The Lucifer Effect and Sex Addiction

There are few social science researchers that hit the “rock star” status equivalency but if there is one that you want to be familiar with I’d have to say it’s Phil Zimbardo. Most people are familiar with his Stanford Prison study from the 70s but Dr. Z has continued to contribute paradigm shifting research and theory since then.

He presented a theory called the “Lucifer Effect” which is essentially how good regular people (which for all intents and purposes is virtually every human being) end up doing horrific and evil deeds. He defines evil as the exercise of power to harm others psychologically, hurt them physically, destroy them mortally, or to commit crimes against humanity.

In my line of work, partners of addicts often ask, “How could he do this to me?” “Does he have no soul?” “Is he just evil?” “Is he a sociopath?”

How does a good, loving, considerate man chronically and consistently choose infidelity over faithfulness? How does a good person threaten their job by acting out at work? How does a good person risk losing everything that is meaningful to them just for a momentary state of bliss?

I’ve spent a lot of time with these men and I can tell you that they are good, honourable people. We typically want to investigate a person’s disposition or in other words, try and discover what he has inside of him that would allow him to act out of his normal morality; what makes him a bad apple. Maybe he has more testosterone? Doubt it. Maybe his neuropathways are abnormal? Quite possibly, but how did they get that way? Maybe his prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that makes rational decisions, is damaged? We’ve seen that but is that the only reason for his behaviour?

 The social sciences would take a broader approach and look at the situation in which he finds himself. Maybe there is a bad barrel. Maybe he was abused. Maybe he was exposed to pornography at a young age. Maybe his family of origin shamed him into isolation. Maybe he was bullied at school and never felt good enough, athletic enough, or good looking enough. Maybe his work is stressful and he has a difficult time coping without acting out sexually.

The picture starts to come into focus.

But what if there is a greater force at play here. A systemic disease that makes bad barrels. Cultural, political, economic, societal, religious, and educational forces that create situations that influence ‘at risk’ individuals to use power in a destructive way?

Why did Walter White start cooking meth to begin with? What were his reasons to continue even after he had multiple opportunities to stop? What situational forces guided him back to his addiction? What systemic factors created those situations? No spoilers of course.

We live in a society that hyper-sexualizes girls and women and then calls them sluts when they respond the way we want them to. Girls learn very quickly that if they aren’t “f***-able” then they will be invisible.

Our media is borderline pornographic at all hours of the day yet it’s inappropriate to have our kids talk about sex at school and many times even in the home. We simultaneously glorify and condemn sexuality.

What is the systemic paradigm shift that needs to happen so that when men act out sexually we don’t just say “boys will be boys” while when women do it we call them names and bully them to the point of suicide? What cultural changes are needed to stop good, honourable men from using and abusing sex in a way that victimizes others and jeopardizes their own well-being?