The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip G. Zimbardo Reviewed by Cass R. Sunstein
The New Republic Online
"Why do human beings commit despicable acts? One answer points to individual dispositions; another answer emphasizes situational pressures. In 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the importance of individual dispositions in describing terrorists as 'simply evil people who want to kill.' Situationists reject this view. They believe that horrible acts can be committed by perfectly normal people. The most extreme situationists insist that in the right circumstances, almost all of us might be led to commit atrocities...." Read the entire New Republic Online review.