Book Review: The Lucifer Effect How Good People Turn Evil.

The Lucifer Effect, a New York Best Selling book written by research psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo  highlights an uncomfortable but honest observation regarding human nature: That even the most seemingly ordinary, up-right and good person can become a perpetrator of evil. When we're trying to understand behavior that is destructive, irrational and malicious we often direct our focus primarily onto innate characteristics or personality traits which would have lead to such behavior, while ignoring any circumstantial factors which would have shaped such behaviors. Similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error which you can read more about here.

What Zimbardo hypothesized is that it is possible for external situations and systems to become key influences of  change in behavior and that they can often override a persons morals and values and be a corruptive force in extreme circumstances. The analogy of Lucifer within this book was that he was God’s favorite angel, but due to Lucifers fall from grace when he challenged God’s omnipotent authority, Lucifer was transformed into the forever recognized symbol of evil, Satan. This is the idea of people turning from good to evil.

In The Lucifer Effect, the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 is the ideal starting point for Zimbardo as he recalls from first person accounts on how the events of the experiment unfolded. He describes how he and the other researchers set up a simulated prison in the basement of one of Stanford University's academic buildings and then selected 24 students to participate and play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The students he said were chosen from a larger group of 70 volunteers and were chosen specifically because they had no criminal background, had no psychological issues or medical conditions. The student volunteers agreed to participate during a one to two-week period in exchange for $15 a day.

Lasting only a premature six days due to the experiment having to be stopped early Zimbardo describes in gripping detail how the students began to sink deeper and deeper into their roles and how they as guards became abusive, and the prisoners begin to show more signs of extreme stress and anxiety as their time in the experiment went on. While the prisoners and guards were free to interact in any way they pleased, the interactions became hostile and malicious. The guards began to behave in ways that were aggressive and abusive toward the prisoners while the prisoners became passive, depressed and show signs of anxiety.

He writes that even the researchers themselves began to lose grip of the situation and lose sight of their objective whilst potentially leaving the students open to psychological damage. Zimbardo, who acted as the prison warden, repetitively overlooked the hostile behavior of the jail guards until graduate student Christina Maslach voiced her concerns as to the conditions in the simulated prison and the morality of continuing the experiment. Zimbardo aptly draws out every bit of emotion and drama involved in the experiment in 1971, which keeps the  reader in awe every step of the way. The Lucifer Effect is brilliantly written, intriguing, and keeps you emotionally engaged throughout reading it. In reference to the end of the experiment Zimbardo beautifully quotes in his book "Only a few people were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency; obviously, I was not among that noble class,"

The book doesn't stop there.

In the remainder of The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo goes to show how important the concept of the Stanford Prison Experiment is and extrapolates that to some of the more horrifying real world events in recent times, such as the abuse at the hands of agents of the US at Abu Ghraib, the genocide in Rwanda and the rape of Nanking. He discusses how the insidious and corrosive effect of power often leads to the creation of a corrupt system corrupting the people involved.

The prison study of Abu Ghraib in Iraq is used as an example. Zimbardo became thoroughly involved in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib when he was asked to be an expert witness for Sergeant Ivan Frederick, one of the accused who inevitably stood trial for alleged prisoner abuses. Through his research into what transpired at the Abu Ghraib prison, Zimbardo was able to gain insight into what it was like for the soldiers who spent long weeks working shifts within a military prison, and although the accused was eventually sentenced to eight years hard time in another military prison, Zimbardo was able to document the failures in leadership that led to many of the abuses and states that the military system itself was the leading proponent and should be to blame for the conditions in which such atrocities could take place.

In conclusion, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Much of the book has much of a darker sombre feel to it compared to other books due to the descriptions of how ordinary good people can perform evil acts. The final chapters of The Lucifer Effect offers us a lighter tone reminding us that some people are able to resist situational influence and can have an unbending resolve against peer pressure and systemic evil. Zimbardo gives examples of such unique individuals which include Christina Maslach, the graduate student who spoke up to Zimbardo to end the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Private Joe Darby, the soldier who blew the whistle on the atrocities that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison.

If you want to learn more about The Lucifer Effect and read other book reviews about it...

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Our sleep cycle and the different stages of sleep.

So what happens to we're asleep? Despite the fact that we spend a good portion of our lives fast asleep (around a third), most of us aren’t really aware of the fact that we experience different stages of sleep and different times of the night. Sleep is a vastly complicated science, and a typical night of sleep consists of just five sleep stages. Though sleep can also be divided into two broader stages, non-rapid eye movement (NREM), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. 

The vast majority of our sleep (around 75 to 80 per cent) is NREM; during NREM sleep, dreams tend to be more abstract and quite vague, whereas during REM sleep dreams are more detailed and emotionally charged. During a nights sleep, every 90 to 110 minutes you cycle through five different stages of sleep, often experiencing anything between three to five dreams each night. 



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Stage One: Within a few minutes of falling asleep your breathing gradually becomes more steady and the heart rate begins to slow down. Your brain produces what are called alpha and theta waves (alpha waves are involved in relaxing you while theta waves are involved in your emotional experience) and your eye movements slow down. This stage of sleep is fairly brief, lasting up to seven minutes. This is where you are in light sleep stage, meaning that you’re somewhat conscious and can be woken easily. 

