The Reducifer Effect : The Lucifer Effect

This goes along with society. “The danger of trying to explain evil is that we risk falling into the abyss of predestination: that given these life events, this social surround and

Situational and dispositional influences are rather different. To begin, situational influences include influences such as social roles, culture, and others being around. In other words, situationism means that our behaviors are influenced by our immediate surroundings and and environment. An example of this can be, if an individual were to go to a fancy restaurant. That individual would display different behavior in order to be appropriate. Situational influences can explain inappropriate behavior because if others are acting inappropriately, then you are likely to act inappropriately. Next, dispositional influences include an individual’s personality characteristics. To put differently, dispositionism is behavior that is determined by the internal factors of an individual. Dispositionism includes personality traits and temperament. An example of dispositionism is when an individual acts uneasy around others in public. This feeling of uneasiness is due to that individual’s personality, rather than the environment. Dispositional

Any man can withstand adversity; if you want to test his character, give him power.

It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.

“That line between good and evil is permeable,” a psychologist from Stanford University by the name of Zimbardo once said. “Any of us can move across it… I argue that we all have the capacity for love and evil — to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein” (qtd. In Dittmann). Social psychologist Zimbardo implies that we can easily swap from side to side. What factors elicit darkness? What draws out the darkness, making us jump from good to bad? There are many views in the society that attempt to tackle this question. For instance, social psychology and philosophy. Social psychology tends to side with situation and or authority. On the other hand, philosopher John Locke is certain that the accumulation of experiences is the cause. What is the ultimate answer?

Evil can be categorized into two forms, moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is brought about by bad choices that stem from our free will. Natural evil is bad things that happen to people, whether they deserve them or not. The problem with evil is,

This is shown in The Lord of the Flies by watching the boys on the island transform from good boys to killers. Situations like this would rather be kept in the realm of fiction, but the Stanford Prison Experiment shows that good, normal people can become cruel. Throughout the whole book, a beast is mentioned, that turns out to be the evil inside every person. This beast shows the reader that no matter what, evil can never truly be escaped. Sadly, every single person that is living and breathing has an ability to do wrong, and hurt their brothers and sisters, but what is done with that capability determines the kind of person one strives to

Many people have their own views on humanity. They can either be that humans are essentially good but can become corrupt or that people are just essentially evil. They have their own opinions, some people can tell their perspective on humans in other fashions. If people are essentially good, they how do they become corrupt? Or if are truly evil, then why do some people seem like they are kind people and they can never do such things? To take both of these into account, a person may saw that people are good but deep down have evil within them. People may ask how does the evil within a person come out, the answer to that is that it is thanks to their environment. The environment around a person can undoubtedly draw out the evil within them

It is the innate darkness and leaning towards the evil that disposes us to committing acts of brutality and insensitivity.

Some believe that it is influenced by the world surrounding them, or perhaps by personal experiences. It could be that we are exposed to the concept of it at such an early age that we are given our lives to ponder what we prefer. It is also said that depravity is laced in our genetics, passed on through generations. Whatever the case, the demons inside us can at times be inescapable. If it is true that somewhere in our destiny lies evil, it is impossible to hold back. It is a natural instinct for those who are given that gene to do horrible things, and that overpowers the choice they are given not to. In an article addressing the source of evil which discusses well-known figures such as Adolf Hitler, it is written that recent studies have shown the evidence of behavior and personality in DNA. The author of the article believes that it is impossible to attain such tendencies through inheritance. He states, “The fact that one child may turn into a bully or become a criminal and another not remains a tantalising mystery, and one that scientists cannot possibly explain in simple terms of DNA” (Masters). Masters is suggesting that the transformation from good to bad is a complicated process that involves many elements. It is an intriguing thought, how a mind can shift from one side to the other. The influence of evil is all around and it becomes a task to ignore what is being so aggressively thrown upon a person. One incident can have the power to spoil

Although myriad people debate whether human are born to be evil or kind and what makes human evil according to Chapter 1 presented by Carol Lee, a similar idea is also suggested by Stephanie Yau in Chapter 2, it could be also argued that human is born to be slightly evil which is left to be further amplified by the value owned or encouraged by the mainstream, for example, majority values spreading through media. The spread of value and the performance of one can also be elucidated with the social influence suggested by Kelman (1958) which indicated the performance of people when their emotions, opinions or behaviors are affected by others, which can be seen in conformity, socialization and peer pressure, and consequently, changing their belief

To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times

The second reason that Zimbardo gives for people turning evil is “the seven social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil” (TED Talks). That phrase translates to seven thought processes that lead a person to evils that they never thought they could. Mindlessly taking the first small step expresses in words part of what Stanley Milgram ran an experiment to test. The first step of his experiment involved shocking a “learner” with fifteen volts. Taking the first small step, in the case of Milgram the first, harmless 15 volt shock, can lead to shocks that ended at 450 volts, a lethal shock. Secondly, the dehumanization of others, when one experiences confrontation with other people they see them as not having feelings as though they are their enemies. Continuing on into the de-individualization of self which translates to the power of anonymity.

In the poem “The Fall of Lucifer” from The Bible, punctuation use includes colons, exclamation marks, and quotation marks. These forms of punctuation help convey the poem’s commanding and dark tone to the reader and emphasize the shifting perspective of the poem by adding emphasis and suspense. Punctuation is defined as “the marks, such as period, comma, and parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning” (Oxford Dictionary). Firstly, the use of colons and semicolons in the poem help to emphasize specific points and create suspense in the characters’ quoted dialogue. This is seen in line thirteen, where the main character, God, preludes his quotation of Lucifer by saying “For you have said in your heart:”

Sometimes we wonder why people do things. Is it because they were forced to? Maybe they were pressured into it, or maybe they thought it was the right thing to do. In the book The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo he studies the psychological motives of humans and situational personalities. Zimbardo produced an experiment called the “Stanford prison experiment” which put one group of students as guards and another as the prisoners. The main point of the experiment was to watch the prisoners and see how they reacted to being detained; however, when the experiment was conducted it was the guards who were more interesting to study.