Journey From the Psychology of Evil to the Psychology of Heroism

[0thepyat0]

Harm's justification, evil sees no ugliness. Evil-doers are, in their own and others' eyes, heroes. If you tell those indoctrinated into a good/bad guy framework to act heroically, you incite harm that has turned invisible because the victim is "bad." Owning that heroic actions in one sense are great harm in another requires a journey through cognitive dissonance that can easily undo a human being. People may never come out the other side of that. Yet no other journey on earth is more important.

[kevinyulas]

that was awesome! i can replace watching tv shows for such educative programming that add matter to life. thanks

[thegreeensky]

great lecture.. well done!

[adelle0001]

nice one! very informative

[agapitoflores001]

It is nice to hear words from professional Psychologists.. Very interesting..

[somethingfox]

This is a wonderful lecture i understood it perfectly

[TomFynn]

"...Bush is crazy, Cheney is crazy, Rumsfeld is crazy..."

Finally someone says it.

[Lolznator]

@TomFynn =| I don't think you quite got the point.

[flybybutterflies]

hi, I am a psych grad and I vlog about theories in psychology, do check out my channel! :)

[YtubeUserr]

He's implemented all the principles of 'people accepting abuse' explained in the video ON THE VIDEO ITSELF. People are accepting showing graphic pictures of sodomy and forced fellatio etc to university students is OK. The part where he trashes Rumsfeld is a dead giveaway. That would lull people into thinking 'ok, this guy know who the real bad guys are'

[goyavesETmangues]

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The question I have is : Since the line between GOOD and EVIL is blurry, how do a wannabe HERO knows whether he is doing GOOD or EVIL??

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I mean 9/11 bombers thought like many that they were heroes. And we should not forget how Martin Luther King was horrendously treated by Racist America. Today he is legend but during his stuggle he was considered the biggest threat to America's peace and stability

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[TrafficoneMan]

this man is a legend , he should be stodied in schools all around the world we all could learn so much from him

[R18111983]

Is it just me, or is the list at 38:02 an exact description of religion?

[stylianyt]

Wow the card @ 38:17 is excactly the same process as that of the army!!! So the army trains you to become evil... well makes sense as you are needed to commit atrocities.

[DTA711]

I watched the entire thing. Great.

[carsanookdotcom]

Excellent lecture. CC Closed captions would be great for all the non native English speakers.

Merci beaucoup

Dr John Carsanook

Bangkok

Kingdom of Thailand

[karolinnu]

I also want to thank the University. I am from Poland, I've dreamed of studying in Stanford... that will not happen, so at least I can listem to prof. Zimbardo's lecture. Thank you.

[newton2013]

Thanks for providing your videos to the public.

[TIMESTREAMER12]

good stuff

[uscdave1124]

wow its like you ad-libbed conspiracy theories....might want to put down the crack pipe and turn off Glen Beck.

[R18111983]

@uscdave1124 Not that I would advocate any particular conspiracy theory here, but to deny the existence of conspiracies alltogether is just as fallacious as to believe any random theory without evidence.

History is full of examples that leave us with a very clear picture: people, especially in power, do conspire if it helps to further their agendas.

As an infamous german politician once said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

[GBJ83]

i want to be like Wesley, he made me cry

[GBJ83]

i want to be a hero

[Burdell22000]

Isn´t Zimbardo wearing Travolta´s T-Shirt in Saturday Night Fever???

[hollybird54321]

i don't think i can get threw the torture. I'm completly discusted. I can't believe they would do the thumbs up. I feel awful. I wish i didn't see that. I'm soo hurt. How or why could anyone do that to another human. I open my heart to love always.

[ThisSentenceIsFalse]

@ BlueEyedCelt, well, the problem with thinking that evil is just a human construct (specifically Judeo-Christian???), or just semantics, or writing off 'evil' because it's ultimately natural, is trying to believe that when this 'natural' event is actually happening to you or the one's you love.

[ThisSentenceIsFalse]

Yes, morality is a generally a control medium, but our best moral teachers (Ghandi, MLK, Yeshua) caused social chaos (at first, anyway), albeit for good reasons.

[ThisSentenceIsFalse]

. So I think the constructionist argument and natural law arguments are only partially right, up to a certain extent. It's a sign that the argument is flawed somewhere if it leads one to write off too quickly very important areas of our historical and personal experience. Perhaps evil is not just (or only) a trick of semantics, but a little more complicated than that.

[mayabelldotcom]

I love this guy. He described what is evil so well.

