THE LUCIFER EFFECT: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

By Philip Zimbardo. Explaining how and why we are all susceptible to the lure of "the dark side," renowned psychologist Zimbardo illuminates the psychological causes behind disturbing metamorphoses in decent men and women and forces us to reexamine what we are capable of. Offering intricate details of his landmark Stanford Prison Experiment for the first time (and also drawing on examples from history), he replaces the notion of the "bad apple" with that of the "bad barrel" (the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual rather than vice versa) and addresses humanity's capability to resist evil. Grades 10 and up. Index. Random House. 551 pages. 2008 paperback edition.