Do We All Have a Dark Side?
In his new book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (Random House, $27.95), Zimbardo argues: Nearly everyone would treat others viciously or look the other way at abuse under certain conditions, such as those in the Stanford experiment and at Abu Ghraib. So-called inner character seldom survives if familiar social guideposts, such as family and normal routines, fall away. Few people will challenge a widely accepted injustice.