[saraid216]

There are valid criticisms of the SPE, but this isn't one of them. Zimbardo, in his work on heroism, later referenced exactly how he himself came to recognize the mistake: his fiancee came in, took one look, and was terrified by what she observed.

I don't know how your author managed to read The Lucifer Effect and miss that. The last page he quotes from is page 194. The book is a good 400 pages long. The "unreflective" echo that Zimbardo gives ends a chapter offering evidence.

He spends the next two chapters answering it.

He also wrote http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_banality_of... which Barker apparently either found unworthy of mention or never read.