Stage Two: During this stage your muscle activity decreases further and your awareness of the outside world begins to fade away. As a sleeper you would not likely be conscious enough to notice any outside stimuli. During this stage, which is still also fairly light, the brain produces sudden increases in brain wave frequency known as sleep spindles (sleep spindles are bursts of brain activity visible on an EEG monitor). Shortly after your brain waves begin to slow down.

Stage Three: Deep, slow brain waves known as Delta Waves begin to emerge during this stage (Delta waves are associated with relaxation and healing). This stage transitions you from a light sleep to a deep sleep.

Stage Four: This is a deep sleep that lasts for roughly 30 minutes producing more delta waves. Your body begins to perform restorative functions such as tissue and muscle growth, energy restoration and memory consolidation where your brain files away any new information.

Stage Five: Most dreaming occurs during this stage known as REM. REM sleep is defined by the eye movement, increased respiration rate and an in increase brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because, while the brain and other systems in your become more active, your muscles become more relaxed to the point of paralysis. Dreaming occurs due to an increase in brain activity, though your voluntary muscles become paralyzed. Voluntary muscles are the muscles you can consciously move such as moving your arms and legs or tensing your abdominals. Involuntary muscles are the muscles you do not have conscious control over such as your heart or your inner gut. Muscle paralysis during this stage of sleep is a function to prevent you acting out your dreams whilst you're sleeping.

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Fundamental attribution error

When an incident or an event occurs (whether negative or positive) the tendency to place a significant amount of blame on a persons personality or characteristics rather than situational factors is quite a common one. This is because we tend to focus more on the person involved by assuming that a person is responsible due to their personality/characteristics and not the conditions around them that they could not have had control over in the first place. This phenomena is what you call the fundamental attribution error.

An example of fundamental attribution error is when you see someone driving and swerving and crashing into a tree, automatically you would think ''what is this person doing?!'' or ''this person is actually crazy?!'' but the real reason for the accident was not because of the person directly but because a pedestrian ran into the road and so to avoid hitting the pedestrian the driver hit the brakes whilst steering round them where their tyres slipped over a wet patch on the road causing the crash. As an observer watching the whole thing take place you would most likely blame the person driving for being reckless if you had not have known what contributed to the crash. The truth is that these multiple factors such as the surprise pedestrian, the wet patch in the road, etc, would have caused the crash regardless of who was behind the wheel, so it wouldn't have just taken a reckless personality to crash the car in this scenario.

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 A second example of the fundamental attribution error is when you ask a stranger for directions but they give you a seemingly snarky response or they're simply rude to you. Naturally you would peg this person as rude and having a bad personality, but looking past their initial first impression they may have had a bad day putting them in a foul mood or they've just received some devastatingly bad news and you were the first person they have come into contact with since receiving this news. They acted the way they did not because of their natural personality (most people are generally polite to strangers) but their circumstances made them act they way they did, in this case it was just having a bad day which was the cause.

Though there hasn't been one widely accepted causal reason for the fundamental attribution error there has been several theories which have been associated with being a root cause for why people are quicker to blame character traits for their circumstances rather than situational factors. One of the reasons is due to culture; for instance western cultures where people who are more individualistic tend to emphasize the individual over situational factors so they are  

more prone to fundamental attribution error as opposed to people from non-western cultures who tend to emphasize context and situational factors over the individual so they are less prone to the error. A study conducted by social psychologists Michael W. Morris and Kaiping Peng where they tested the hypothesis of a bias toward individual autonomy in American western culture while in there was a bias toward collective or contextual factors in Chinese eastern culture, in the experiment the participants where they were asked to watch an animated cartoon of swimming fish where one fish deviates from several other fish. In the experiment the animation was designed so that it was ambiguous whether the fish was a coordinated group influencing the behaviour of the lone fish or the lone fish acted on its own preference. Over several studies with different sets of participants both Morris and Peng confirmed their hypothesis with the western participants believing the fish acting on its own accord while most of the eastern participants believed the fish acted due to other factors outside of the individual fish.

The just world hypothesis is another possible reason for the fundamental attribution error where people have the belief that people get what they deserve whether good or bad, so if someone finds themselves in a car crash then most people believe that the person involved must have had it coming to them, conversely if someone has won a new car then most people would believe that they deserve it. In either case the just world hypothesis suggests that people in general believe that people get what they deserve. Social psychologist Melvin Lerner conducted an experiment where a group of participants watched a video of a subject complete a set of tasks where when they got a task wrong they would receive an electric shock. The subject pretended to get an electric shock of course. Lerner found that the participants had a low opinion of the subject saying that the subject deserved it and berated their appearance and character. Lerner concluded that the sight of the subject suffering ''electric shocks'' or their general misfortune motivated the participants to devalue the subject to bring about a more appropriate fit between their fate and their characteristics.

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The Stroop Effect.

The phenomenon The Stroop Effect first discovered by American psychologist John Ridley Stroop is where the brains reaction time slows down when processing conflicting information. This happens because of interference or the use of incompatible functions in the brain causing the decreased reaction time within the brain.

This phenomenon is usually studied with a stroop test where a researcher first takes note of how long a participant takes to say the name of a colour printed in black or grey ink. For example if they see the word ''yellow'' printed in either black or grey ink then they would say ''yellow''. Then secondly the researcher takes note of how long it takes the participant to say the name of another name of a colour but this time it would be printed in another colour that's not consistent with the word itself. For example if the word is green and it is printed in orange  then they would have to say ''green'' and not what colour it is printed in. Usually the second part of this test is much trickier and many people makes mistakes because they are presented with conflicting information.


