“Coming from New York, I know that if you go by a delicatessen, and you put a sweet cucumber in the vinegar barrel, the cucumber might say, "No, I want to retain my sweetness." But it's hopeless. The barrel will turn the sweet cucumber into a pickle. You can't be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel.” IfsKnowsWantMightTurnsEnvironmentNew YorkSweetHopelessSweetnessBarrelsVinegarPicklesCucumbers Author:Philip Zimbardo
“Whoever has the power to label others as evil is automatically, or reflexively, the good person. Good people label bad people as evil. And once you do that, then it demonizes them. You don't negotiate with evil. You don't sit down at the table with the devil and say, "Okay, let's work this out." What you want to do is destroy evil. Every Catholic kid every night says, or should say, "Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil." And so you've got to go to God to help you deal with evil rather than your State Department or your negotiators.” PeopleWantShouldPersonsStatesHelpingKidsNightEvilDealsDevilOkayCatholicTablesWhat You WantTemptationLabelsDepartmentGood PeopleEvery NightGood PersonBad People Author:Philip Zimbardo
“Part of what we want to do with the Heroic Imagination Project is to get kids to think about what it means to be a hero. The most basic concept of a hero is socially constructed: It differs from culture to culture and changes over time. Think of Christopher Columbus. Until recently, he was a hero. Now he's a genocidal murderer! If he were alive today, he'd say, "What happened? I used to be a hero, and now people are throwing tomatoes at me!” PeopleIfsThinkingWantMeanKidsTodayUsedCultureImaginationAliveHappenedHeroProjectsConceptsUsed To BeThrowingHeroicMurdererLive For TodayTomatoesColumbusChanges Over Time Author:Philip Zimbardo
“If you want to change a person, you've got to change the situation.” IfsWantPersonsSituation Author:Philip Zimbardo
“We want to believe we are good, we are different, we are better, or we are superior. But this body of social-psychological research--and there are obviously many more experiments in addition to mine and Milgram's--shows that the majority of good, ordinary, normal people can be easily seduced, tempted, or initiated into behaving in ways that they say they never would. In 30 minutes we got them stepping across that line.” PeopleWayWantBelieveDifferentShowsBodySocialLinesMinutesMinesNormalResearchOrdinaryMajorityExperimentsSuperiorsPsychologicalTemptedPsychological Research Author:Philip Zimbardo
“We want to believe in the essential, unchanging goodness of people, in their power to resist external pressures, in their rational appraisal and then rejection of situational temptations. We invest human nature with God-like qualities, with moral and rational faculties that make us both just and wise. We simplify the complexity of human experience by erecting a seemingly impermeable boundary between Good and Evil.” PeopleWantBelieveHumansEvilQualityMoralWiseHuman NatureEssentialsGoodnessPressureBoundariesRationalTemptationRejectionComplexityGood And EvilFacultyHuman ExperienceSimplifyUnchangingAppraisalComplexity Of Human Author:Philip Zimbardo
“I'm saying to be a hero it means you step accross the line and are willing to make a sacrifice, so heroes always are making a sacrifice. Heroes always take a risk. Heroes always deviant. Heroes always doing something that most people don't and we want to change - I want to democratise heroism to say any of us can be a hero.” PeopleWantMeanLinesStepsRiskSacrificeWillingHeroHeroismDeviants Author:Philip Zimbardo
