We want to believe we are good, we are different, we are better, or we are superior. But this body of social-psychological research--and there are obviously many more experiments in addition to mine and Milgram's--shows that the majority of good, ordinary, normal people can be easily seduced, tempted, or initiated into behaving in ways that they say they never would. In 30 minutes we got them stepping across that line.

Philip Zimbardo

Categorized in : People Believe Research

We all like to think that the line between good and evil is impermeable--that people who do terrible things, such as commit murder, treason, or kidnapping, are on the evil side of this line, and the rest of us could never cross it. But the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram studies revealed the permeability of that line. Some people are on the good side only because situations have never coerced or seduced them to cross over.

Philip Zimbardo

evil people thinking

Heroes are Ordinary People whose social action is Extra-Ordinary/ who ACT when others are passive, who give up EGO-centrism for SOCIO-centrism.

Philip Zimbardo

giving-up hero people

The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.

Philip Zimbardo

lines hero evil

If you want to change a person, you've got to change the situation.

Philip Zimbardo

situation persons want

If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.

Philip Zimbardo

social-psychology apples situation

I'm saying to be a hero it means you step accross the line and are willing to make a sacrifice, so heroes always are making a sacrifice. Heroes always take a risk. Heroes always deviant. Heroes always doing something that most people don't and we want to change - I want to democratise heroism to say any of us can be a hero.

Philip Zimbardo

sacrifice hero mean

I've always been curious about the psychology of the person behind the mask.

Philip Zimbardo

mask curious psychology

To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant — because you're always going against the conformity of the group.

Philip Zimbardo

conformity groups hero

The greatest gift that you can give to others and to yourself is time. Embrace the gift of time whether you give it or receive it.

Philip Zimbardo

gift-of-time embrace giving

Bullies may be the perpetrators of evil, but it is the evil of passivity of all those who know what is happening and never intervene that perpetuates such abuse.

Philip Zimbardo

passivity-is bully evil

What troubles me is the Internet and the electronic technology revolution. Shyness is fueled in part by so many people spending huge amounts of time alone, isolated on e-mail, in chat rooms, which reduces their face-to-face contact with other people.

Philip Zimbardo

technology faces people

Our time is brief, and it will pass no matter what we do. So let us have purpose in spending it. Let us spend it so that our time matters to each of us, and matters to all those whose lives we touch.

Philip Zimbardo

purpose matter time

Heroes are those who can somehow resist the power of the situation and act out of noble motives, or behave in ways that do not demean others when they easily can.

Philip Zimbardo

noble power hero

The world is, was, will always be filled with good and evil, because good and evil is the yin and yang of the human condition.

Philip Zimbardo

yang evil world

The "Lucifer Effect" describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action. It represents a transformation of human character that is significant in its consequences. Such transformations are more likely to occur in novel settings, in "total situations," where social situational forces are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm, or set aside temporally, personal attributes of morality, compassion, or sense of justice and fair play.

Philip Zimbardo

powerful compassion character

Coming from New York, I know that if you go by a delicatessen, and you put a sweet cucumber in the vinegar barrel, the cucumber might say, "No, I want to retain my sweetness." But it's hopeless. The barrel will turn the sweet cucumber into a pickle. You can't be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel.

Philip Zimbardo

new-york want sweet

Time matters because we are finite, because time is the medium in which we live our lives.

Philip Zimbardo

finite mediums matter

I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

Philip Zimbardo

unusual-things smart hero

Evil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.

Philip Zimbardo

knowing-better hero evil

Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often taken at face value. The persistent minority forces the others to process the relevant information more mindfully. Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.

Philip Zimbardo

thoughtful taken thinking