In The Lucifer Effect the award-winning & internationally respected psychologist Philip Zimbardo examines how the human mind has the capacity to be infinitely caring or selfish kind or cruel creative or destructive. He challenges our conceptions of who we think we are what we believe we will never do
- & how & why almost any of us could be initiated into the ranks of evil doers. At the same time he describes the safeguards we can put in place to prevent ourselves from corrupting
- or being corrupted by
- others & what sets some people apart as heroes & heroines able to resist powerful pressures to go along with the group & to refuse to be team players when personal integrity is at stake. Using the first in-depth analysis of his classic Stanford Prison Experiment & his personal experiences as an expert witness for one of the Abu Ghraib prison guards Zimbardo's stimulating & provocative book raises fundamental questions about the nature of good & evil & how each one of us needs to be vigilant to prevent becoming trapped in the ' Lucifer Effect' no matter what kind of character or morality we believe ourselves to have. The Lucifer Effect won the William James Book Award in 2008.