Philip Zimbardo, the renowned psychologist behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, explains how normal, essentially "good" people, can do horrific things if placed in an environment that gives them unsupervised power and the command harm others ("The psychology of evil", Feb 2008, www.ted.com). What Zimbardo is saying is that people are not the problem, the system is.
Dr . Zimbardo developed what he calls the "Lucifer Effect", a consequence of anonymity, diffusion of personal responsibility and the dehumanization of victims. He says that uniforms like the ones used by soldiers, or costumes / masks and body painting chosen by aboriginal tribes, create a sense of power based on the lack of individuality. He goes further by stating that people without any kind or uniform or characterization are much less likely to inflict harm on others.
Some examples are brought to the discussion: Abu Ghraib, the Holocaust and even the Stanford Experiment. An amazing amount of similarities can be found in those three events, in which blind obedience and an environment designed to nurture evil were the key behind the violent behavior observed.
At the end, the line separating good and evil is really thin and we can cross it at any time. It all depends on our choices but also on the situation we are put in by a system that looks the other way. It is not a story about "good and bad apples"; it is the basket that is rotten.
Link to article: http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html
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