Zimbardo explains the 'psychology of evil'

Drawing on examples from history, his studies, and recent world events, Stanford psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo spoke to a captive audience Tuesday night on the situational forces that can compel an average person to perpetrate evil.

Zimbardo, the president of the American Psychological Association and one of the most recognized names in his field, spoke fervently about scare tactics, coercion, conformity, and terrorism _ emphasizing that social conditions, not personal disposition, dictate when a person will commit an act of aggression.

He repeatedly touched on the human susceptibility to influence and the ease of reframing circumstances as a means of persuasion. "The human mind, which has the infinite capacity for perfection, has also the infinite capability for perversion," Zimbardo said.

Citing terrorism as a result of situational influences on otherwise normal people, Zimbardo reasoned that a terrorist's lack of identity is an intentional scare tactic. "The worst thing about terrorism now is that it's faceless," he said. "What we really want is to put a face on evil."

Identifying someone as the source of evil, Zimbardo said, is a psychological tool used to bring a nation to war. "In the last few months with systematic propaganda, we have been shaped to hate Saddam Hussein."

Zimbardo, a charismatic speaker with an eccentric goatee, used a collection of slides to illustrate vivid concepts and frequently made the audience participate in his presentation.

At one point during the lecture, Zimbardo tried to recruit audience members to an eight-person "mobile killing squad" using the principle of diffusion of responsibility. Only one of the eight, he said, would be firing real bullets. Throughout his talk, the enthusiastic professor gave similar examples of psychological effects such as team pressure, commitment, and anonymity. "We don't know how to disobey authority [or] exit situations that are painful to us," he said.

Zimbardo rose to celebrity status after his Stanford prison experiment was conducted in the late 1970s. The study assigned male college students to be a "guard" or "prisoner," roles that were quickly taken to heart when the participants were placed in a prison-like environment. Only three days into the week-long experiment, it had to be terminated because several participants suffered emotional breakdowns.

The professor expressed regret for the adverse affects of the study. "I was getting trapped in my role as caretaker of my prison," he said. "Not caretaker of my experiment." Zimbardo also stressed, however, that studies on those who resist situational forces _ people he referred to as "heroes" _ cannot be conducted today because of stricter ethical procedures. "We don't know anything about the psychology of heroism," he said.

Throughout his speech Zimbardo used historical examples to illustrate his ideas. He told the Biblical story of Lucifer's fall from grace, joking that, "if the best angel could become the devil, you're a piece of cake."

Zimbardo deconstructed events such as the Holocaust, the Jonestown mass suicide, and the lynching of blacks in the South, demonstrating how the simplest concepts can lead to genocide. "All evil begins with an ideology _ a cover story," he said. "Simply labeling someone the enemy... in the real world, that's enough to get friends to kill other friends."

Despite grim examples of the human susceptibility to evil, the professor maintained that situational influences, rather than personality, are the factors that encourage violent activity. "These are ordinary people," he said. "We just have to change a set of social psychological variables" to avoid violence and aggression.

For better or worse, Zimbardo said, "we're all born with a brain, and that brain is infinitely malleable."

The reaction to Zimbardo's words was predominantly positive. "It was an excellent chance for our students to see the relevance of social psychological laboratory studies to real life events," said Psychology Professor Sinaia Nathanson, who helped bring Zimbardo to Tufts. "In light of recent world events, with so many people preoccupied with attributing blame to one group or another, Professor Zimbardo's lecture inspired us to gain a broader perspective."

Nathanson, a specialist in conflict and negotiation, reportedly got Zimbardo to agree to lecture at Tufts during negotiations to purchase his textbook, Psychology and Life, for the introductory psychology course.

More than 250 students came to hear Zimbardo speak, filling Pearson 104 to its capacity and forcing some people to sit on the floor.

"He was a dynamic speaker," said Rebecca Erban, a senior majoring in psychology. "His application of his own experiments to present day circumstances with suicide bombers was interesting."

Zimbardo, a Stanford professor since 1968, has published over 250 professional articles and more than 20 books. He created, wrote, and narrated the PBS series "Discovering Psychology", and is the recipient several awards for psychology and teaching. Before his public lecture, Zimbardo spoke to students in introductory psychology classes on the topic of "perspectives."