About this title: In a disturbing and revelatory exploration of the human capacity for evil, renowned psychologist Zimbardo examines how everyone is susceptible to the power of malevolence. He also offers hope and guidance, elucidating the importance of true heroism and disobedience.
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400064113ISBN:1400064112
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Like-new copy. Appears unread. Stated First Edition. NO remainder marks or price clippings. Price inside dustcover: $27.95. Tight spine, bright pages. Nicely illustrated. NO writing, marks or tears. 554 pages. Synopsis What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it? Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and ... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2008-01-15
ISBN-13:9780812974447ISBN:0812974441
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780812974447. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780812974447ISBN:0812974441
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Edition: Annotated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400064113ISBN:1400064112
Description: New in new dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 551 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. hardcover with new dust jacket, new covers, clean pages, binding tight as new and unread (clean page edge). Study of the Stanford Prison Experiment by its creator. Book is shipped in a padded envelope and packaged in bubble wrap for added protection. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400064113ISBN:1400064112
Description: Acceptable. -Acceptable: A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes--in pen or highlighter--but the notes cannot obscure the text. About Austin eBooks Austin eBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service! We add inventory to our store daily, and guarantee order processing and shipment within 2 business days. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780812974447ISBN:0812974441
Description: Good. Cover and pages may have some wear or writing. Binding is tight. We ship daily Monday-Friday. Delivery Confirmation included on all domestic orders. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN-13:9780812974447ISBN:0812974441
Description: Good. 0812974441 US STUDENT EDITION. BOOK IS A GOOD CONDITION. WILL SHIP WITHIN 24 HOURS WITH DELIVERY CONFORMATION AND TRACKING NUMBER. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ebury Press
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781846041037ISBN:1846041031
Description: New. Examines how the human mind has the capacity to be infinitely caring or selfish, kind or cruel, creative or destructive. The author challenges our conceptions of who we think we are, what we believe we will never do-and how and why almost any of us... read more
"How do people turn evil? Is it their environment, their upbringing, or are there just evil people? Zimbardo addresses this question and comes down strongly on the side that a person's environment, and their expectations of how they are to act in that environment, influences (almost making) a person to do evil actions. His extensive political arguments aside (Abugrabe and the U.S. prison system), he gives an exceptionally well reasoned argument. BUT! He weakens his well founded argument by constantly refering to his mismanaged experiment parts of the book feels like a Freudian rationalization aimed at removing the blame from himself, or in other parts of the boook blaming himself too much for it. He gives way too much detail about his experiment, which over half of which could have been removed without any damage to his main point, and just enough from other experiments conducted by other psychologists. If you recommend this book to any of your friends, tell them to skip all the first couple of chapters about his prison experimnet, which will only make them throw the book down and not read the really well writen middle and end of this laymen psycology book."
"This is an important book. It presents a perspective on the roots of human behavior, let's call it "the situational approach," against other orientations. As Philip Zimbardo notes, many of us commonly commit the "Fundamental Attribution Error," in which (page 212) "dispositions matter more than situations." That is, when others do something of which we disapprove, we tend to assume that some internal motivation led them to the bad deed, rather than that they may have simply been responding to a situation as best they could.
This book strongly speaks of the value of understanding how situations can shape behavior. The book begins with a detailed description of the famous prison study, conducted by Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971. Here, some students were assigned to play the role of prison guards and others as prisoners. After a matter of days, the experiment had to be shut down. Why? The guards begin to use their power to oppress prisoners; many prisoners lost their ability to resist and became apathetic. A stunning result, in which adopting certain roles in an experimental situation seemed to make ordinary students into devils (prison guards) or helpless individuals (prisoners). This book (page 5) "is my attempt to understand the process of transformation at work when good or ordinary people do bad or evil things. We will deal with the fundamental question: `What makes people go wrong?'"