An example of a Stroop test

Uses of the Stroop test
The Stroop test has been used to measure a variety of things in regards to people. Researchers have used the Stroop test to measure...

- How well a persons selective attention is

- How well a person can multi-task (similar to the previous point)

- Tests for disorders such as schizophrenia, ADHD, ADD etc

-  Brain activity to see what areas of the brain are functioning in respects to focus and attention.

- Colour recognition

- How well a persons brains processing speed is


Variations of the Stroop effect
There are other variants to the Stroop test all producing a similar effect such as...

Emotional Stroop tests

Another variant of the Stroop test is where a researcher may show a participant a card with a negative word such as sad, hurt or unlucky mixed in with other neutral words such look, press or write. Again the words are coloured and the researcher takes note of if the participant says the negative words faster or slower than the neutral words. It has been shown that depressed participants are more likely to say the colour of a negative word slower than they would if it was a neutral word.

Warped words

This produces the same effect much like the original Stroop effect where the words again are the names of colours and are presented in an unusual way printed in mismatching colours. The participants are asked to name the colour of the word presented but because the words are printed in an unusual way and are incongruent with the colours they are typed in this slows down the brains reaction and processing time making it difficult to complete the task as easily and straight forward as they normally would.

Reverse Stroop tests

Again similar to the original Stroop test but the participant is presented with a black square with the name of a colour printed in the middle but it is printed with in a colour inconsistent with the printed word, for example the word blue will be printed in red. The black square will have four smaller squares in each corner and each of the smaller squares would be a different colour. The researchers would ask the participants to point to one of the smaller squares that is the same colour as the printed word in the middle, for example they would point at the red box because the word printed is in red but unsurprisingly enough participant do actually get this wrong. The effects of this test is very similar if not the same as the original Stroop test causing slower reaction and processing time.

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The Zeigarnik Effect: The need for closure.

First identified by gestalt psychologist Kevin Lewin, the zeigarnik effect is where we tend to remember incomplete tasks more often than tasks that are completed. This effect was first discovered in 1927 when Kevin Lewin sitting in a restaurant in Vienna noticed that waiters only remembered orders while they were in the process of being served thus incomplete, and when they were completed they later had little recollection of the orders they previously carried out if any recollection at all. This resulted in Kevins Lewin's student Bluma Zeigarnik theorizing that unfinished business or an incomplete task created ''psychic tension'' within us, and this tension can drive us to seek closure in regards to either unfinished business or an incomplete task.

The need for closure
The human mind is motivated to seek closure, where something is perceived to be unfinished the memory seems to hold onto it until it is resolved. A classic example would come from television soaps where an episode of your favourite television show would build up to its eventual climax after a long running storyline and you would literally be hanging at the edge of your seat, then the words TO BE CONTINUED would appear on your television screen right when you were really getting hooked. This can be quite annoying, but funnily enough it is near guaranteed that you will be thinking about it throughout the week until the showing of the next episode, and as a result you will tune in to watch it to find out what happened thus seeking and gaining closure.

Breakups
Another example where most people can experience a lack of closure is at the ending of a relationship, this may be because of a lack of communication from one or both parties involved where you don't or cannot find a real reason as to why things didn't work out, this results in you asking yourself a lot of questions in regards to the relationship which can lead to obsessive overthinking making it hard to let go after the break up. But if the relationship ended amicably with both parties getting everything off of their chest and out in the open and reaching an understanding from both sides then usually this lessens the tension that normally creeps up during a break up because any lingering questions would have been answered giving you less to think about afterwards.

Procrastination
The Zeigarnik effect also suggests that our need for closure can also be an aid against procrastination. For instance by simply starting a project or a task preferably at an easier point you are more likely to finish the remainder of the task, this is because by not completing what you started your mind keeps drifting back and thinking about the incomplete task creating that psychic tension giving you a strong desire to finish it. And of course by starting at a smaller easier point of the task and laddering your way up to the harder parts it makes it seem that much more accessible rather than having to deal with a monumentally difficult task right off the bat.   


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Research
After her professor Kevin Lewin noticed the waiters increased recollection of incomplete or unpaid orders at the restaurant in Vennia as previously described, psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik decided to test out the theory regarding this incident. She asked roughly 20 or so participants to perform some simple tasks such as solving puzzles and stringing beads. Some of the participants were able to complete the tasks while some of the others were interrupted half way through completing their tasks. Afterwards Bluma asked the participants which of the tasks they remembered doing, according to her results people are twice as likely to remember a task that has been interrupted than a task which has been fully completed. Lastly, interestingly enough nearly 90% of the participants that were interrupted during their task carried on with their puzzle anyway without encouragement.

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Self completion theory

When a person attempts to define themselves whether it is a physician, footballer, mathematician, rock climber etc. they engage in behaviours which relate to the identity they are trying to cultivate and when any of these behaviours receive some sort of negative feedback they feel an incompleteness in regards to their identity  motivating them to redeem themselves by trying harder on any subsequent task related to the self identity which previously received negative feedback so they can feel that sense of completeness again.

This is because people have an innate drive to build and maintain their own self image, and when a significant part of their self image is threatened they have are driven to seek external validation or recognition of some kind to prove to themselves and to others that they are who they think they are or at least trying to portray so that significant part of their self image remains intact. For example, if a chef receives criticism for their food from a colleague they may engage in activities which compensate for their perceived failure and improve their self image such as buying more expensive cooking equipment or they may engage in behaviours which attempt to make them feel better about their recent failure such as cooking a dish they are known to be good at, even the use of verbal statements which reinforce their self image as a good chef such as ''I have made many successful dishes in the past'' helps to make them feel complete in regards to their bruised identity. What has just been described is self completion theory.


