Philip Zimbardo was the leader of the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment — and an expert witness at Abu Ghraib
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo has seen good people turn evil, and he thinks he knows why. Phillip will use this 3 minute video to illustrate his points that feature many previously unseen and disturbing photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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In March 2006, Salon.com published 279 photos and 19 videos from Abu Ghraib, one of the most extensive documentations to date of abuse in the notorious prison. Zimbardo claims, however, that many images in his video — which he obtained while serving as an expert witness for an Abu Ghraib defendant — have never before been published.
The Abu Ghraib prison made international headlines in 2004 when photographs of military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners were published around the world. Seven soldiers were convicted in courts martial and two, including Specialist Lynndie England, were sentenced to prison.
Zimbardo conducted a now-famous experiment at Stanford University in 1971, involving students who posed as prisoners and guards. Five days into the experiment, Zimbardo halted the study when the student guards began abusing the prisoners, forcing them to strip naked and simulate sex acts.
His book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, explores how a “perfect storm” of conditions can make ordinary people commit horrendous acts.
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Please watch this to understand how authoritarian abuse is created.
this is very interesting i think you guys would love this.
Great video discussing how decent people can do bad things.
He pretty much explains internet trolling right here (his point about
anonymity).
Illuminati explained in this video this shit is very crazy I watched it
last night it freaked me out I got goosebumps
The Psychology Of EVIL
I disagree with Zimbardo’s solution ( teaching ordinary people to become
potential benevolent heroes ).
a) First of all, those in power are viscerally against individuals who do
not obey authorities and are not conformists ( one of the requisites to
become an hero ). They would do everything to prevent or sabotage such
program.
b) Individuals have different combinations of genes for good and bad
instincts. It is predictable that such program, even if allowed, would not
work for a considerable amount of individuals.
c) The capitalist environment incites extreme selfishness, callousness,
obsession for power, dominance, manipulation and control. So, probably this
cultural environment would override most of the teachings in this program.
That is why a wide benign cultural engineering alone is improbable and
ineffective. Only an additional future genetic engineering of human
instincts could eliminate evil.
Philip Zimbardo: The psychology of evil