are you a
Good vs evil
By Karen Ann Monsy
Are you a
hero?
WHO IS a hero? Do they always come in fancy capes and super-tight tights, called something like Stupendous Man or Jaw-Dropping Girl? How would you define one? And most importantly, would that definition include you? He’s posing plenty of questions but thankfully Dr Philip Zimbardo has a few answers too. Perhaps best known as the creator of the controversial Stanford prison experiment that “rocked the world of psychology”, the American psychologist was in town recently as part of BOLDtalks, a carbon-neutral event that hosts some of the most fascinating speakers each year to present on a diverse range of subjects relevant to the community. And this year, to help emphasise the experiment, organisers even brought down a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner and guard for a live (although strictly non-political) panel discussion. Zimbardo spoke to listeners about his “new mission in life” — the Heroic Imagination Project — but not before taking a riveted audience back down to the dungeons of his mock prison experiment, where it all began. THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT As a child, Zimbardo says he was fascinated no end by Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
wknd.
22 4 March, 2011
“It was the chemical he took that turned Dr Jekyll into the evil Mr Hyde, but when the drug wore off, he went back across the line between good and evil to being the good Dr Jekyll again. It was this line I was really interested in, growing up, because I always understood it to be permanent and fixed. The story, however, seemed to entertain the notion that the line was permeable, that good people could be seduced to cross that line while also suggesting ‘bad people’ could be rehabilitated.” So does the goodness of people triumph in a bad situation or does it dominate good people in the end? It was a question that Zimbardo decided to finally get to the bottom of on August 14, 1971. Of the 75 respondents to his ad for volunteers, the Stanford University professor selected 24 male students — who he deemed “psychologically and physically healthy” — to simulate life in a mock prison. “It was supposed to be a really small study to find out what happens when you put good people into a bad environment,” he says. The positions of ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’ were randomly assigned; the latter given identification numbers, and made to wear smocks and chains while the guards were given symbols of authority such as wooden batons
and mirrored sunglasses. Instructions specified prisoners were not to be harmed, only made to feel powerless. In just six days, however, the experiment — originally expected to last two weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbardo’s prison had turned inhumane. In his own words, “Things had spun way out of control.” Prisons are all about one thing, he comments. Power. In a bid to suppress the prisoners, the guards had started escalating the level of degradation and humiliation inflicted every day. “They were made to clean out toilet bowls with bare hands, stripped naked and by the end of the fifth day, even made to simulate sodomy… Knowing it was an experiment, knowing the ‘prisoners’ were boys who’d done nothing didn’t matter. It became a psychological prison in their minds run by psychologists, not the state,” Zimbardo relates. “The sad conclusion of the study was that situational power won,” he says. “Literally, five people had nervous breakdowns in five days.” Zimbardo notes that at least 50 people visited during the course of the study and while each commented on its “interesting nature”, it was only his student Christina Maslach — who he’d just started dating back then — that reacted in shocked dis-
In just six days, the Stanford Prison Experiment — originally expected to last six weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbardo’s prison had turned inhumane
Illustration: A U Santhoshkumar
Dr Philip Zimbardo’s Heroic Imagination Project is an offshoot of his highly controversial Stanford prison experiment. does the spirit of the lionhearted really lurk in us all?
wknd. wknd
411,June March, 2010 2011
45 23
good vs evil
MAN WITH A MISSION: Dr Philip Zimbardo. Photo: Kiran Prasad
belief at the goings-on. It was she who opened his eyes to see that he’d unwittingly allowed himself to go from mere experiment overseer to cold ‘prison administrator’. “When it was over, I felt terribly guilty — because I should’ve ended the study much earlier,” the psychologist rues. Do the conditions at the Stanford ‘prison’ sound familiar? They should. Over the years, Zimbardo’s findings have since helped him publicly challenge the US ‘system’ for its handling of the infamous Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison abuses. While the White House argued the abuses were the result of “a few bad apples”, Zimbardo countered, “Instead of
wknd.
