He uses many supportive examples of why situational power can influence a normal human being into committing acts of evil, even giving examples of his childhood as he lived in poverty within the Bronx and watched as his close friends became victim to the “Banality of Evil.” Zimbardo also examines the good in people and how some mortals can fight the temptation over situational forces simply by organizing their lives around humanitarian causes. Within the preface, Zimbardo covers the corrupted acts that occurred in the Abu Ghraib, the difference between individual power and situational power, and the rare heroes fighting against temptation.
In the beginning of the preface, Zimbardo overviews his intense research of the Abu Ghraib Prison’s torture and murders. He was a devoted expert witness to one …show more content…
He finds that most psychologists often ignore this important factor that rules our behavior. To prevent undesirable behavior within a person, according to Zimbardo, we must understand the strength and vulnerabilities the person brings to the given situation. We must observe and dig deeper into the situation causing this wrong behavior rather than trying to correct the victim without giving it another thought. Zimbardo compares these situational forces to his experience growing up in poverty within the Bronx. During this time, he developed a survival strategy called “street-smarts”—knowing who to avoid, who to look up to, and how to go from follower to leader. In the ghetto, where the only possession people had was each other, Zimbardo had to witness many good kids grow up to become victims of violence. Many teens that dealt with abuse in their past often would take their suppressed anger out in violent actions, often resulting in arrests. Being in gangs would normally consist of fights, vandalism, and intimidating helpless people. Zimbardo remarks that none of these actions were considered wrong; it was merely “obeying the group leader” and “conforming to the norms of the gang”. Systemic power, according to the kids, were the big bad janitors, land lords, and—worst of all—the police. Zimbardo recalls his negative experience with the police