In this book, Zimbardo goes from the prison experiment to the evil perpetrated at Abu Ghraib Prison. He contends that many of those involved in improper behavior toward prisoners at the Prison were probably caught up in a situation that influenced them to misbehave, rather than their being wicked to begin with. In other words, the personal dispositions of many of those caught up in mistreating prisoners was not because they were "bad apples," but because they were apples caught up in a "bad barrel," or system. Zimbardo, at a number of points, argues that it is very easy to write off those who misbehave as bad, rather than having to deal with the far more difficult question of how to create situations or systems or norms that move us toward positive rather than negative behavior.
Key aspects of situations that affect our behavior: social roles, rules, norms, structures, and so on. He summarizes the various instances of people doing bad things by noting that (page 444): "We have witnessed the conditions that reveal the brutal side of human nature and have been surprised at the ease and the extent to which good people can become so cruel."
In the final chapter, he presents an approach toward trying to impel people away from evil and toward good (or heroism). He provides a "ten-step program," summarized by a series of aphorisms such as "I made a mistake"; "I am responsible"; "I can oppose unjust systems." He concludes by developing a perspective on what heroism means, examples of heroism, and different types of heroism. He refers to Arendt's argument about Adolf Eichmann exemplifying "the banality of evil," in which an ordinary person (Eichmann) commits such stunning evil. Zimbardo argues that we should strive to create "the banality of heroism," where ordinary people can behave in exemplary fashion.
Will readers accept his arguments? Reading comments from other reviewers certainly suggests that his work will not appeal to those who do not believe that structures, systems, and institutions can pervert ordinary people. An individualistic society like the United States makes acceptance of a situational perspective problematic for many. Whatever one's perspective on such issues, though, Zimbardo's book forces the reader to address fundamental issues of human good and evil, and what the wellsprings of each might be."
"Overall, I thought this was a really fascinating and in-depth book. I'd heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment before, and always been curious but didn't really know much beyond the pop culture references. Zimbardo's retelling of what went on in the experiment is really, really gripping reading, and he's able to go into an incredible level of detail about what happened.
I thought the sections on Abu Ghraib and the U.S. government were fascinating too - Zimbardo obviously doesn't have the same level of involvement with these bigger issues as he did with his experiment, but he managed to present these contemporary prison horrors in in what seemed to me to be a fairly objective way, and backed up what he said with evidence and first-hand accounts of events. I feel like I learned a LOT reading this, about current political issues (which I tend to be kind of behind on), and more generally about the complexity of group situations in all areas of life.
However, I have a couple qualms with the book which kept me from giving five stars. The first thing that just repeatedly rubbed me the wrong way was Zimbardo's tendency to get off on tangents about himself and about Christina Maslach. I understand that he, she, and their relationship played a role in the whole experiment, but his continual harping on all of this gets distracting. It started to feel like he was going, "Hey! I have a girlfriend! And LOOK HOW AWESOME SHE IS!" He's perfectly within his rights to make this a part of his book, but to me it felt off-putting.
I also found the "heroes" chapter at the end tedious. After 500 pages of careful, thoroughly researched work, we suddenly switch to this kind of sloppy, tacked-on exploration of what a hero is. It's boring and just felt rambling and not well thought out. I can see why he feels so strongly that we need to think more about heroes, but this section would be much better served in its own book, where he could give it the depth it needs.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's up for a fascinating nonfiction read. It's intense but I'm definitely glad I stuck with it."
"The bulk of this book is comprised of a thorough, personal account of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and a scathing critique of the systematic abuse at Abu Ghraib. Its message is repeatedly summed up in a metaphor: Too often, we look for bad apples (people), when we should be focussing on a bad barrel (situation) and the makers of the bad barrel (those in charge of the system).
I agree that this book's message is critical (and timely), but I can't help thinking that the same message could have been delivered in at least 100 pages less. (The book is about 500 pages long.) You'd simply have to excise Zimbardo's autobiographical passages and waxing about the 'journey we've taken'.
For a much more concise treatment of the power of situations over people, I recommend Milgram's Obedience to Authority. (It doesn't deal with the same variety of situational factors, nor does it address systems, but it's mercifully free of autobiographical musing.)"
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