For years I've been interested in a fundamental question concerning what I call the psychology of evil: Why is it that good people do evil deeds? I've been interested in that question since I was a little kid. Growing up… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share
One can't live mindfully without being enmeshed in psychological processes that are around us. — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
When someone is anonymous, it opens the door to all kinds of antisocial behavior, as seen by the Ku Klux Klan. — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
It was God who created hell as a place to store evil. He didn't do a good job of keeping it there though. — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
That human behavior is more influenced by things outside of us than inside. The 'situation' is the external environment. The inner environment is genes,… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
The "Lucifer Effect" describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
The [Stanford Prison Experiment] was readily approved by the Human Subjects Research committee because it seemed like college kids playing cops and robbers, it was an experiment that anyone could quit at any time and minimal safeguards were in place. You must distinguish hind sight from fore sight, knowing what you know now after the study is quite different from… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share
A good cult delivers on its promises. A good cult nourishes the needs of its members, has transparency and integrity, and creates provisions for… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
We can assume that most people, most of the time, are moral creatures. But imagine that this morality is like a gearshift that at times gets pushed into neutral. When that happens, morality is disengaged. If the car happens to be on an incline, car and driver move precipitously downhill. It is then the nature of the circumstances that determines… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share
I'm saying to be a hero is means you step across the line and are willing to make a sacrifice, so heroes always are… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
Most of the evil of the world comes about not out of evil motives, but somebody saying 'get with the program, be a team… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
The first time I spoke publicly about the Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanley Milgram told me: "Your study is going to take all the ethical… — Philip Zimbardo Copy Share Image
