Psychology of Evil

Video:
 http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html

This TED talk was about evil.  The talk was given by Philip Zimbardo who discussed how easy it is for nice people to turn evil.  He uses the examples of what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison and shares the results of his own 1971 Stanford Prison Study.  In both cases the people conformed to the roles they were in, causing them to make choices that aren't socially acceptable.  Zimbardo ends his talk by talking about how easy it is to be a hero, and how anyone can do it.

I found this TED talk very engaging.  Especially since Philip Zimbardo was giving the talk because he experienced this happen first hand.  It is crazy to think that people can conform to certain roles in society and act in certain ways to play out those roles.  You try and say to yourself that you would never do something like that, but how do you know for sure.  If you were in a situation like that of the prison study or the Iraqi prison you too may fall into the conformity of the situation at hand.

The Psychology of Evil. Prod. TED Talks. Perf. Philip Zimbardo. TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED  Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2008. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.