213. What Is Evil?

What makes normal people do terrible things? Are there really bad apples — or just bad barrels? And how should you deal with a nefarious next-door neighbor?

 

SOURCES:Jonathan Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business.Christina Maslach, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.Stanley Milgram, 20th century professor of psychology at Yale University.Edward R. Murrow, 20th century American broadcast journalist and war correspondent.Alexander Pope, 17-18th century English poet.Adrian Raine, professor of criminology, psychiatry, and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.Oskar Schindler, 20th century German businessman.Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University.

 

RESOURCES:"Mental Illness and Violence: Debunking Myths, Addressing Realities," by Tori DeAngelis (Monitor on Psychology, 2021)."Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment," by Thibault Le Texier (American Psychologist, 2019)."How 'Evil' Became a Conservative Buzzword," by Emma Green (The Atlantic, 2017)."The Double-Edged Sword: Does Biomechanism Increase or Decrease Judges' Sentencing of Psychopaths?" by Lisa G. Aspinwall, Teneille R. Brown, and James Tabery (Science, 2012)."The Psychology of Evil," by Philip Zimbardo (TED Talk, 2008).The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, by Philip Zimbardo (2007)."When Morality Opposes Justice: Conservatives Have Moral Intuitions that Liberals may not Recognize," by Jonathan Haidt and Jesse Graham (Social Justice Research, 2007)."Abu Ghraib Whistleblower Speaks Out," by Michele Norris (All Things Considered, 2006).Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, by Stanley Milgram (1974).

 

EXTRAS:"Does Free Will Exist, and Does It Matter?" by No Stupid Questions (2024)."Are You Suffering From Burnout?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)."Essay on Man, Epistle II," poem by Alexander Pope (1733).