Examples of self completion theory

Performance
When someone is in a field, profession or social group that they regard as integral to their identity how they perform in regards to where they are in experience and how they perceive others to expect them to perform generally gives them a sense of duty to maintain that level of competence consistently, but negative feedback towards their work can cause them to work harder on any tasks after the negative feedback has been received so they can regain and maintain their sense of credibility.

Verbal statements
A person who's sense of identity is threatened may have the desire to verbalise their credibility to feel validated. For instance if someone questioned a mechanic's ability to fix a car properly that same mechanic may later feel the need to verbalise how much experience that he or she has with cars or they may even state who has praised them on their work in the past. Another example is if someone's ability to be helpful is threatened they may later become more verbalised on how much they are helpful in general and may also talk about who they have helped people previously.


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Materialism
Another way a person may find a way to validate themselves when their sense of identity is threatened or seemingly uncertain is through material positions. Similar to the last two points is when someone is questioned on an element of their identity such as how masculine they are, the person in question may acquire possessions which are typically associated with being masculine such as a watch, car, gym equipment etc. or they may be questioned on their career as musician where to compensate they may buy books, cd's, video's all which are related to music thus strengthening their sense of identity. 


Status symbols
Self completion theory suggests that when an individual feels insecure but well established regarding their status or profession they may make an effort to display symbols signalling their status. This may be because they do not feel that they are respected or at least recognized for who are so they feel the need to display these symbols to change other peoples perceptions and how they act towards them which will make them feel more respected as a result reinforcing the concept of their own status.


Research
Social psychologists Joachim C. Brunstein and Peter M. Golwilltzer conducted an experiment in 1996 regarding how perceived failures in committed identity related goals effected subsequent performance and behaviour where they had a group of students that were learning and committed to being physicians as their profession/identity which were involved in an experiment where they were split into two groups according to two conditions: the identity relevant condition and the non-relevant condition. The experiment had two phases. The first phase was a social competence task which the students were asked to complete a series of multiple choice questions. The students were each asked to read a brief outline of social problems followed by four suggested solutions where they had to choose one solution to move on to the next question. In the identity relevant condition the participants were asked a series of problems related to which physicians typically encounter in their line of work and in the non-relevant condition the participants were asked a series of problems which people come across from day to day. Feedback was manipulated in this task to either no feedback at all or a series of predominantly negative feedback so that the researchers can measure their performance in the second phase based on the feedback initially received.

The second phase was a mental concentration test where the participants in the non-relevant test condition were told upon completing the test that it was to measure and compare the concentration between various age groups while the participants in the profession relevant test condition were told that concentration on a given task was an important characteristic in becoming a qualified physician. 

The results were that the participants that were in the identity relevant condition that received negative feedback on the first phase performed better in the second phase than the participants who completed the same test in the non-relevant condition who also received negative feedback, the participants who received no feedback at all in the identity relevant test condition and the participants in the non-relevant condition who also received no feedback. The participants in the identity relevant condition which were exposed to failure reported higher levels of motivation and felt more involved than the other participants which suggests that they felt highly motivated to compensate for their failure in their identity related task making them work harder on the second phase of the experiment to prove that they are competent physicians.

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The confirmation bias and seeing only what you want to see.

Being in a world where there is conflicting information can make it a difficult job to make sense of things, and because of this we have a need to filter out information so we don't overload our heads with conflicting thoughts causing confusion. Our need to make sense of things on the other hand can also be a hindrance when we go too far the other end by fixating on one idea and only excepting information supporting this idea whilst ignoring everything else even though it may discredit your original decision for a good reason... this is what we call the confirmation bias. 

The confirmation bias can be thought of as a self fulfilling prophecy where because you expect something to turn out in a particular fashion where you end up interpreting all signs confirming your expectations correct whilst disregarding evidence that proves those same expectations invalid. In extreme cases some may reinterpret contrary evidence as further evidence to their expectation/argument. For example when an acquaintance who you've made your mind up as someone who is generally unpleasant gives you an unexpected compliment which they genuinely mean well by, you may interpret it as sarcasm or a subtle dig at you, either way you perceive this compliment negatively because that's what you expect from this person no matter how genuine it came across.

What it really comes down to is expectations, and your expectations can shape your perceptions thus confirming your expectations, your a trapped in a loop if you will. Robert Anston speaks about this in his book Prometheus Rising , in his own words he writes ''what the thinker thinks, the prover proves''. He also gives an example in his book that if the thinker thinks that the sun moves around the Earth then the prover will organize perceptions to fit that thought; if the thinker then changed its mind then the prover will reorganize all evidence to again fit that perception.

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A couple of examples where the confirmation bias can be recognised are..

Stereotypes: Stereotypes is what the confirmation bias is in essence, as a type of individual has certain expectations set upon them and anything someone from this group does that seemingly relates to those expectations confirms the stereotype that is set upon them, even if it is out of character for them.


The media: The media can often be used to propagate the confirmation bias by using selective images, sound bites or carefully chosen stories to further confirm an idea which is already believed by many people. It is believed some ideas are fabricated to further other agenda's.


