The fundamental humanneedto belong comes from the desire to associate with others, to cooperate, to accept group norms. However, the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) shows that theneedto belong can also be perverted into excessive conformity, compliance, and in-group versus out-group hostility. Theneedfor autonomy and control, the central forces toward self-direction and planning,can be perverted into an excessive exercise of power to dominate others or into learned helplessness.

Considerthree more such needs that can cut both ways. First, needsfor consistency and rationality give meaningful and wise direction to our lives. Yet dissonant commitments force us to honor and rationalize wrong-headed decisions, such as prisoners remaining when they should have quit and guards justifying their abuse. Second, needs to know and to understand our environment and our relationship to it lead to curiosity, scientific discovery, philosophy, the humanities, and art. But a capricious, arbitrary environment that does not make sense can pervert those basic needs and lead to frustration and self-isolation (as it did in our prisoners). And finally, ourneed for stimulationtriggers explorations and adventurous risk taking, but it can also make us vulnerable to boredom when we are placed in a static setting. Boredom, in turn, can become a powerful motivator of actions as we saw with the SPE night shift guards to have fun with their “playthings.”

(The Lucifer Effect, by Philip Zimbardo, 2007, Rider Books)