Thread: Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil

Everyone should watch this (and the question/answer portion at the end).

Video

Social psychologist Philip Zimbardo offers an overview of the psychology of evil and his experience studying the phenomenon. Zimbardo defines evil as the exercise of power to do harm, and describes how good people can become evil. Zimbardo suggests that they key to understanding evil is not necessarily in defining who is evil, but what is evil about a given situation. Evil is persuasive because of its process rather than its outcomes. Humans are fascinated by evil because it is a demonstration of power to control and dominate. Zimbardo contrasts this perspective to psychological phenomena including conformity, fundamental attribution errors, deindividuation, and dehumanization of victims. He draws examples from Milgram's classic conformity studies, Bandura's studies of anonymity and conformity, his own Stanford Prison Studies, and the more recent events at Abu Ghraib Prison. Zimbardo also discusses how to turn evil into good, and how individuals can become heroes.