Good vs evildr 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? By Karen ann Monsy

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in just six days, the stanford Pris-on experiment — originally expected to last six weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbardo’s pris-on had turned inhumane

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 cre-ator of the controversial stanford prison experi-ment that “rocked the world of psychology”, the american psycholo-gist 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, organis-ers 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 imagina-tion Project — but not before taking a riveted audience back down to the dungeons of his mock prison experi-ment, where it all began.

The sTanForD PrIson eXPerI-MenTas a child, Zimbardo says he was fascinated no end by robert louis stevenson’s story of dr jekyll and mr hyde.

“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 re-ally interested in, grow-ing up, because i always understood it to be per-manent and fixed. the story, however, seemed to entertain the notion that the line was perme-able, 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 “psycho-logically 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 as-signed; 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 sunglass-es. instructions specified prisoners were not to be harmed, only made to feel powerless. in just six days, however, the experiment — origi-nally expected to last two weeks — had to be abruptly terminated because Philip Zimbar-do’s prison had turned inhumane. in his own words, “things had spun way out of control.”

Prisons are all about one thing, he com-ments. Power. in a bid to suppress the prison-ers, 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-

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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 TraInInGWhat 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

the exact same things those in the experiment did forty years ago.

the heroic imagina-tion 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 spe-cial with super powers, as with comic books and kids. but most heroes are ordinary people,” he insists. “nelson man-dela, martin luther king, mother teresa — these are heroes who’ve or-ganised 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 de-fence 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

everyDay heroes InCreDIBro hULKthey’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 poly-styrene” to rescue a man trapped beneath (mobile grab pictured, right), semi-cult status could’ve hardly been on his mind. sadly, jamie Gilbert suc-cumbed 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 LIsTcredited 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 ar-rested and severely tortured by the Gestapo in 1943, she refused to reveal the children’s whereabouts. only recently was the holocaust hero recogn-ised and honoured for her efforts. she died in may 2008, aged 98.

sUBWay saMarITanit was january 2007. construction worker and navy veteran Wesley autrey had plenty of reason not to get involved when 20-year-old cameron hol-lopeter 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 deci-sion, 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 heroat 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 class-mates. When asked why he did it, the second grader responded, “i was the hall monitor. it was my job to look after my classmates.”

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 administra-tor’. “When it was over, i felt terribly guilty — be-cause 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, Zim-

bardo’s findings have since helped him pub-licly challenge the us ‘system’ for its handling of the infamous Guan-tánamo 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

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 be-cause 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 ordi-nary people — like you — who are capa-ble of extraor-dinary things” — dr Philip Zimbardo

“the world is a dangerous place, not be-cause of those who do bad things but be-cause of those who look on and do noth-ing” — albert einstein

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 imagina-tion Project is non-profit and still in its developing stages in san francisco, california, where it en-courages people to think of themselves as heroes in training and give up egocentrism for socio-centrism.

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 experi-ment offered no lasting effects, by the way. Zim-bardo 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.)karen@khaleejtimes.com

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MAN WITH A MISSION: Dr Philip Zimbardo. Photo: Kiran Prasad

Good vs evil