Las Vegas Weekly

April 16, 2009 · 11:37 AM

A psychological boost away from the stage

By Justice

I spent tax day attending a lecture at UNLV. This was no ordinary lecture, even though it had all the attributes of an ordinary lecture including an old professor professing his knowledge and a bunch of partially interested college students filling about every other chair in the lecture hall and only present for the extra credit. Still, I could barely contain my excitement. The guest professor was the great social psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

To those unfamiliar with his brilliant work, Zimbardo is the genius behind the Stanford prison experiment. In the experiment, a group of the most mentally “normal” college-aged men were assigned to play the roles of guards and prisoners in a mock prison setting. The guards were complete with shiny, mirrored sunglasses (an idea Zimbardo got from the film Cool Hand Luke to prevent eye contact. The prisoners wore numbers on their uniforms instead of names in order to completely dehumanize them. I was at a massage parlor in China where they did the same thing to their employees. “I’ll have number thirty-six to start and then number twenty-eight to finish the evening.” Very strange.

Anyway, the experiment was originally scheduled to last for two weeks, but was cut short after just six days when the students immersed themselves into their roles. The guards became sadisitic and began psychologically torturing the prisoners who became depressed and submissive. This particular study is often brought up in famous cases of seemingly normal people who somehow turn “evil,” like the young soldiers of Abu Ghraib and the murderous S.S. officers. The outcome of the study supports the belief that in the right situation and under the right circumstances, anyone can commit heinous acts of cruelty upon their fellow man.

I completely geeked out when I saw Zimbardo. I’ve met and seen a handful of celebrities, but the people who really creep me out with their presence (in a good way) are freakishly intelligent or academically accomplished people. Little people kind of do the same thing to me, too. Zimbardo had quite the presence. He kind of looks like the cartoon representation of Satan. Same goatee and everything. I expected the place to be packed, considering psychology is such a popular major. I also expected more enthusiasm, considering he’s a living legend in the field. I may have even expected that the room would be filled beyond fire code regulations and I’d be turned away with an, “I’m sorry ma’am, this event is way too awesome and we’re not going to let anyone else in, not even if you show me your boobs.” And they would call me “ma’am” because I’d be older than any of the undergrads in the room.

Anyway, many customers ask me what I do for fun. They ask me how I pass the time outside of work. “Well … I like to hang out with my girlfriends and go to the pool. I go to the gym. Get my nails done,” and park with out a permit at UNLV to sit in on lectures about the psychology of the evil tendencies of humans. I’m no fun anymore, really.

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