Thursday, April 26, 2007
What makes people go wrong?
Guy Kawasaki asked author Phillip Zimbardo "What makes people go wrong?"
Part of his answer:
"They go wrong by doing nothing, by being guilty of the evil of inaction, doing what their mothers urged them—not to get involved, to “mind their own business,” and let bad [stuff] happen by looking the other way and holding their noses. Good people don’t rush in to do evil where angels fear to tread, instead they start by straying only a small way away from their moral center, and each successive step down is hardly different, barely noticeable, until it is too late and their behavior is shocking and may even be awesome of awful."
Dr. Zimbardo is the author of The Lucifer Effect, in which he describes in detail what happened in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment where seemingly good people ended up acting worse than anyone thought imaginable. Guy Kawasaki asked him ten questions and the entire interview is worth reading. There are a lot of interesting insights.
Part of his answer:
"They go wrong by doing nothing, by being guilty of the evil of inaction, doing what their mothers urged them—not to get involved, to “mind their own business,” and let bad [stuff] happen by looking the other way and holding their noses. Good people don’t rush in to do evil where angels fear to tread, instead they start by straying only a small way away from their moral center, and each successive step down is hardly different, barely noticeable, until it is too late and their behavior is shocking and may even be awesome of awful."
Dr. Zimbardo is the author of The Lucifer Effect, in which he describes in detail what happened in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment where seemingly good people ended up acting worse than anyone thought imaginable. Guy Kawasaki asked him ten questions and the entire interview is worth reading. There are a lot of interesting insights.
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