Self image: Your self image is something that can be reinforced by your experiences. If you see yourself as someone who is well natured of course you will do good natured things accordingly and while this happens people may take notice and act positively towards you and even tell you how good natured you are thus strengthening your self image as a good natured person.


Study by Peter Wason
A british psychologist named Peter Wason who coined the term confirmation bias in the 1960's conducted a psychology experiment to test his theory where he gave a group of people a triplet set of numbers ''2-4-6''. The task was to identify the rule that applied to the three numbers and for the subjects to find the rule. Wason instructed that they may construct other triplet sets of numbers to test out their assumptions regarding the first triplet; for every triple set of numbers the experimenter would tell them whether or not it followed the rule. The subjects formed a hypothesis that the rule was a sequence of even numbers and tried numbers that followed this rule such as ''4-8-10'', ''6-8-12'', ''20-22-24'' which the experimenters confirmed to them that each of these numbers obeyed the rule, as each triplet was given a positive confirmation the subjects felt more confident about their hypothesis that the rule was even numbers, not long after a few more tries they were convinced that they found they rule they were looking for.

It turned out the subjects were incorrect and had not discovered the rule to the original sequence, the rule was simply increasing numbers. Almost all the subjects that were involved in this experiment formed a similar hypothesis and formed number sequences that proved their hypothesis while very few asked questions or tried to form number sequences that may disprove their hypothesis. They only confirmed what they believed was true. 

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How psychology and influence is used to open doors.

In psychology and influence its always good to understand that when you are attempting to persuade some to make an action or decision it is usually better to start small. This is because putting all your cards on the table and directly asking for a large concession upfront is usually met with resistance, and while this bold move can sometimes work depending on who your dealing with most of the time it doesn't and can place you in a more difficult position which makes your job a lot harder than it needs to be. There are two types of sequential requests which are very useful in most but if not all situations and contexts depending on which one you are using, and they are researched by Professor Robert Caldini and mentioned in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The two sequential requests of this topic are the foot in the door technique and the door in the face technique.

Foot in the door technique
A very simple technique and easy to use because to put it simply people have need to be consistent and feel internally obliged to do so. To start with you ask a person to perform a small request which they are likely to say yes to then the next request will be bigger and related to the last request which they again will likely say yes to and you carry this pattern until you have guided them to a predetermined goal. Sometimes you may have to ask for two requests to get to the goal in mind, sometimes you may have to ask for more depending on the person and how big the predetermined goal is. You will have to judge accordingly. For example, your goal maybe to get someone to help you with your work, you first ask them to check if you've spelt a word in your piece of work correctly (a small request), then you ask them to check if there are any other spelling mistakes (a bigger request), then you ask them if they are good with work/research (which they should say yes to), then lastly you ask them to help with your work which by the time you get to asking this their need to be consistent has already kicked in and they will likely say yes.


In the mid 1960's psychologists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Frasier conducted an experiment where a researcher posed as a volunteer worker going door to door in a Californian neighbourhood asking the resident home owners if they could have a public billboard sign installed in their front lawn reading DRIVE CAREFULLY. Understandably a majority of these people said no (83 percent) because it was such a large request upfront. Another set of residents were asked the same request but two weeks prior to this they were asked if they could display a small 3 inch sign saying BE A SAFE DRIVER. The results were that because they committed to displaying the smaller sign the likelihood of them displaying the billboard dramatically increased. A full 76 percent of the people agreed to displaying the large bill board after displaying the much smaller sign.

Door in the face technique
Very similar to the foot in the door technique though not as effect but very useful nonetheless. Again you make a request but this time you make it a large request and when the person says no you make a smaller request which the person being asked is most likely going to say yes because the second request will seem more reasonable in comparison to the first request and sometimes (depending on the person) the feeling of guilt has a part to play also. Have a predetermined goal helps so you don't get a smaller concession than planned for example if you need 50 pence (or cents if your American) you may ask an acquaintance ''do you have 80 pence?'' they say no, then you ask ''okay do you have 50 pence instead?'' the person says yes and viola you have your 50 pence. Very simple.

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Robert Caldini and his researchers in 1975 carried out an experiment involving two groups of students where the first group were asked a difficult request to volunteer to council some juvenile delinquents for two hours a week for two years, naturally the students said no to this so the researchers followed up with an easier request of asking them to chaperone them to the zoo for one day only while the second group were only asked to take the juvenile delinquents to the zoo. The results were 50 percent of the students in the first group agreed with the small request after the large request was made compared to the 17 percent in the second group who were asked the small request only which suggests that the students were more likely to comply with the small request if a larger one was asked to begin with.

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Deindividuation and ''losing yourself'' in the moment.

Deindividuation, a term first used by social psychologists Leon Festinger, Albert Pepitone and Theodore Newcomb in 1952 where a person may feel they can act impulsively without social repercussions and commit actions that they wouldn't normally do, this is particular in groups or crowds. When a person is deindividuated their sense of identity is reduced which temporarily affects their ethical and moral codes which makes them more suggestible to situational influence; you are basically just ''letting yourself go''. Deindividuation can explain a range of irrational and bold behaviours such as riots, criminal activities taking place at night or dark alley ways, gang related crime and much more.


Factors that contribute towards deindividuation. 