24 4 March, 2011
focusing on the people, we should be asking: what were the conditions that caused this? All the soldiers on that night shift were dishonourably discharged, but not a single officer in charge went to trial or got a letter of reprimand. The system is the bad barrel that we put people into. And if we don’t change the situation, nothing changes in the long run,” he contends. HEROES IN TRAINING What pushes some to become perpetrators of evil and others to act heroically on behalf of those in need? Zimbardo went on to write articles and give some talks — but it wasn’t enough. Not when prison guards everywhere were doing
Everyday heroes
the exact same things those in the experiment did forty years ago. The Heroic Imagination Project was born because of a “need to start sowing the seeds of heroism in young people around the world,” Zimbardo says. “The problem with [people’s perception of] heroes today is that we think they’re unusual or special with super powers, as with comic books and kids. But most heroes are ordinary people,” he insists. “Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa — these are heroes who’ve organised their whole life around sacrifice… “What I’m trying to create is a sense that anyone can be a ‘hero’ because being a hero simply means that you take action on behalf of others in need or in defence of a moral cause. You do it aware that there is a potential risk to your life — or career — and all the while, never expect a reward.” Zimbardo points out this is not a call for people to put their lives on the line, but that the project (at www.heroic imagination.org) also encourages daily deeds of social goodness, like paying someone a compliment. “It’s not heroic,” he says, “but you start paying attention to people — an excellent foundation to help you better notice people in need or distress.” All the great evils of the world can be
divided primarily into two, he asserts: the evil of action and that of inaction. The world is a dangerous place, said Albert Einstein once, not because of those who do bad things — but because of those who look on and do nothing. “Most people do nothing when in a crowd and facing an emergency,” Zimbardo echoes. “Everybody is waiting for someone else to do something. A hero has to resist the pressure to do nothing. He always steps out of the crowd.” One of the things Zimbardo does with his Stanford students is think of ways to be different. For example, he suggests, put a black dot in the middle of your forehead. “What you’ll realise is the tremendous social pressure people put on you to take it off, to be what they want you to be. If you can resist
“People think heroes are special with super powers. But it is ordinary people — like you — who are capable of extraordinary things” — Dr Philip Zimbardo
INCREDIBRO HULK They’re calling him a “true Kiwi hero” but when Samoa-born Ahsei “Ace” Sopoaga jumped into the fray after the recent Christchurch trembler and started flinging aside huge slabs of stone “like they were made of polystyrene” to rescue a man trapped beneath (mobile grab pictured, right), semi-cult status could’ve hardly been on his mind. Sadly, Jamie Gilbert succumbed to his injuries but New Zealanders say Sopaoga’s selfless actions amid the falling masonry that day will forever be imprinted in their minds. SENDLER’S LIST Credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, Irena Sendler risked her life to form a network that helped keep the children out of German concentration camps by smuggling them out into Polish homes — sometimes in coffins and ambulances. Though arrested and severely tortured by the Gestapo in 1943, she refused to reveal the children’s whereabouts. Only recently was the Holocaust hero recognised and honoured for her efforts. She died in May 2008, aged 98. SUBWAY SAMARITAN It was January 2007. Construction worker and Navy veteran Wesley Autrey had plenty of reason not to get involved when 20-year-old Cameron Hollopeter collapsed from a seizure on the tracks, in front of an oncoming NYC subway train. He was taking his two girls, then aged six and four, back home before work. Everyone on the platform froze so Wesley made a split decision, leapt onto the tracks, pushed Cameron between the rails and lay on top of him as the train cars thundered overhead, missing him by half an inch. He later said, “I did what anyone could do — and what everyone ought to do.” DUTIFUL HERO At the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, it was nine-year-old Lin Hao who helped lead in the Chinese team, next to basketball star Yao Ming. A strange choice? Fitting tribute, more like. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province just before the Olympics three years ago, Hao had run back into his collapsing school to rescue two of his classmates. When asked why he did it, the second grader responded, “I was the hall monitor. It was my job to look after my classmates.”
that pressure for one day, then you’re more likely to resist the pressure in a real emergency situation when everyone else says, ‘Don’t get involved’,”he says. The Heroic Imagination Project is non-profit and still in its developing stages in San Francisco, California, where it encourages people to think of themselves as heroes in training and give up egocentrism for sociocentrism. With the right funding and expertise, they’re hoping to expand across
the world, and eventually into Dubai as well. For the curious, the Stanford prison experiment offered no lasting effects, by the way. Zimbardo married Christina Maslach the next year (“couldn’t let my heroine get away,” he quips) and assures that forty years on, he is still in contact with several of the ex-
periment’s participants. As for the maverick academic, he has but one focus today: to spread the word that “ordinary people, like you, are capable of extraordinary things — even heroism.” (Follow @BOLDtalks on Twitter as they gear up for edition 2012.) [email protected]
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do bad things but because of those who look on and do nothing” — Albert Einstein
wknd.
