Why ordinary people do evil ... or do good

[tomc1984]

Hi, wonder what made you come across this video, agree it is very interesting, I teach psychology and we often discuss Philip Zimbardo's work, he is a God in Psychology,he has done so much there is not a day goes by without mentioning his name, I had the honour of meeting him in Edinburgh a few weeks ago, in fact my students had a pint with him, what a nice guy he is and gave a great talk at the age of 75.

 

[tomc1984]

Yes, it is all based originally on the work of Stanley Milgram who got total strangers to give electirc shocks of 450 volts to people, or so they thought. He was wondering why the German Soldiers did such atrocities to the Jews in the Holocaust and wondered if the Germans were different and he found ordinary people can do terrible things to others in the name of obedience. You might want to look at his work, also a recent study by Reicher and Haslam recreated Zimbardo's prison study for the BBC, just search for them, they are on Youtube and on t'internet. Social Psychology is really fascinating.

 

[Akasya]

Hi, wonder what made you come across this video, agree it is very interesting, I teach psychology and we often discuss Philip Zimbardo's work, he is a God in Psychology,he has done so much there is not a day goes by without mentioning his name, I had the honour of meeting him in Edinburgh a few weeks ago, in fact my students had a pint with him, what a nice guy he is and gave a great talk at the age of 75.

Can you teach Psychology, can you explain Psychology, or is Psychology an art form where adherents kick each other up the arse, then pretend the human mind / psyche can order the bruises by which cheek they manifest themselves upon, and how many toes are dis accommodated ?

Always lost, Steve.