Anonymity
Regarding deindividuation anonymity provides cloak away from social disapproval when committing an act which doesn't the follow social norms. In a classic study conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1969 which is very similar to Stanley Milgrims electrical shock experiment where a group of participants were to give electrical shocks to another set of participants. The first group wore a lab coat and a mask to conceal their identity and create a sense of anonymity while the second group wore casual clothing with a name tag. It was concluded that the participants who wore the lab coats and mask were more likely to administer an electrical shock to their ''victims'' and for longer than the participants who were in casual clothing. A recent study in 2003 conducted by psychology professor Andrew Silke who found that in Northern Ireland 203 out of 500 violent attacks occurring July 1994 and December 1996 were committed by individuals who wore disguises. This goes to show that anonymity increases the likelihood of antisocial behaviour and may even encourage uninhibited actions that they would not otherwise do because they feel less like they are being watched ''socially'' if their identity is concealed .

Diffused self awareness in a group
Similar to anonymity; a diffused sense of self awareness in a group creates a situation where an individual is less likely to focus on their own actions and more likely to take part in behaviours that deviate from social norms. Psychologist Edward Diener in 1976 conducted a study on the psychology of self awareness which included 3 groups (1) the self aware group (2) the non self aware group (3) and the deindividuated group, each group participated in an activity which were designed to create either of the three levels of conditions. Using these activities Diener measured the subjects disinhibitions. In the self aware group the participants spoke quietly and acted nervously and did not form any group unity of such as they were forced to ask questions about each others backgrounds and interests. The second group which was the non self aware group were friendly to each other but did not form any group unity, this group completed puzzles and other non-deindividuating activities. The deindividuated group performed group activities which encouraged group unity such as singing together.

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The results showed that the subjects in the deindividuated group felt more unity, liked the group more and unlike the other groups they acted more spontaneously, were less self aware, felt a loss of identity and lastly felt uninhibited. Diener concluded that these deindividuated group activities and behaviours would keep their attention focused anywhere but themselves, this prevention of self awareness in the deindividuated state disables self regulation meaning that the individual is unable to engage in cognitive functions used to guide their behaviour such as the concept of the self, making them more vulnerable to influence by external factors.
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Social Arousal
It has also been found that arousal promotes deindividuation, arousal can be emotional such as anger, joy, excitement and also the feeling of fear, while arousal can also be physical where the body has an adrenal rush in preparation for engaging in sport, exercise, a fight or something similar which involves a large amount of physical energy.

In Washington there was a study investigating group presence and arousal in deindividuation lead by Edward Diener. This study was conducted on Halloween involving 841 trick or treaters and 23 selected homes which were set up so the children can be watched taking candy from the bowl without the observers being seen themselves. In one group of homes the children were physically aroused by playing a game of simon says while another group were aroused through taped ghost like noises, also some of the homes experimental conditions were groups of children vs one child at a time. The young participants were instructed to take one candy at a time. The results indicated that the children that were in groups were more anti-social than those that were alone, while both arousal conditions had a stealing effect. Children that were physically aroused by playing simon says were significantly more anti-social than the children listening to taped ghost like noises. To summarize, groups that exhibit high arousal can have an energizing effect on each person, which in turn makes them more excited and disindividuated reducing self awareness also having less concern with their how others perceive them making them more likely to commit to bold behaviour hence the good old ''mob mentality''.

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False memories: Do you remember when......?

Often the human memory is seen as something that is similar to a video tape where once something is recorded it cannot be altered, changed or tampered with. Even when someone is 100 percent sure that a situation or an event took place in a particular way they can still be wrong despite their certainty, in reality the human memory is susceptible to change and manipulation regardless of how solid and reliable you think it is. The human memory can be generally be shaped and changed by a variety of factors causing inaccuracies and alterations when recalling events, of course how malleable someone's memory is depends on the individual person.


Ways memory can be altered.

The misinformation effect
As we know the memory is prone to errors and alterations. This susceptibility is enhanced by the misinformation effect which is where misleading information is incorporated ones memory prior to an event taking place. This can be caused by the use of leading questions ('how bright was the red Ferrari?'' as opposed to ''what colour was the Ferrari?'') where when used the person being asked will change their perception of an event to fit the question. 

American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Lotus, one of the most notable researchers on false memory psychology and misinformation conducted a psychological experiment in 1974 where she had a group of participants watch a video of a car accident and then were questioned after about what they had just seen. When asked ''How fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other? the answers in regards to the rate of speed were generally higher than ''How fast were the cars were going when they bumped into each other?''. The specific wording used in the questions asked affected how the participants perceived the crash thus changing how they recalled events when asked. Also the length of time affects their perception of the situation as when the participants who were asked a week later were asked if there was glass in the scene of the accident, those who heard the word smash in the interview were more likely to say they saw glass in the video even if there was none.  

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Junior Prom Effect
Emotions are known to have an effect on memory by intensifying them and giving them significance, they seem to act as a kind of bookmark so that upon recollection it evokes a strong response attached to it making it difficult to forget. Specifically negative emotions can create very intense and distinctive memories, not only this but they can highly distort your memories relative to neutral memories, according to Professor Charles Brainerd who studied the psychology of negative emotions and their effect on memory '' You may not remember what happened to you, but boy, do you remember it was negative. And that allows you to fill in the blanks with 'memories' that didn't really happen''.

Brainerd and his wife Valerie Reyna conducted research where 120 participants (60 in Brazil, 60 in the United States) were asked to read a list of words that had either positive, neutral and negative connotations and after to recall the words which were listed. When recalling the negative words from the list they previously read  they were more likely to falsely remember words which were not on the list while when it came to remembering the positive words on the list their memory was more accurate. Brainerd prior to the experiment stated. ''Historically the belief has been that negative events are easy to remember, that negative emotion creates very distinct memories. What we found was the opposite, negative information really distorts your memory.

