Why Good People Do Bad Things

1. Why Good People Do Bad Things

2. Thesis • The capacity for doing bad or even evil things can be explained (in part) by understanding social psychology • The capacity for bad is a general human capacity, not confined to just a small number of psychopaths • Recognizing this can help us discourage bad behavior and encourage good behavior

3. Fundamental Attributional Error • Tendency to attribute bad behaviors in someone else to their disposition (internal attribution) • Tendency to attribute our own bad behaviors to the situation (external attribution) • Bad behaviors are the result of both dispositional and situational factors, but the latter can be more easily controlled

4. Conformity • Changing behavior to match behaviors of others • Asch’s line-judging study a b c

5. Obedience • Tendency to follow orders from an authority figure • Milgram’s “shocking” study

6. Social Roles • The Power of the Situation • The Stanford Prison Experiment

7. Bystander Effect • Failure to give help when others are present • Diffusion of responsibility

8. Implicit Bias • Prejudice against other groups can be both explicit and implicit • Explicit biases are more easily identified and confronted • Implicit biases can affect our behavior (e.g., discrimination) without our awareness • Implicit Associations Test