, we should be very careful about the way an idea is to be represented as it highly affects society, which might or might not create an influence.

Lastly, influences can be silent too, regardless of this illusion that only doing something in front of someone is influencing or brainwashing someone is influencing, we should be aware of the fact that not all mind works the same way, it works in a way it learns (gets influenced) from the surrounding.

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