Phillip Zambardo’s Lucifer Effect

people are either good or evil

is a continuum, and people can perform acts anywhere along this continuum

People will favor dispositional causes when judging others' behavior, but Situational causes when judging their own behavior

The inner personality traits that influence a person's behavior

The contextual influences on an individual's behavior

The societal power-structures that shape and influence the situations in which individuals find themselves

the societal power-structures that shape and influence the situations in which individuals find themselves

American Social-psychologist

The idea that many Germans had a shared personality trait that predisposed them to blind obedience to authority

Action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc

The process of depriving someone of personhood

Information ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

mental state that occurs any time there is a discrepancy between our behavior and our beliefs

the process of transformation at work when good people do bad things

An unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive dissonance. It allows conflicting ideas and behaviors to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate self states

A term for the process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to oneself in a particular context, by separating moral reactions from inhumane conduct by disabling the mechanism of self-condemnation

the loss of a person's sense of individuality and personal responsibility

a state of being in which a person "lacks a name" and/or an identity

Idea that the more people who are witness to something, the less compelled each feels to do something about it

Describes the individual's own internal agency regarding his/her behavior

The fact that once one individual stands up to group norms, others who are "on the fence" will follow, sometimes forming a critical mass for change

Zimbardo's idea that we are all heroes in waiting. That heroism is the small act or the big act performed by the small person, rather than the big acts performed by big people like Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.