Philip Zimbardo Quotes - Page 2

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• Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Powerful, Hero, Variables

  14 Copy quote

• Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving protective shields allow us to believe that each of us is above average on any test of self-integrity. Too often we look to the stars through the thick lens of personal invulnerability when we should also look down to the slippery slope beneath our feet.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Stars, Integrity, Believe

  26 Copy quote

• ... In contrast to the "banality of evil," which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the "banality of heroism," which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Powerful, Hero, People

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• We can assume that most people, most of the time, are moral creatures. But imagine that this morality is like a gearshift that at times gets pushed into neutral. When that happens, morality is disengaged. If the car happens to be on an incline, car and driver move precipitously downhill. It is then the nature of the circumstances that determines outcomes, not the driver's skills or intentions.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Moving, Skills, People

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• We want to believe we are good, we are different, we are better, or we are superior. But this body of social-psychological research--and there are obviously many more experiments in addition to mine and Milgram's--shows that the majority of good, ordinary, normal people can be easily seduced, tempted, or initiated into behaving in ways that they say they never would. In 30 minutes we got them stepping across that line.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Believe, People, Research

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• What happens when good people are put into an evil place? Do they triumph or does the situation dominate their past history and morality?

  Philip Zimbardo

  Past, People, Evil

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• It was God who created hell as a place to store evil. He didn't do a good job of keeping it there though.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Jobs, Evil, Hell

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• The world is, was, will always be filled with good and evil, because good and evil is the yin and yang of the human condition.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Evil, Yang, World

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• Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Time, Powerful, Past

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• Our sense of identity is in large measure conferred on us by others in the ways they treat or mistreat us, recognize or ignore us, praise us or punish us. Some people make us timid and shy; others elicit our sex appeal and dominance. In some groups we are made leaders, while in others we are reduced to being followers. We come to live up to or down to the expectations others have of us.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Sex, People, Expectations

  Philip Zimbardo (2011). “The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil”, p.321, Random House

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• I've always been curious about the psychology of the person behind the mask. When someone is anonymous, it opens the door to all kinds of antisocial behavior, as seen by the Ku Klux Klan.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Ku Klux Klan, Doors, Psychology

  14 Copy quote

• Human behavior is incredibly pliable, plastic.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Behavior, Plastic, Social Psychology

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• We like to think there is this core of human nature – that good people can't do bad things, and that good people will dominate over bad situations. Infact, when we look at the Stanford prison studies, that we put good people in an evil place, and we saw who won. Well, the sad message in this, is in this case is the evil place won over the good people.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Thinking, People, Evil

  14 Copy quote

• The line between good and evil is movable and it's permeable.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Evil, Lines, Good And Evil

  7 Copy quote

• I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

  Philip Zimbardo

  Smart, Hero, Unusual Things

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

  32 Copy quote

• Boys' brains are being digitally rewired for change, novelty, excitement and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, interactively passive.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Motivation, Inspiration, Mean

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• Time matters because we are finite, because time is the medium in which we live our lives.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Matter, Mediums, Finite

  Philip Zimbardo, John Boyd (2008). “The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

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• What troubles me is the Internet and the electronic technology revolution. Shyness is fueled in part by so many people spending huge amounts of time alone, isolated on e-mail, in chat rooms, which reduces their face-to-face contact with other people.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Technology, People, Faces

  36 Copy quote

• You are not the same person working alone as you are in a group; in a romantic setting versus an educational one; when you are with close friends or in an anonymous crowd; or when you are traveling abroad as when at home base.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Educational, Home, Working Alone

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• Coming from New York, I know that if you go by a delicatessen, and you put a sweet cucumber in the vinegar barrel, the cucumber might say, "No, I want to retain my sweetness." But it's hopeless. The barrel will turn the sweet cucumber into a pickle. You can't be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Sweet, New York, Want

  30 Copy quote

• That human behavior is more influenced by things outside of us than inside. The situation is the external environment. The inner environment is genes, moral history, religious training.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Religious, Training, Moral

  8 Copy quote

• I've always been curious about the psychology of the person behind the mask.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Psychology, Mask, Curious

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• The Stanford prison experiment came out of class exercises in which I encouraged students to understand the dynamics of prison life.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Life, Exercise, Class

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

  8 Copy quote

• While no one can change events that occurred in the past, everyone can change attitudes and beliefs about them.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Attitude, Past, Events

  Philip Zimbardo, John Boyd (2008). “The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• Whoever has the power to label others as evil is automatically, or reflexively, the good person. Good people label bad people as evil. And once you do that, then it demonizes them. You don't negotiate with evil. You don't sit down at the table with the devil and say, "Okay, let's work this out." What you want to do is destroy evil. Every Catholic kid every night says, or should say, "Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil." And so you've got to go to God to help you deal with evil rather than your State Department or your negotiators.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Kids, Night, People

  9 Copy quote

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