GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan — Nearly 40 years ago, psychologist Philip Zimbardo turned the basement of a Stanford University building into a mock prison and watched it bring out the worst in people.
But now, the professor famous for his 1971 “Stanford Prison Experiment” is studying how to bring out people’s best — through a unique program being used in Genesee County schools.
The famed author of “The Lucifer Effect” is best known for his controversial prison simulation where students playing “guard” roles became sadistic while student “prisoners” became so emotionally traumatized that Zimbardo ended the project early after six days.
He’s spent years researching “evil” behavior but now Zimbardo is studying the opposite topic: What drives people to do good?
And the goal of his “Heroes Imagination Project” that is using Flint-area schools as a pilot is seemingly idealistic: To turn regular people into heroes.
“We know much about what makes ordinary people turn ‘evil’ ... but we know little about the opposite side of the coin, what makes ordinary people take heroic action,” Zimbardo wrote in an e-mail to The Journal.
“Our mission is to seed the earth with everyday heroes. We want to encourage youth, first in Flint, Michigan and then globally, to make a public commitment on line and in classes, to be a hero in waiting.”
Self-described “social entrepreneur” Matt Langdon is one of Zimbardo’s foot soldiers fighting the mission — visiting local schools in Grand Blanc, Mt. Morris, Fenton, Lapeer and others — to spread heroism.
Langdon’s t-shirt brandishing his business’s name says it all: The Hero Construction Company. His 45-minute sessions teach students how simple tasks such as standing up for people being bullied and being nice can be heroic.
His presentations, which include follow up visits and materials for teachers to use in classes, prompted sixth graders at Grand Blanc Middle West to launch a Haiti fundraiser and create a program to reduce student referrals.
Zimbardo hopes Langdon’s program will serve as a hero-making model.
“Matt Langdon’s classes celebrate what is best in human nature: the heroism of being one’s best self in service to humanity,” Zimbardo said. “His work is the first curriculum I know of that systematically explores the nature of heroism of everyday, ordinary people ... to making heroism more central in the thinking of students.”
He’s hoping to find the opposite results from what he saw in 1971 — that choosing to do something good over doing nothing is contagious.
Langdon, a former residential director at Camp Copneconic in Fenton Township, started presenting his hero program in local schools three years ago and recently shared his ideas with Zimbardo who wanted to study the results.
“Do you know any heroes?” Langdon recently asked a group of seventh graders at Grand Blanc Middle School West during one of his sessions.
Hands shot up with different answers: Superman. Soldiers. The president.
But Langdon pitched them another idea —that they were all on a hero’s journey themselves.
It’s OK to start small.
Opening the door for someone. Speaking up. Just being someone’s friend.
“I saw how easily kids could be influenced by one strong clear message,” said Langdon, an Australian native who lives in Brighton and regularly updates Zimbardo on his program. “Everyone can be heroes in their own stories. They don’t have to get stuck in a repeating story of what everyone around them is going through or what their parents went through.
“You can say its idealistic but all I’m asking them to do is do something good for someone else. I’m just encouraging them to take action rather than being a bystander.”
Much of Langdon’s program is rooted in Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero's Journey,” which studies heroes through time and the five steps each one makes.
Langdon leads a discussion about what a hero is.
It is the psychology in play that led Northwest passenger Jasper Schuringa to help prevent an alleged bomber from setting off an explosive device on Christmas day.
Or why construction worker Wesley Autrey famously leapt into the train tracks in New York in 2007 to rescue a man who had fallen in after a seizure.
The train was going too fast and Autrey covered himself over the man in between the two rails as five cars rolled over them just inches from his head — earning him his nickname "Subway Superman."
Langdon asks why the father made that split-second decision while others stood by — because the man’s mindset was one of a “hero in waiting.”
He even discusses Harry Potter’s “hero journey.”
“I used to think a hero was only someone who had dome something really phenomenal like Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln stopping slavery,” said Grand Blanc seventh grader Matthew McHenry, 12, after one of Langdon’s sessions. “But I learned how something so little like opening a door for someone could make a big difference.”
McHenry joined other classmates in standing up in front of the group and making specific pledges to be a “hero in waiting.”
Some promised to be nicer to their parents. To listen more. To be better friends.
Others vowed to stand up for someone being picked on or to be more tolerant.
At the end, they all get “hero” buttons to wear to remind them of their vows and what Langdon compares to putting on their superhero capes.
After one session, Grand Blanc sixth graders Andrew Robson and Tyler Butterfield were inspired to launch a program at their school to reduce discipline numbers.
The 12-year-olds started a contest that will award students without any deferrals or suspensions a pizza party at the end of the year.
“We’re hoping it will help the teachers, students and school,” Butterfield said.
The Hero Construction Project has reached more than 5,000 students and charges $250 per class. Many session are paid for by Parent Teacher Organizations and “character building” grants.
Groups such as Bucket Fillers Inc. and others have also offered character building programs in Michigan schools.
“They don’t use any tricks,” Grand Blanc Middle West Principal Jeffrey Neall said of the hero program. “It gives students the tools to reach within themselves and be their own hero.”