Brainerd called this phenomenon the Junior Prom Effect because many people found this high school experience negative but intense.

Lost in the Mall Technique
Another way memories can be fabricated is through suggestion and storytelling where someone tells you a story or a situation which has supposedly happened in a way you can relate to and incorporate into your memory.

American Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her psychology student Jacqueline Pickrell conducted an experiment involving 24 participants who were told 4 different stories of when they were 5-6 years old, one of the four stories told was made up. Prior to the experiment the researchers spoke to each of the participants relatives to get three events which really happened when they were 5-6 years old. Then each family member was asked to provide a fourth story that was made up but was plausible, and it had to involve getting lost in the mall and being rescued by an elderly adult, this was to be used as the false memory. In the study nearly 25 percent of the participants recalled the false events and also providing details even though they never happened. In other studies related to this one performed by other researchers the lost in the mall technique has been used to create false memories such as, being hospitalized over night, taking a hot air balloon and being victim of an aggressive animal attack.

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Fear psychology

What is fear?
Fear is an emotional response towards something which can pose a potential threat alerting us to danger. The threat can be towards ones physical well being or the threat can be towards ones social standing, both can be experienced as very real and result with the urge to withdraw away from the object of endangerment.

When someone experiences fear not only is there a negative emotional response, the response is also physical which includes sweating, heightened adrenaline levels and an increased heart rate, this is a fight or flight response which is triggered where the body prepares itself to flee or combat. What has just been described in regards to the physical aspect of fear is called a biochemical reaction; it is likely an evolutionary development from before the early prehistoric human ages to protect and aid in survival against other species, predators and other hazards posing a potential threat.

The emotional aspect of fear naturally alters from person to person as some people are better at handling fear than others even welcoming it while others have severe negative reactions in the presence of fear causing them to avoid any fear inducing situation at all costs though most people are somewhere in the middle.

Phobias
A phobia is a persistent fear of an object or an event which causes the sufferer to go to extreme lengths to avoid all possible interactions with the perceived problem. Though there has not been an official explanation as to how phobias develop many psychologists have said that people develop phobias through a mixture of genetic dispositions with a mix of environmental and social causes.


There are three separate types of phobias:

Specific or simple phobias.
This type of phobia is in reaction to objects such as heavy machinery or knives, animals like spiders, snakes or dogs and specific situations flying, using elevators and being in or near large vehicles. This doesn't normally interfere with their everyday life as  either they rarely encounter their fear or they finds ways to avoid it.

Social phobia.
This is a fear of social situations whether it involves going to get-togethers, parties even being in public such as something simple as going to the shops and high street. This fear stems from a fear of criticism and sometimes interpret other peoples actions as attempts to humiliate them and can over think conversations long after they've taken place.

Agoraphobia.
This a fear of open spaces where the sufferer avoids places and situations where they feel escape would be difficult in case an attack occurs, this can be anywhere from the grocery store to a park to a walk path. The agoraphobic feels safe in very few places , usually they mostly feel safe at home.



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Anxieties.
Similar to phobias as they aren't specific to any particular situation they are an irrational fear which can cause the sufferer top seek avoidance away from an object or situation regarding the phobia. Anxiety at its worst can result in just the thought of the object of fear can send the sufferer into a wild sense of terror, it is usually the imagining of the situation which gets blown out of proportion which sends the sufferer into a loop of picturing the worst case scenario even if it seems unlikely. This keeps the sufferer on guard in case of a ''possible situation''. People who are highly reactive in nature are more likely to suffer from anxieties but as they are extra cautious about everything this makes them well prepared and attentive towards people. Their extra sense of worry can manifest itself in being conscientious at their work or being well prepared for an exam even remembering minor details in booking a holiday, their ability to keep in mind every possible scenario keeps them on top of the most mundane tasks.

Ways fear can be treated
Fears can be treated over a period of over time though it may take longer to treat  and sometimes recovery can be near instant but this is depending on the person themselves and fear that is being dealt with. Here are a couple of the most common methods of treatment mainly use in a therapeutic setting.. 
 
Systematic desensitization
Developed be South African psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe, systematic desensitization is a form of classical conditioning therapy where the sufferer is exposed to a succession of circumstances involving the sufferers phobia whilst being in a relaxed state. During this process the patient is first taught some relaxation techniques so that they may extinguish fear and anxiety once it arises in the face of their own personal anxiety or phobia, this may include visualisations, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation exercises etc

Once the patient has learnt these techniques the individual will then be told to use them to help overcome a series of progressive exposures starting from a relatively small fear which will be related top the phobia or anxiety, then next being exposed to a bigger fear which will still be related to the initial phobia laddering all the way up to the target fear. For instance if the patient has a fear of spiders he or she will first be shown a picture of a spider, then a toy spider, then after some sufficient time the patient will be shown a see through box with a spider in it, then that same box will be shown with the lid open, then after some time the patient will put his or her hand in the box, then the patient will touch the spider, then lastly the patient will pick up and hold the spider. By the end of it all the incremental jumps leading to the fear itself will be associated with the relaxation techniques used making the patient desensitized to the phobia or anxiety and eventually the negative emotions attached to the phobia will be extinguished.