[mayabelldotcom]

how about them kids grew up in apartments and homes being gased by the government doing experiments on them. the gases made them violent then made them lose their minds.

[CuriosusSum]

MC Escher is not a Swiss artist but a Dutch artist

[BlueEyedCelt]

Evil is a Judea-Christian construct that permeates a society as a control medium or moral compass if you will, there is ultimately natural law and everything else is well... just semantics.

[MASTERARTGOD]

there is no natural law nature has nothing it wont do

[ram26dc]

What is the word he says at- 18:37? Theo.....zation, what? Can someone tell me, please.

[allmightydouche]

"dehumanization".

[AlexFate101]

Most interesting indeed.

[zenbudhism]

I am not a psychology person . So it would seem then to remove most of the evil in the world you would have to prevent an evil enviroment for example having no way out of poverty

[mongolenpup]

Hmm...same thing happened at my school in beijing...Chinese and German students...German teachers interested in Chinese culture...so...of course they would automatically favour the chinese students and neglect the German...then the bullying and discrimination of the chinese students, by some german students started and the whole school went nuts...RACISM!!!:..kick these assholes out!..when in fact it was the teacher's doing.

[KaligulaExMachina]

Embrace Evil

[jisska19]

He is an absolute genius

[heartmycrackberry]

God bless youtube's new edu page!

[nhitam]

I'm a psychology teacher so was very happy to see a video of a GREAT Zimbardo lecture put on-line. This is an excellent overview of the study of evil and will be required viewing for my classes.

[Hania454]

So your suggesting that every psychology student and many other students in the western world have watched the entire video? I think you will find thats not the case hence my original comment.

[Hania454]

I agree. I think it says a lot about the education system in the western world. Anyone studying Psychology should have watched this. I'm sure there's more than 4000 Psychology students and graduates. It's scary. Thankyou Stanford for uploading this.

[majch]

Great lecture, it's a shame there's only ~ 4000 views

[biglmac]

No, it's a shame that not everyone watches the whole thing.

[dobe2049]

how do you know they don't watch the entire video?

[searching4knowledge]

How do we know people do not watch the entire thing. It is an hour long, with short attention spans, sadly most probably do not watch it all.

[sfdrey]

your comment has no merit and it makes a joke of your nickname

[Cardofta]

Very interesting lecture, I was delighted when I learned that some U.S universities were putting content online but it nearly threw me down my chair when I saw Zimbardo's name on a lecture video.

With this lecture, he gives us something to think about, and something that the "higher authorities" should take in consideration (concerning the systemic causes of evil).

Let's work towards becoming examples of good ourselves to inspire others so one day, the evil we witness today can be no more.

[brahud]

Many psychologists generally subscribe to 5 different approaches...psychoanalytical, behavioral, physiological, humanistic, or gestalt. Gestalt is one of the most developed. I think they are all correct (from their own relative perspectives)...a "psycho-relativistic perspective". Due to the differential aspects between individuals...biologically and situationally (env.)I am led to believe there is a huge challenge ahead in "heading off" [disorders] due to bio-environmental variability.

[biglmac]

Gestalt psychology is one of the most developed???

Gestalt is freaking old and considerably outdated. Why do you think universities don't teach it anymore?

Your "5 different approaches" are probably referring to psychotherapy, in which case physiological is not a major one. Regardless, I don't know how you can neglect to mention cognitive psychology as a main perspective. That one is probably second on my list.

[brahud]

Cognitive psychology (self-talk, thought paradigms, etc.) is only part of the answer as the other "approaches" are. They are all correct....that was my point. The bio-psychological perspective is the most intreaguing yet the technology lags. I believe it is the most difficult perspective to tackle but also holds the most promise.

[NeuroticTrash666]

Being an existentialist, I agree Fib

[fibonacciphipi]

we are in the presence of circumstance wether we become victims or utilizers of this fact is of our own doing, victim is an affirmation not an observable fact

[Sxxeybeast]

So it seems as if we are neither good or evil, yet victims of circumstance. Then again it is the difference between being influenced by your environment or influencing it. Thus it seems we are forced to define evil as a virus. Some are immune, but is there a cure for the rest of us? I guess you know you've given a great lecture when you raise more questions then you answer. Thank you Professor Zimbardo!

[brownmargarita]

Wonderful lecture.

[mjag1988]

Amazing lecture.

I really want to thanks the Stanford University for all their videos. I'm from Colombia and I have the possibility to see a psychology lecture from Professor Zimbardo in my computer miles away. Just amazing!