4 March, 2011
25
By Karen Ann Monsy
Are you a
hero?
WHO IS a hero? Do they always come in fancy capes and super-tight tights, called something like Stupendous Man or Jaw-Dropping Girl? How would you define one? And most importantly, would that definition include you? He’s posing plenty of questions but thankfully Dr Philip Zimbardo has a few answers too. Perhaps best known as the creator of the controversial Stanford prison experiment that “rocked the world of psychology”, the American psychologist was in town recently as part of BOLDtalks, a carbon-neutral event that hosts some of the most fascinating speakers each year to present on a diverse range of subjects relevant to the community. And this year, to help emphasise the experiment, organisers even brought down a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner and guard for a live (although strictly non-political) panel discussion. Zimbardo spoke to listeners about his “new mission in life” — the Heroic Imagination Project — but not before taking a riveted audience back down to the dungeons of his mock prison experiment, where it all began. THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT As a child, Zimbardo says he was fascinated no end by Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
wknd.
22 4 March, 2011
“It was the chemical he took that turned Dr Jekyll into the evil Mr Hyde, but when the drug wore off, he went back across the line between good and evil to being the good Dr Jekyll again. It was this line I was really interested in, growing up, because I always understood it to be permanent and fixed. The story, however, seemed to entertain the notion that the line was permeable, that good people could be seduced to cross that line while also suggesting ‘bad people’ could be rehabilitated.” So does the goodness of people triumph in a bad situation or does it dominate good people in the end? It was a question that Zimbardo decided to finally get to the bottom of on August 14, 1971. Of the 75 respondents to his ad for volunteers, the Stanford University professor selected 24 male students — who he deemed “psychologically and physically healthy” — to simulate life in a mock prison. “It was supposed to be a really small study to find out what happens when you put good people into a bad environment,” he says. The positions of ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’ were randomly assigned; the latter given identification numbers, and made to wear smocks and chains while the guards were given symbols of authority such as wooden batons
and mirrored sunglasses. Instructions specified prisoners were not to be harmed, only made to feel powerless. In just six days, however, the experiment — originally expected to last two weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbardo’s prison had turned inhumane. In his own words, “Things had spun way out of control.” Prisons are all about one thing, he comments. Power. In a bid to suppress the prisoners, the guards had started escalating the level of degradation and humiliation inflicted every day. “They were made to clean out toilet bowls with bare hands, stripped naked and by the end of the fifth day, even made to simulate sodomy… Knowing it was an experiment, knowing the ‘prisoners’ were boys who’d done nothing didn’t matter. It became a psychological prison in their minds run by psychologists, not the state,” Zimbardo relates. “The sad conclusion of the study was that situational power won,” he says. “Literally, five people had nervous breakdowns in five days.” Zimbardo notes that at least 50 people visited during the course of the study and while each commented on its “interesting nature”, it was only his student Christina Maslach — who he’d just started dating back then — that reacted in shocked dis-
In just six days, the Stanford Prison Experiment — originally expected to last six weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbardo’s prison had turned inhumane
Illustration: A U Santhoshkumar
Dr Philip Zimbardo’s Heroic Imagination Project is an offshoot of his highly controversial Stanford prison experiment. does the spirit of the lionhearted really lurk in us all?
wknd. wknd
411,June March, 2010 2011
45 23
good vs evil
MAN WITH A MISSION: Dr Philip Zimbardo. Photo: Kiran Prasad
belief at the goings-on. It was she who opened his eyes to see that he’d unwittingly allowed himself to go from mere experiment overseer to cold ‘prison administrator’. “When it was over, I felt terribly guilty — because I should’ve ended the study much earlier,” the psychologist rues. Do the conditions at the Stanford ‘prison’ sound familiar? They should. Over the years, Zimbardo’s findings have since helped him publicly challenge the US ‘system’ for its handling of the infamous Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison abuses. While the White House argued the abuses were the result of “a few bad apples”, Zimbardo countered, “Instead of
wknd.