Flooding

Invented by psychologist Thomas Stampfl flooding sometimes referred to as exposure therapy is a faster method than systematic desensitization though not always as effective, this method involves putting the person in a situation where they would have to face their phobia at its extreme, again using similar relaxation techniques as stated above attempting to replace the feeling of fear with the feeling of relaxation. Using the example of 
the patient having a phobia of spiders, using flooding the patient maybe told instantly to hold the spider in their hand for a period of time whilst using relaxation exercises such as muscle relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, visualisations etc until they begin to feel at ease. The experience itself can be stressful to the patient but can help them snap out of their self-created negative associations towards their phobia and may well be necessary if the phobia is interfering with their life. This method is not typically for every individual and the therapist usually interviews their patient to determine whether to use flooding on them as sometimes the individual is not prepared to endure that level of anxiety in one go.

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Microexpressions and spotting a liar.

Pretty much everybody has the ability on some level or another to read facial expressions. this can be from cheerful to sad to angry amongst other emotions, from seeing an expressions on somebody's face you can identify that emotion due to past experiences. Now we all know people can fake their facial expressions and most of us have even done it ourselves whether its bumping into somebody you don't really like and greeting them with a fake smile, acting calm when receiving bad news or acting really pleased when you receive that bright green woolly jumper on your birthday for the fifth time. Though we may act nice and relaxed on the outside on the inside it is a different story we may feel disappointed, sadness anger. Sometimes the opposite is true like when you hear good news and try to contain your excitement. Microexpressions are the result of hiding your true emotions; they aren't easily controllable and often leak out without you knowing. When these microexpressions do occur they can last for as short as one-twenty-fifth of a second.

The expressions we display for longer periods of time are called macroexpressions and are generally easier to spot and are also evoked by our emotions but unlike microexpressions they can be faked. One of the most well known researchers on the psychology of micrexpressions and lying is Dr Paul Ekman, as a researcher of the subject for about 40 years he discovered that emotions are universal and also biological, and by 1972 he identified a list of seven main microexpressions, these expressions are..

Anger
An emotion which is usually quite easy to spot than other expressions anger is very typical in its nature, the lips narrow and tense up slightly, the eyebrows slant and furrow together and eye contact has more focus and intensity.

Disgust
An emotional reaction against something you  really do not like, though it doesn't have to be physical like the sight or smell of a certain food, the sight of bodily fluids or something unclean disgust can be towards something you may hear of such as a belief you disagree with or a story that is gory or unpleasant. disgust is often recognised with the upper lip raised exposing teeth and wrinkling of the nose, the cheeks may be raised and the eyes squint also.

Contempt
Closely linked with disgust contempt is only in reaction to people and their actions and unlike disgust it isn't in reaction to physical objects, smells and bodily fluids. Contempt is recognised by the wrinkling of the nose and raising of the upper lip but this time on one side of the lip instead of raising the front lip when feeling disgust.

Fear 
Fear can sometimes be misidentified as surprise; this is because both emotions use similar facial muscles. When fear presents itself the eyes are most noticeable as they are more wide open and the mouth opens slightly, the lips pull back towards the ears and the eyebrows are raised considerably higher and pulled together.

Surprise
Even though it is linked to the emotion of fear surprise does have some differences; the eyebrows are raised, eyes are widened from the outer corners and the jaw is opened just a little being thrust forward. You may also notice that a person being surprised will gasp for air ever so slightly. Depending on the context surprise can be towards something either negative or positive, keep in mind if a follow up reaction is toward something positive a smile may follow the initial response or if it is something negative the following reaction maybe to step or lean back even frown towards the object of negativity.

Sadness 
An interest emotion as it can empathised with quite easily, for instance if you see somebody who is feeling sad or upset after enough time you will find yourself feeling that very same emotion. When people experience sadness the outer corner of the eyes droop down while the eyes themselves can be fixated on something or in a daze as the eyelids sag, the mouth similarly droop down from the outer corners also. Interestingly enough sadness can be displayed in one part of the face so everything described earlier can be individually isolated and still be recognised as sadness.

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Happiness
Just like sadness happiness is an emotion which normally can be empathised and even cause you to smile yourself. Using pretty much the whole face the microexpression of happiness uses the mouth and eyes which are given a lift from each outer corner, though people do fake this expression it can be spotted as people who fake happiness rarely incorporate the eyes which is a key part of displaying this emotion.


When studying somebody's non-verbals such as microexpressions it is always useful to keep in mind the context of the situation, this will help to correctly assess the subjects non-verbals with greater accuracy minimizing any misreadings that may occur. A notable authority on the subject is Dr Paul Ekman who realised the existence of microexpressions when he was lecturing a group of young psychiatrists who wanted to know how to tell if a previously suicidal psychiatric patient was lying when asked if they were feeling better in preparation for their possible release. As we know psychiatric patients normally make claims of a positive recovery even though they may not have not recovered at all, and if they managed to gain permission to leave the hospital they may make an attempt to take their own lives. Because some patients can be particularly convincing the young psychiatrists wanted to know; is there any way to be sure they are telling the truth? So Ekman decided to look into it using a collection of pre-recorded 12 minute interviews of some of the patients at the hospital. During a conversation with one of the patients after looking at the interviews the patient told him that she lied to him. so Ekman looked back at the film slowing it right down until he found across two frames an expression of extreme distress, and after that he wound up finding more examples of deceit within the interview. In the words of Dr Ekman... and that was the discovery of microexpressions. 

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