Zimbardo Experiment-Lucifer Effect
The Lucifer Effect is a book written by Zimbardo in response to the Stanford Prison experiment, accounting the transformation of human character from that leads good people to engage in evil acts. The Lucifer effect is named after the angel Lucifer who fell from grace and ultimately transformed into Satan. Lucifer was once God's favorite angel until he challenged God's authority and was cast into Hell with all the other fallen angels. Thus, Zimbardo derives this title to explain how good people turn evil. Zimbardo's main assumption on why good people do awful things is due to situational influences and power given from authority. Zimbardo believes that personality characteristics could play a role in how violent or submissive actions are manifested. In the book, Zimbardo says that humans cannot be defined as "good" or "evil" because we have the ability to act as both especially at the hand of a special situation. According to Zimbardo, "Good people can be induced, seduced, and initiated into behaving in evil ways. They can also be led to act in irrational, stupid, self-destructive, antisocial, and mindless ways when they are immersed in 'total situations' that impact human nature in ways that challenge our sense of the stability and consistency of individual personality, of character, and of morality."
Much akin to how Shakespeare believes that ones personality is a reflection of of the people around them, Zimbardo assert that that peer pressure, the desire to be 'cool', the fear of rejection, and simply being a part of a group are the focal points to acting preposterous to ones character, though many people would wish to believe in an unchanging goodness of people and our power to resist situational and external pressures and temptations.
Much akin to how Shakespeare believes that ones personality is a reflection of of the people around them, Zimbardo assert that that peer pressure, the desire to be 'cool', the fear of rejection, and simply being a part of a group are the focal points to acting preposterous to ones character, though many people would wish to believe in an unchanging goodness of people and our power to resist situational and external pressures and temptations.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT- MILGRAMS' AGENCY THEORY
Milgram also conducted experiments that embraced situational forces. Even though participants signed a waiver that clearly explained the ability to opt-out of the experiment and not deliver the shocks. But with the surprising result rate of teachers who did continue to shock the learners, there was a situational force. Even though many of the teachers felt uncomfortable at giving electrical shocks to the learners, and they knew that they could leave the experiment at any point in time, they still continued when they felt uncomfortable because of the confederate's voice demanding to proceed. Both the Milgram and the Zimbardo experiment concludes that concluded that irrational behavior compared to one's character is plausible for any human because we have both tendencies in our nature.
The main conclusions of the experiment is the creation of the of the Agency Theory of Obedience in which Milgram believes that there are two states in which people operate - the autonomous and the agentic. People who are in the autonomous state take full responsibility for their own actions whereas those in the agentic state deny responsibility for their actions instead assigning the responsibility to another person or group. He believed that it was possible to train people to be in the agentic state, such as during the disciplinary situation during childhood or making the individual to be attuned to taking orders given by superiority. The agentic state, Milgram felt, was due in part to the formation of a social bond between the authority and the followers, part of this is the process of doing something that is wrong in small steps makes continuing to do it more reassuring than stopping and facing the fact that what they have been doing has been wrong. They also obey because they wish to avoid the anxiety that accompanies the refusal to obey the authority figure.
The main conclusions of the experiment is the creation of the of the Agency Theory of Obedience in which Milgram believes that there are two states in which people operate - the autonomous and the agentic. People who are in the autonomous state take full responsibility for their own actions whereas those in the agentic state deny responsibility for their actions instead assigning the responsibility to another person or group. He believed that it was possible to train people to be in the agentic state, such as during the disciplinary situation during childhood or making the individual to be attuned to taking orders given by superiority. The agentic state, Milgram felt, was due in part to the formation of a social bond between the authority and the followers, part of this is the process of doing something that is wrong in small steps makes continuing to do it more reassuring than stopping and facing the fact that what they have been doing has been wrong. They also obey because they wish to avoid the anxiety that accompanies the refusal to obey the authority figure.