Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil

[Oneironaut Zero]

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.

[Cyclic13]

[Oneironaut Zero]

Yeah, that was a cool little illusion that he had in his presentation. I've seen other 'Good/Evil' illusions, but I think that was the first time I actually saw that one.

[Tyler]

Damn. That's a long video.

[juroara]

im too lazy right now to watch the video, give me five minutes after I finish eating these m&ms I view everything as energy. and try not get to pissed off as I get my terms mixed up. we can describe the energy as neutral, positive and negative. or rather, we can see the energy on a scale. the highest and lowest vibration/frequency possible. what do we know about frequencies? what do we know about energy? we know a lot. were just idiots and haven't put the entire picture together. one, we know that energy can always and very easily go from positive to negative. we know frequencies interfere with each other, can cancel each other out, resonate together, or force one to conform to its own frequency. and we know if another frequency is too overbearing, it can literally shatter another! and more importantly, all life forms are resonating at their own frequency, our thoughts themselves are frequencies think of the glass battle shattering because of sound (frequency) can't the same happen to a fragile mind? what is good? what is evil? but simply our naive understanding of the living frequencies, and what frequency is expected of a being to reside in since a lot of that which we might call evil, we wouldn't call it evil if a lower life form had committed it. as a lower life form is residing in a different kind of frequency and we pretty much expected it to only care about itself. we have different expectations of the different frequencies and I know I'm going to confuse some people with this already the higher (up) the vibration (good) the lower (sound) the frequency. the lower(down) the vibration (less than good) the higher(sound) the frequency. so I'm really screwing up these words around this is what I mean http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...encies.svg.png this is why when people who want to reach a more enriched/holistic state of being meditate - which opens our minds to the higher vibration. as meditation places our minds in a lower frequency/higher state of mind. I realize I'm really butchering these terms, if you know the proper terms, please kindly correct me in short, I don't believe evil is a thing. or a person. or a being. its just a misalignment of what is the living frequency that living being is meant to live in

[Oneironaut Zero]

The word "Evil" is used in the lecture as a nod to the common use of the word, but is not meant to imply that 'Evil' is a sort of quantitative thing. The video is more about what conditions cause people to do those things they would most likely label as evil. It is about exercises in sociology, as it relates to past social experiments, the abuses at places like Abu Ghraib, and the War On Terror in general. The video may be long, sure, but you don't have to watch it all in one sitting, and it's well worth it, IMHO.

[Universal Mind]

I agree with the study, especially about conformity. It is amazing what people are willing to do just because the other people around them are doing it. I agree with the other claims also. There was an experiment done a while back that involved showing a group of people two lines in which one was clearly longer than the other one. Everybody except one person in each group was in on the experiment. The people who were not being tested knew to lie and say the shorter line was longer. After everybody except the person being tested said the shorter line was longer, it was the tested person's turn. Many of them right away said the shorter one was longer. If they said the longer one was longer, everybody would give the person strange looks and say stuff like, "What? Are you high or something?" In the vast majority of cases, the person being tested would end up saying the shorter line was longer. I think that phenomenon spills over into moral perspectives. I think what happened in Germany was that people kept saying, "What? Are you high or something? The Jews have got to go. What is wrong with you?" Eventually, most of the people working for Hitler were like, "Yeah, okay, I guess the Jews have got to go." I think the phenomenon demonstrated by the Milgrim Experiment compounded the other phenomenon a lot.

[Oneiro]

There was an experiment done a while back that involved showing a group of people two lines in which one was clearly longer than the other one. <SNIP> In the vast majority of cases, the person being tested would end up saying the shorter line was longer. I think that phenomenon spills over into moral perspectives. It's the "Emperor's new clothes" syndrome and it is rife in many human walks of life. EG: someone makes a statement that goes against the "norm".. person after person jumps on the bandwagon to criticise said person.. but.. Always remember.. it's the mavericks who make the breakthroughs.. not the sheep.

[Bonsay]

There was an experiment done a while back that involved showing a group of people two lines in which one was clearly longer than the other one. Everybody except one person in each group was in on the experiment. Asch conformity experiments. Always remember.. it's the mavericks who make the breakthroughs.. not the sheep. Sometimes. But sometimes it's the sheep who breaktrhough the mavericks' head. There is a reason the people in the Asch conformity experiments choose to follow the norm. It's natural to try to not to get excommunicated from your community, because a bear might eat you or worse.

[blackjack]

there was another experiment in russia where a man stood at the entrance to a building pretending he was in line. Person after person started to stand in line behind him just because they thought they were missing out and "everybody else was doing it". (if you know the name please tell me cause i cant for the life of me remember)

[slayer]

So it's a good thing that the angel's stood out for me and that it took me awhile tell that those other things were demons right?

[Universal Mind]

So it's a good thing that the angel's stood out for me and that it took me awhile tell that those other things were demons right? No, it means you are easily deceived by demons! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!! Just kidding. Demons are fiction.

[slayer]

Ok that scared the **** out of me... My page instantly scrolled down and that image didn't load, so when it scrolled down and I was reading the text, it popped up... Get rid of it please?

[Universal Mind]

Get rid of what?

[Arutad]

Tell me how can I see it? Is registration needed? I can see no link to download, and no button to start playing it live.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Tell me how can I see it? Is registration needed? I can see no link to download, and no button to start playing it live. The blue text that says "Video" is actually a link. Just click on that.

[Arutad]

But it isn't clickable... Is it the same word you speak about? Here, I attached a picture with it selected, please open it in a new window to see:

[Oneironaut Zero]

Oh, you mean on that page. It's supposed to just auto play. It does for me.

[Arutad]

Damn! Maybe missing some plugin then.

[DeathCell]

It's the "Emperor's new clothes" syndrome and it is rife in many human walks of life. EG: someone makes a statement that goes against the "norm".. person after person jumps on the bandwagon to criticise said person.. but.. Always remember.. it's the mavericks who make the breakthroughs.. not the sheep. Someone understands history!