Why Good People Do Bad Things

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

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

Conformity Changing behavior to match behaviors of others Asch’s line-judging study abc

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

Social Roles The Power of the Situation The Stanford Prison Experiment

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

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 Implicit Associations Test