Gabriel Tordjman Issues in Bioethics
Winter 2013
Background and Questions on Zimbardo’s
“The Psychology of Evil” TED talk.
“The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being”
- Alexander Solzhenytsin
Philip Zimbardo (b, 1933) is an American psychologist and author of The Lucifer Effect which is about
how people become evil. He was involved in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment in which students
were asked to play the roles of prisoners and prison guards. The experiment had to be ended
prematurely when it was clear that it was damaging the students both psychologically and even
physically.
Zimbardo also had access to files and photographs about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in
which American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were photographed while torturing and
humiliating Iraqi prisoners after the Second Gulf War (2003). The story shocked many people when it
broke out in the USA but Zimbardo disputes the government’s view that this was all due to “a few bad
apples”. He claims instead that the whole system, including the top US leaders were to blame. For
Zimbardo it was not just “a few bad apples” but the ”barrel” and “barrel makers” that are mostly to
blame.
He does not believe that American soldiers (or anyone else) are evil to begin with but become
that way, just like Lucifer (i.e., the devil) was not born evil but became so, according to the legend he
recounts. He is equally interested in how people become good and tries to account for this in this video.
As you can tell, he is trying to cram in a lot of his finding in a short time! You may have to freeze and
rewind certain bits to get his key argument and his ideas.
Context, Background and Preparation for Discussion on Philip Zimbardo
You may need to have more background knowledge on the items below to fully understand
some of Zimbardo’s points. While most of this is explained in the video, Wiki for more info if
necessary.
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Philip Zimbardo – his work and interests.
The Stanley Milgram Experiment and its purpose.
The Stanford Prison Experiment and Zimbardo’s role in it.
The Second Gulf War.
The Abu Ghraib Prison scandal.
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Wesley Autrey.
Joseph Darby .
Main Question for discussion: How do ordinary people become evil?
Before we can answer this, we may need to answer these:
1. What is evil?
2. What does Z mean when he says the line between good and evil is “permeable”? (look up
permeable for starters!)
3. What is the “arc of cosmic transformation” and the “Lucifer Effect”?
4. What was the US government’s explanation for the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib?
5. What is Z’s response to the US government’s explanation?
6. What does Z mean by “bad apples”, “bad barrel” and “bad barrel-makers”?
Further questions:
7. How does Z believe we can combat evil?
8. Your own comments/critique about Z’s presentation?
NB: “Ted Talks” is a usually good source of information on hot topics covering everything from science
and technology to ethics to environment to ... you name it. I recommend you take a look at Ted Talks on
any topic that interests you.