Blog Eleven

After Friday’s discussion in class, I wanted to explain the Lucifer Effect more to everyone, because I believe that this is the single most important factor that contributes to countries such as Argentina and Germany being able to do horrible things. In my opinion, without the aid of the Lucifer Effect, the Holocaust would have never happened, and Argentina would not have experienced so much chaos after Perón’s exile.

These videos are Philip Zimbardo’s explanation of what he has deemed the Lucifer Effect. *Just a warning, they are quite graphic.*

After watching these videos, I felt as though Zimbardo explained why people could do such unspeakable for their country really well. Like Germany, and like Argentina, and other countries around the world, most acts of injustice are being done by subordinates, and not the ones in charge. If people suspect what they are doing is wrong, but they are able to blame their actions on a higher authority (such as Adolf Hitler), they are more likely to commit these unspeakable acts.