A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil
Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators
Philip G Zimbardo
Vocabulary:
Situationist behavioral perspective: Theory which says that a person’s actions
are dependent on and influenced by situation, not necessarily inherent traits.
Dispositional behavioral perspective: Theory which says that a person’s actions
are dependent on and influenced by inherent personality/biological traits.
Antisocial: pervasive disregard for rights of others. Not “loner,” or “outcast.”
Paradigm: A pattern or model, exemplar.
Evil as defined by Zimbardo: “Intentionally behaving, or causing others to act, in
ways that demean dehumanize, harm, destroy, or kill innocent people…excluding
accidental or unintended harmful outcomes.” (22)
Notes:
Introduction. (21)
 Be clear on definition of antisocial behavior.(21)
 “Evil” comes from situational (environmental/”nurture”) factors, not
dispositional(genetic, “nature”)
 “The basic paradigm presented in this chapter illustrates the relative ease
with which ordinary, ‘good’ men and women can be induced into behaving
in “evil” ways by turning on or off one or another social situational
variable.” (22)
 Be clear on Zimbardo’s definition of Evil. (22) (listed above)
Skip “Locating Evil Within Particular People: The Rush to the Dispositional.”
“The Transformation of Good People into Agents of Destruction.”(25)
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Zimbardo’s background/ethos of article:
o background in experimental social psychology
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grew up in poverty in Bronx
 “I believe that dispositional orientations are more likely to correlate with
affluence: The rich want to take full credit for their success, whereas the
situationists hail more from the lower classes who want to explain the
obvious dysfunctional lifestyles of those around them in terms of external
circumstances rather than internal failures.” (Zimbardo, 25) Zimbardo
argues here that the rich tend to be situationists and the poor tend to be
 Interesting analogy: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (26)
 Zimbardo’s intention/mission: “To understand better how virtually anyone
could be recruited to engage in evil deeds that deprive other human beings of
their dignity, humanity, and life.” (26)
 “The dispositional analysis has the comforting side effect of enabling those
who have not yet done wrong to righteously assert, ‘Not me, I am different
from those kinds of people who did that evil deed!’ By positing a ‘me—us—
them’ distinction, we live with the illusion that comes from not recognizing
the set of situational and structural circumstances that e m powered others—
like ourselves—to engage in deeds that they too often thought were alien to
their nature. We take false pride in believing that ‘I am not that kind of
person.’” (26)
o Essentially, our pride in the fact that we haven’t done something evil
is false and leads to a false dichotomy/dualism (us vs. them)
 “I argue that the human mind is so marvelous that it can adapt to virtually
any known environmental circumstance in order to survive, to create, and to
destroy, as necessary. We are not born with tendencies toward good of evil
but with mental templates to do either.” (26)
“The Milgram Obedience Experiments.” (26)
 Two thirds of people went all the way (450 volts) in the baseline.
 18 experimental variations.
 Compliance rate of the maximum 450 volts could reach as high as 90% and
as low as 10% based on a single variable.
 Mob mentality: “Obedience is maximized when subjects first observed peers
behaving obediently; it was dramatically reduced when peers rebelled” (27)
 OR when the victim asked to be shocked.
 Perception of scientists was way off from reality of situation. (they thought
fewer than 1% would give the maximum voltage.
 FAE: Fundamental Attribution Error—overemphasizing internal causes for
actions, and downplaying social causes.
 More information on set up in Zimbardo’s TED talk.
“Ten Ingredients in the Situationist’s Recipe for Behavioral Transformations.” (27)
1. Presenting an acceptable justification, or rationale, such as wanting to help
people improve. This justification is known as a “cover story.”
2. Arranging a contractual obligation, verbal or written, to enact the behavior.
In other words, making a contract which requires the action.
3. Giving participants roles to play (e.g., teacher-student, guard-prisoner)
which have ‘scripts’ they are already aware of.
4. Presenting basic rules which make sense before their application. “All too
many participants stopped engaging in such basic, obvious critical thinking
endeavors as their confusion and stress mounted.” (28)
5. Altering the semantics. Instead of hurting victims, the participant is helping
learners.
6. Creating opportunities for diffusion of responsibility for negative outcomes.
In other words, making someone else to blame for anything bad that
happens.
7. Starting with something very small and insignificant. In the Milgram
experiment, this is starting with only 15 volts.
8. Increasing the level of aggression gradually. In the Milgram experiment,
they increased the voltage by only 30 volts at a time.
9. Gradually changing the nature of the influence authority from “just” to
“unjust,” from reasonable and rational to unreasonable and irrational.
10. Making the “exit costs” high, and the process of exiting difficult.
Skip “Lord of the Flies and the Psychology of Deindividuation,” “Halloween Disguises and
Aggression in Children,” and “Cultural Wisdom of Changing Warriors’ Appearances,” but read
them if you are interested! They are good!
Skip “The Theoretical...Disengagement”
“Dehumanization in Action: ‘Animals’ by Any Other Name Are College Students.” (31)
 Experimental background:
o Four participants were led to believe that they were overhearing the
research assistant tell the experimenter about the students.
o In one of the groups, the participants overheard the assistant say that
the students seemed “nice.”
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o In the second group, the participants overheard the assistant describe
the students as “animals.”
o In the third group, the assistant did not label the students.
The intensity of the shock reflected the situation. The highest levels of
shock was used on those labeled as “animals.”
The least intense shock was given to those labeled “nice.”
The unlabeled group was in the middle.
Look at Zimbardo’s use of the word “intelligent” on page 32. Is this as
manipulative as the experiment? Are there unintelligent college students?
The participants shocked more aggressively over time. They began to even
get pleasure shocking the “animals.”
