This Effect Is Even or The Best.

Understanding How Good People Turn Evil


This book summarize more than 30 years of research on factors that can create a "perfect storm". This leads good people to engage in evil actions.


This transformation of human character is called the Lucifer Effect.
Lucifer was God's favorite angel
Lucifer fell from grace and ultimately became Satan.



This is not a religious analysis. This book offers a psychological account of how ordinary people sometimes turn evil.


They knowingly or unknowingly commit unspeakable acts. The full story is behind the Stanford Prison Experiment. A classic study conducted by the author in 1971.


In that study, normal college students were selected as volunteers. They were randomly assigned to play the role of guard or inmate for two weeks in a simulated prison.


But the guards quickly became so brutal. They started to behave to the prisoners like monsters. As we usually see in the actual prisons or older period. The author was forced to shut down the experiment after one month.


How and why did this transformation take place?
Does it tell us about recent events such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq?
What does it say about the nature of human nature?
What does it suggest about effective ways to prevent such abuses in the future?


It may be hard to read about evil. It may also be difficult to understand that it close and personal. We must understand its causes in order to contain. We must try to transform it through wise decisions. This may need innovative communal actions.

My view is that this is the most tasks that we face today. This effect is even or the best.