Hi readers!
This week we were assigned chapters 15 and 16 of Philip Zimbardo’s book, The Lucifer Effect. Chapter 15 looks at how the punishment system is evil, which I agree with. Zimbardo goes on to say that prisons are overpopulated, that prisoners get abused by guards, and some even get murdered. I think this is completely true, especially in American correctional facilities. Zimbardo specifically referred to Abu Ghraib. Throughout my time volunteering, I have heard several times how harmful jails can be, and so I definitely understood the majority of what Zimbardo wrote about. In Chapter 16, Zimbardo highlights ways to combat social influences.
Zimbardo finished chapter 15 with a great quote, which I really think summed up his goals in doing this experiment.
“I hope you are willing to accept the premise that ordinary people, even good ones, can be seduced, recruited, initiated into behaving in evil ways under the sway of powerful systematic and situational forces.” (Zimbardo, 2007, p. 443).
While reading chapters 15 and 16, I could not stop thinking about Jonestown. I think that average people became evil under the power of Jim Jones. I found an article that was written by Laura, who hardly escaped death in Jim Jones’ Christian cult. In the article, she spoke about how Jim Jones moved his cult to Guyana, in South America, in 1977 (Rannard & Cooper, 2018). During the time in Guyana, followers were psychologically manipulated, sexually abused, suffered food shortages, and were often plagued with infections and illnesses. The reason that the followers stayed throughout these ordeals was because Jim Jones made them think they had no other choice but to stay within the confines of his cult. Laura explains that Jones’ drug addiction and personality disorders were worsening and he began to lose control. In 1978, 918 people, including 300 children, were massacred in a forced suicide (Rannard & Cooper, 2018). If only Jones’ followers had Zimbardo’s handy-dandy how-to book on how to combat social influences! Circling back to the Zimbardo quote, I think that the sexual abuse, the starvation and the psychological manipulation (and the eventual suicide) were all things that occurred under the powerful forces of Jim Jones.
I found a case study that looked specifically at Jim Jones and how his Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) played into his leadership tactics. I think this is an interesting take on things, that his disorders caused him to lead almost 1,000 people to their death. The author was unable to determine whether the establishment of himself as the leader of a cult was due to the grandiosity of his NPD or the manipulation from his ASPD (Martin, 2019). His NPD created a lack of empathy, which allowed him to so freely mistreat others to advance his own interests, which furthered the violation of others’ rights that stemmed from his ASPD. The author goes on to say that before the age of 15, Jones was exhibiting Conduct Disorder, something that often precedes Antisocial Personality Disorder (Martin, 2019).
While it was somewhat satisfying to have a tangible reason for Jones’ actions, it made me slightly upset that Jim was exhibiting Conduct Disorder in his adolescence, presumably received no treatment for it, and went on to orchestrate such a devastating mass suicide.
I guess I have addressed two issues here that I have learned in one story. One is that people often do evil things under the power of others, as Zimbardo explained in Chapter 15, and the second is that people often have a clinical reason for their evil tendencies. If anything, I think Jonestown teaches us that we have to be really careful in who we take directions from, and that we need to identify risk factors for evil in order to prevent them. We truly do not know what others are capable of and what underlying conditions can influence them to do certain things. This is why it is important to employ Zimbardo’s tips for avoiding social influences.
References
Martin, T. Jim Jones: A case study in the relationship between antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder. University of South Carolina Scholar Commons.
Rannard, G., & Cooper, K. (2018). Jonestown: Rebuilding my life after surviving the massacre. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46241372
Zimbardo, P. (2008). The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. New
York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Jessica's Evil Psychology 
Hi Jessica,
Intriguing post: I definitely agree that Jonestown is an excellent example of how social influences can lead to widespread evil. In general, cults are predisposed to facilitating mass evil: they often have charismatic leaders (such as Jim Jones) who use their charm to influence their followers to do their bidding. I think an important distinction between the kind of evil that occurred at Abu Ghraib or during the Stanford Prison Experiment and the type of evil that occurred at Jonestown (or other similar cults) is that the former was propagated by ordinary people under the influence of an extraordinary situation, and the latter was propagated by extraordinary people in ordinary situations. Jim Jones was a charismatic, narcissistic, and possibly psychopathic masterful planner who exhibited various psychopathology; the guards at Abu Ghraib and in the Stanford Prison Experiment were mentally healthy young or middle-aged adults put in highly unusual circumstances. Here’s an interesting thought: what might happen if a person like Jim Jones was put in the Stanford Prison Experiment? Would this person try to lead the guards, or would they simply be another “cog in the wheel”? Or if they were a prisoner, would they rebel? Or submit? What do you think?