Difference from Milgram experiment: In Milgram experiment, there is a
clear authority figure. In this experiment, the opportunity is made available
to the participants, but they are not directly, explicitly, instructed to.
Skip “Environmental Anonymity Breeds Vandalism”
“The Faces Of The ‘Enemy’: Propaganda Images Condition Us To Kill Abstractions.” (34)
 This section focuses on the ways in which people are conditioned to hate and
kill the enemy.
 Relates to ALWG? Definitely to our knowledge of the Holocaust.
 Films Faces of the Enemy and The Art of Enemy Making by Sam Keen,
about the use of propaganda to change national perceptions.
 “The more we see the opposite side as unredeemably evil, the more we do
evil in order to combat them.” ( Keen)
Supplemental:
 Keen video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bryXdyv8lOA
 Blue eyed children vs. Brown Eyed Children
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
“Ordinary Men Murder Ordinary Men, Women, and Children: Jewish Enemies.”(34)
 “In March 1942, about 80% of all victims of the Holocaust were still alive.”
 “11 months later, about 80% were dead.”
 The soldiers recruited to carry out the “Final Solution” were different from
the required soldiers at the front.
 “Reserve Battalion 101 was a unit of about 500 men from Hamburg
Germany.”
 They were too old to be drafted, and were from working and lower middleclass families.
 Reserve Battalion 101 had no military or police experience.
 “In just 4 months they had shot to death at point blank range at least 38,000
Jews, and had deported another 45,000 to the concentration camp.” (35)
 They were given the opportunity to refuse to kill if they wanted.
 “At first about half the men refused…but over time, social modeling
processes [and] guilt-induced persuasion” led to the success rate moving to
90%.
 Noted that these men were “ordinary…until they were put into a situation in
which they had ‘official’ permission, even encouragement, to act sadistically
and brutishly against those arbitrarily labeled as ‘the enemy’” (35)
Skip “The War on Iraq: A Spurious Creation of Evil Terrorists and Infusion of National Fears.”
“The Socialization of Evil: How the ‘Nazi Hate Primers’ Prepared and Conditioned the
Minds of German Youth to Hate Jews.”(37)
 “Education/socialization enacted within school programs and supported by
parents and teachers” can lead ‘good’ people to do ‘evil.
 “German children in the 1930s and 1940s were systematically indoctrinated
to hate Jews, to view them as the all-purpose enemy of the new (post-World
War I) German nation. “ (37)
 “Knowledge is ruin to my young men.” Hitler (Zimbardo, 37)
 “This institutionalized evil was spread pervasively and insidiously through a
perverted educational system that turned away from the types of critical
thinking exercises that open students’ minds to new ideas and toward
thinking uncritically and close-mindedly about those targeted as the enemy
of the people.” (38)
Supplemental:
 Blue eyed vs Brown eyed
 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
“The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Crucible of Human Nature Where Good Boys
Encountered an Evil Place.” (38)
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1971- intended to be a two week period
Roles assigned- prisoner or guard
Prisoners lived in a simulated prison setting day and night.
Guards worked for 8-hour shifts
Participants had to be physically healthy and have no history of violence,
crime, or drug use.
Participants had no prior knowledge on norms for roles.
Dichotomous relationships: power—powerlessness, dominance—
submission, freedom—servitude, control—rebellion, identity—anonymity,
coersive rules—restrictive roles.
Uniforms, set construction, and props helped codify previous belief system.
No windows, no clocks, no names…(numbers)
Equal background checks for prisoners and guards.
Terminated after 6 days
“Pacifistic young men were behaving sadistically in their role as guards,
inflicting humiliation and pain and suffering on other young men who had
the inferior status of prisoner. Some ‘guards’ evn reported enjoying doing
so. Many of the intelligent, healthy college students who were occupying
the role of prisoner showed signs of ‘emotional breakdown’ so extreme that
five of them had to be removed from the experiment within the first week.”
(40)
Zimbardo also felt his roles change throughout the process
Supplemental:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc
 www.prisonexp.org
Skip “The Failure of the Social Experiment of the U.S. Correctional System.”
“The Evil of Inaction.” (42)
 Nonaction can be a form of evil, when assistance, dissent, and disobedience
are needed.
 Kitty Genovese case: 39 people heard murdered did nothing to help.
 “People are less likely to help when they are in a group, when they perceive
that others are available who could help, than when those people are alone.
The presence of others diffuses the sense of personal responsibility of any
individual” (Zimbardo, 42)
 90% of people in a hurry are unlikely to help you if you are in
distress…EVEN WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO WOULD HELP ARE
GOING TO DELIVER A TALK ON HELPING PEOPLE!!!!
Skip “The Worst of the apples in the evil barrel: Torturers and Executioners?” and “Suicide
Bombers: Senseless Fanatics or Martyrs for a Cause?”
“Conclusions.” (46)
 Situations exert more influence than most people—civilians and
professionals—give them credit for.
 However, most contemporary Anglo-American psychology is based on more
dispositional factors.
 Metaphor: “While a few bad apples might spoil the barrel (filled with good
fruit/people), a barrel filled with vinegar will always transform sweet
cucumbers into sour pickles—regardless of the best intentions, resilience,
and genetic nature of those cucumbers.” (47)
 Don’t immediately embracing the high moral ground that distances us good
folks from those bad ones.
 Instead, understand that any deed, for good or evil, that any human being has
ever performed or committed, you and I could also perform or commit—
given the same situational forces.” (Zimbardo, 48)
All supplemental materials, both listed above and not:
 “The Art of Enemy Making” by Keen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bryXdyv8lOA
 Frontline: A Class Divided
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
 Zimbardo Prison Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc
 Stanford Prison Experiment Official Site
www.prisonexp.org
 Zimbardo Ted Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil
 Bullying Bystander Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EisZTB4ZQxY