24 4 March, 2011
focusing on the people, we should be asking: what were the conditions that caused this? All the soldiers on that night shift were dishonourably discharged, but not a single officer in charge went to trial or got a letter of reprimand. The system is the bad barrel that we put people into. And if we don’t change the situation, nothing changes in the long run,” he contends. HEROES IN TRAINING What pushes some to become perpetrators of evil and others to act heroically on behalf of those in need? Zimbardo went on to write articles and give some talks — but it wasn’t enough. Not when prison guards everywhere were doing
Everyday heroes
the exact same things those in the experiment did forty years ago. The Heroic Imagination Project was born because of a “need to start sowing the seeds of heroism in young people around the world,” Zimbardo says. “The problem with [people’s perception of] heroes today is that we think they’re unusual or special with super powers, as with comic books and kids. But most heroes are ordinary people,” he insists. “Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa — these are heroes who’ve organised their whole life around sacrifice… “What I’m trying to create is a sense that anyone can be a ‘hero’ because being a hero simply means that you take action on behalf of others in need or in defence of a moral cause. You do it aware that there is a potential risk to your life — or career — and all the while, never expect a reward.” Zimbardo points out this is not a call for people to put their lives on the line, but that the project (at www.heroic imagination.org) also encourages daily deeds of social goodness, like paying someone a compliment. “It’s not heroic,” he says, “but you start paying attention to people — an excellent foundation to help you better notice people in need or distress.” All the great evils of the world can be
divided primarily into two, he asserts: the evil of action and that of inaction. The world is a dangerous place, said Albert Einstein once, not because of those who do bad things — but because of those who look on and do nothing. “Most people do nothing when in a crowd and facing an emergency,” Zimbardo echoes. “Everybody is waiting for someone else to do something. A hero has to resist the pressure to do nothing. He always steps out of the crowd.” One of the things Zimbardo does with his Stanford students is think of ways to be different. For example, he suggests, put a black dot in the middle of your forehead. “What you’ll realise is the tremendous social pressure people put on you to take it off, to be what they want you to be. If you can resist
“People think heroes are special with super powers. But it is ordinary people — like you — who are capable of extraordinary things” — Dr Philip Zimbardo
INCREDIBRO HULK They’re calling him a “true Kiwi hero” but when Samoa-born Ahsei “Ace” Sopoaga jumped into the fray after the recent Christchurch trembler and started flinging aside huge slabs of stone “like they were made of polystyrene” to rescue a man trapped beneath (mobile grab pictured, right), semi-cult status could’ve hardly been on his mind. Sadly, Jamie Gilbert succumbed to his injuries but New Zealanders say Sopaoga’s selfless actions amid the falling masonry that day will forever be imprinted in their minds. SENDLER’S LIST Credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, Irena Sendler risked her life to form a network that helped keep the children out of German concentration camps by smuggling them out into Polish homes — sometimes in coffins and ambulances. Though arrested and severely tortured by the Gestapo in 1943, she refused to reveal the children’s whereabouts. Only recently was the Holocaust hero recognised and honoured for her efforts. She died in May 2008, aged 98. SUBWAY SAMARITAN It was January 2007. Construction worker and Navy veteran Wesley Autrey had plenty of reason not to get involved when 20-year-old Cameron Hollopeter collapsed from a seizure on the tracks, in front of an oncoming NYC subway train. He was taking his two girls, then aged six and four, back home before work. Everyone on the platform froze so Wesley made a split decision, leapt onto the tracks, pushed Cameron between the rails and lay on top of him as the train cars thundered overhead, missing him by half an inch. He later said, “I did what anyone could do — and what everyone ought to do.” DUTIFUL HERO At the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, it was nine-year-old Lin Hao who helped lead in the Chinese team, next to basketball star Yao Ming. A strange choice? Fitting tribute, more like. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province just before the Olympics three years ago, Hao had run back into his collapsing school to rescue two of his classmates. When asked why he did it, the second grader responded, “I was the hall monitor. It was my job to look after my classmates.”
that pressure for one day, then you’re more likely to resist the pressure in a real emergency situation when everyone else says, ‘Don’t get involved’,”he says. The Heroic Imagination Project is non-profit and still in its developing stages in San Francisco, California, where it encourages people to think of themselves as heroes in training and give up egocentrism for sociocentrism. With the right funding and expertise, they’re hoping to expand across
the world, and eventually into Dubai as well. For the curious, the Stanford prison experiment offered no lasting effects, by the way. Zimbardo married Christina Maslach the next year (“couldn’t let my heroine get away,” he quips) and assures that forty years on, he is still in contact with several of the ex-
periment’s participants. As for the maverick academic, he has but one focus today: to spread the word that “ordinary people, like you, are capable of extraordinary things — even heroism.” (Follow @BOLDtalks on Twitter as they gear up for edition 2012.) [email protected]
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do bad things but because of those who look on and do nothing” — Albert Einstein
wknd.
4 March, 2011
25