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Hi Avery, I really liked your question. If Jim Jones was participating in the Stanford Prison Experiment, I think he would definitely be amongst those who were harming the prisoners (but only to get what he wanted). Jim Jones had a diminished capacity for empathy and liked to use others to achieve his own personal goals, so I think if there was a goal to obtain by being the lead correctional officer, he would be particularly aggressive. In his cult, he wanted to be the leader and he wanted to be wealthy, so that motivated him to control others. Without that goal to entice aggressive behaviour in the prison experiment, I’m not sure!
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Hi Jessica!
It’s interesting that Jim Jones had personality disorders and these contributed to his actions as a cult leader. This reminds of a question brought up a few classes ago if acts are attributed to disorder, does it make the person less to blame? Because his personality disorders were Narcissistic and Anti-social and given the severity of his crime, I still think he’s greatly to blame. However, it is alarming that they knew he had a disorder as a child and nobody stepped in to help get him treatment. I think it just shows how things could have been prevented if people would step in and take charge instead of being bystanders. Because the people around him failed him in a way by not getting him treatment, do you think this makes him less responsible or to blame for his evil actions?
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Hi Terri! I don’t think that Jim Jones’ behaviour should be entirely excused due to his NPD and ASPD, but I think that judges and juries should consider a mental institution in place of jail (if i’m speaking in terms of a criminal justice setting). His disorders made it easier for him to be evil, but he still chose that. There are plenty of individuals who have NPD and ASPD but do not live an out of the ordinary life. Jim Jones should have received treatment prior to creating a cult, especially since they knew he was displaying conduct disorder in adolescence. We also now know that conduct disorder is a precursor to psychopathy in adulthood (which is kind of textbook evil), and I for sure think that Jim Jones displayed psychopathic behaviour.
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Hi Jessica! That was an excellent analysis of the Jonestown mass suicide. I agree with you that the social forces at play made these ordinary, average people commit something so misguided such as suicide. It intrigued me but did not surprise me that Jim Jones had been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Anti-social personality disorder. I too felt sad to learn that he showed symptoms of Conduct disorder at the age of 15 without being treated for it, but this was realised only in retrospect and it is hard to identify and treat young individuals like Jones until he does something that alerts the authorities. I think we all know many individuals from our middle or high-school years who probably showed signs of a vast array of mental disorders or behavioural disorders that never got treated or recognized by the relevant authorities. I’m sure most of these individuals from our past have turned out fine or will turn out fine, but there are always some that will become infamous for committing a shocking evil act. My point is, while identifying Jones’ conduct disorder and treating him would have really helped him and probably would have prevented the massacre, thinking about it in hindsight is much easier than actually identifying and treating a 15 year old. I believe that the relevant institutions may never reach a level where it can identify and treat everyone who needs help, but I do believe that the most important thing to do is to spread awareness of the power of situational forces and social influences to prevent people from becoming blind followers of another cult leader like Jim Jones.
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Hello Jessica,
I have to agree with you on the idea that the punishment is evil. Many different things, things that are rarely spoken about go on within the walls of jails. People are harmed, abused, treated inhumanely and sometimes even killed from those in superior positions. The quote you inputted into your blog almost gives me chills. It is scary to think that even the most ordinary people can do the absolute unthinkable.
Regarding the Jonestown mass suicide it just proves that a variety of different social forces can ultimately make people do things you would never think of them to do. The influence of others has a large impact on us and that was clearly displayed throughout Zimbardo’s experiment.
Great post!
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That’s a really interesting comparison, I hadn’t thought much about Jonestown. But you’re right, it’s another way of having control over people, and having them aimlessly follow you, because what would they do otherwise?
Ambiguity has been a really big theme throughout the course so far, and I feel like it’s really relevant here. Personally, I couldn’t imagine following someone’s ideologies and beliefs so much that I would eventually commit suicide with hundreds of other people – but I’m sure they didn’t either.
Once you’re wrapped up in the situation, it’s hard to get out of it. I’m sure that the people in the cult did believe that some things he was doing was not right, but followed him nonetheless because they didn’t know what else to do.
Relating to Zimbardo’s prison experiment, this was evident in the guards, who mistreated the prisoners. It was clear that they know what they were doing was wrong, but in that time, groupthink was at play, and they followed what they thought they should do, and what the others were doing.
Ambiguity didn’t really used to be something I thought much about until now, and after this course, it makes me unsettled, to say the least.
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