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The psychology of evil | Philip Zimbardo

TED · talk · Watch on YouTube

Psychology & human behaviorPhilosophy & ethics

What it is

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo explains how ordinary people can be pushed into doing evil by situations and systems. He draws on the Stanford prison experiment and unseen Abu Ghraib photos, then turns to the opposite case: how ordinary people can become heroes.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it to argue that systems rather than bad apples drive cruelty, and for its section on how anonymity changes behavior.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2012, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “Here's Zimbardo's TED talk on what makes people do evil”

    Zimbardo argues systems, not bad apples, make people do evil.

    RyanMcGreal, 2012-06 · Recommendation · in “Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated by Citigroup Wins $31 Million”

  2. “If you're interested in the effects of anonymity to people, watch this part of Zimbardo's very interesting lecture”

    Shows how anonymity changes people's behavior.

    Rochus, 2023-08 · Recommendation · in “In Defense of Programming Languages”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: zimbardo, stanford prison experiment, abu ghraib, anonymity, situationism, ted

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