The Buchtelite

Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Kim Graham Social psychologist Philip Zimbardo speaks to a full house Wednesday night in Simmons Hall Auditorium.

The Archives of the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron welcomed Philip Zimbardo to campus Wednesday to speak on "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil."

On his second lecture of the day, Zimbardo said he rushed to Akron from Columbus driving upwards of 80 mph. Despite this, he said it was a great lecture.

"I think it was almost one of my best talks," he said. "It was really the interaction and the situation that made it work for me."

The emeritus professor of psychology at Stanford University was greeted Wednesday night in the Simmons Hall Auditorium by a standing-room-only crowd. Those in attendance packed aisleways and the stage at Zimbardo's request.

He said it was best that way.

"Even though I always feel bad about people being on the floor, on the other hand people are happy to be there because they look around and say 'I'm in the right place' and I feed off that energy."

He said he worked his way through college in New York City as a concession boy in theaters.

"When it was a hit, people walked and they were happy to be there and so they bought the candy that I was selling," Zimbardo said.

"But once I worked in a play that was failing, and you walked in and you paid the same money and the place was half empty," he said. "People didn't buy anything … because everybody said 'I got screwed.'"

Zimbardo's lecture was scheduled to last one hour, but he said that once he starts telling his stories, in between slides, it's hard to keep it to one hour.

Zimbardo began with a lengthy introduction on evil. He asked, "how well do you know someone?"

The psychologist said everyone thinks they know a person, but who they really know is the person someone else is trying to be. He said people are only themselves to a select few people.

His lecture focused on the relationship between his famous Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 and the Milgram Shock Experiments. He said the experiments demonstrate how ordinary people are able to do terrible things.

In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo said they chose normal, good boys with no criminal history.

Continued...

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