What Makes Good People Do Bad Things?
What Makes Good People Do Bad Things
A lot of psychologists have tried to understand why normal people turn into evil-doers. There are many examples of this happening all over the world, such as Hitler and Jim Jones. Often these people were calm and nice people, but they turned into bad people for no reason. In this article, Mellisa Dittmann summarizes an address given by Philip Zimbardo and discusses some of the reasons why people do bad things.
Zimbardo cites three major influences on individuals who turn bad. These include dehumanizing others through language, developing a sense of anonymity and feeling in control of something. He argues that these factors can easily be manipulated to lead to people acting in evil ways. This theory can help us to better understand why we have so many different types of people in this world. In this way, it is important to know what makes a person act the way they do.
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