Analysis: “The Psychology of Evil” In this TED talk, Phillip Zimbardo brings to light how good people can become evil, and evil people can become good. After conducting a study where he placed normal, healthy college students into the positions of prisoners and guards, he discovered that some people are inherently prone to preform evil acts, and different situations or forms of power can bring this out. Since situations bring out either positive or negative traits in people, a bad situation can cause people to do unethical things. Zimbardo explains how a system or power controls a group, and in order for the situation to change, the system must change. Charles Manson and the Family exemplify Zimbardo’s ideas, because young, impressionable people were brought to do unspeakable things because of a charismatic power and tough situations. Charles Manson proved to be a charismatic leader who led his followers to commit heinous acts. In Manson: 40 Years Later, Linda Kasabian and other members of The Family talk about how their whole situation began. Manson took individuals who were young and vulnerable, and he brought them into an environment where they felt safe. He made them feel special by giving them certain tasks and complimenting them, which caused his followers to like and trust him. Because the Family consistently …show more content…
Groups today, such as gangs, lure impressionable people in by displaying charisma and promising to make their dreams come true. They gain the peoples’ trust, and then they instill fear in them. This creates a difficult situation because people fear they may lose their life if they leave the group. This helps explain why gang members commit such brutal crimes. Crimes and cults remain present, but Zimbardo and Manson provide people with knowledge behind the scenes of crime and how to stay away from
There is a common saying something good comes out of everything. But how could this possibly apply to everything. Well if you can’t see it on the surface then you have to look deeper. Charles Manson, if you are familiar with the name then you may have felt instant hate, sorrow, or interest. This man may have changed history, he turned up soil that had never been tread, he sent a fear though thousands of people that paralyzed them until the case was closed. In this story I challenge you to look at it from a different perspective and try to see the good from the bad. Charles Milles Maddox also known as wild-eyed Manson had an occupation of murder and was the leader of a cult but he was also an inspiration to many young adults in the early 60’s.
Zimbardo, Philip G. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.
It is surprisingly difficult to pinpoint the origin of street gangs. This may be because of the inherent nature of gangs: a group of individuals who come together for the same purpose and in the case of str...
Charles Mason, the leader of "The Manson Family" cult, is an ideal example of social deviancy. In Manson’s earlier years of life he engaged in many deviant acts/crimes; but, he’s infamous for being the leader of the cult responsible for the murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit these murders, which were carried out by members of “the family”. Tate, her unborn child, and four others were murdered on August 9, 1969 by four members of cult. The next night, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were killed in their home. Charles Manson was found guilty January 25, 1971 and was sentenced to death March 29, 1971. Before his sentence could be carried out, the death penalty was abolished in California, so he is now serving a life sentence. Charles Manson has been called the “most dangerous man” and the “devil”. Charles Manson was an icon in the late 1960’s and is still a very well-known person today.
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
For example, he shared with his followers his uncommon religious beliefs about the upcoming racial war that would result in an apocalypse. Manson hoped that murderous actions of his cult Family would hasten the end of the world. Most importantly, Charles Manson instilled two core philosophies in his followers. Firstly, he proclaimed that he was to be obeyed by every cult member. Secondly, the Manson Family was supposed to view themselves as the most special people on earth (Guinn
Charles Manson was an American cult leader whose followers carried out several notorious murders in the late 1960s (“Charles Manson”). Nobody would have known he was the leader of a cult which killed many. Manson's early life was a little harder than the average person. His mother left him at an early, age which made caused himself to be independent (“Interview :Mansion on Religion”). Manson’s twisted philosophies became someone's worst nightmare. A crazy, bizarre character was the reason all of these people were murdered.
As a population, mankind wants to believe there is a little good in all of us, but there is just as easily a little evil in all of us. No one would know better than Dr. Philip Zimbardo, of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Dr. Zimbardo is an accredited psychologist whose study is one of the most well known today. His main focus in the area of social psychology was on “what turns people bad?” This is also known as the Lucifer Effect. While the Lucifer Effect is known for turning good to evil, Zimbardo argues that it can work in both ways. Good turns to evil, and evil can turn to good. It is within the capacity of the human mind to take the path of evil, the path of inaction, or the path of the hero, but it is up for the person to decide.
Charming, persuasive, and intelligent are adjectives to describe the most notorious American criminal of the nineteen sixties: Charles Manson. Conversely, these are common traits seen among many criminals throughout the United States within modern society. The only difference being the era in which Manson used Helter Skelter to rule with fear over American households. Manson was only successful in his quest for fame because of the liberal turnabout during this time. Drugs and free love are the new main ideologies of the sixties that gave Manson ground to indoctrinate the American youth into his cult.
In the video Philip Zimbardo was talking about how evil was the exercise of power. First he went into the examples using American soldiers and how they abused prisoners during the Abu Ghraib Trials. He then went on to explain why the soldiers did this, what was the “Bad-Apples”, “Bad-Barrels”, and the “Bad-Barrel Makers”. He explained the Lucifer Effect, what makes us behave different (kind or cruel, villains or heroes, ect.). He showed an experiment where a dozen college students were given real-life prison examples and had to be stopped because most of the kids had emotional breakdowns. He explains how psychologist have attempted to understand why people act the way inhumanely in certain circumstances and explain
Morals are what distinguish humans from other animals. People are capable of understanding the complex network of emotions and relationships between each other and making choices that benefit themselves as well as others. However, the greatest phenomenon in human psychology is why people are also capable of doing bad things. We used to believe that some people are inherently bad. However, in recent history, the Zimbardo uncovered that in most cases, evil is "rarely . . . done by ‘bad apples' or rogues" (Aron). Philip Zimbardo's research reveals that good people are capable of doing bad things through conformity, blind obedience, and anonymity; these ideas can be proven by looking back at our history.
The second I looked over the syllabus and read the title of this book, several questions raced through my mind. First and Foremost, I had no doubts that this was going to be a page turner. I was briefly exposed to the Standard Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiment in my social psychology class early in my college career. I was excited to find out the nitty gritty details of both experiments throughout the book. I also could not help but wonder how unfortunate it was that society has come to a point where we actually have to begin to “understand” how a good person turned “evil.” Of course, I do not lead my life thinking that everyone I come in contact with is an outstanding citizen of society, but the fact that a need has come up to write a book about how to better understand that process and the several factors that play
After having a ground understanding of how situational forces can make people do immoral thing through conformity and obedience, the psychology of evil: The Lucifer effect can now be explained by Zimbardo’s famous study - Stanford Prison Study. Zimbardo and his team began the experiment by choosing twenty-four healthy male students from his college with no physical or mental disorders or illness, assigned twelve of them to play prisoners role, while the other twelve volunteers were randomly assigned the role of guards. The guards were dressed and provided with wooden batons, uniforms, whistle, and even sunglasses to avoid eye contact with prisoners. Meanwhile, the prisoners were dressed with ill-fitting smocks and stocking caps with chains under their ankles, just like real prisoners. These prisoners were treated like actual criminals and guards were told to do everything they could to maintain law and order in the prison to makes the inmates respect them.
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]
Many stereotypes of gangs have been fabricated. The problem is that a majority of gang members do not fit these stereotypes, which, in turn, makes it hard for the to be caught (Klein). Traditionally they organize their group around a specific neighborhood, school or housing projec...