Ardent - Zimbardo

Question 1

*Evil as Situational and Dispositional

Answer 1

Dispositional Understanding of Evil - People are Born Evil

Situational Understanding - People are Made Evil

Question 2

*Tricks for Suspending your Moral Reasoning

Answer 2

How to do bad things (Rules for Moral Disengagement):

• Justify actions as honorable
• Displace or distance responsibility
• Minimize negative consequences
• Blame the victim (they deserve it)

Question 3

*Tricks to get Others to Suspend their Moral Reasoning

Answer 3

How to Make People Behave Badly:

• Contractual relationships
• Roles
• Rules
• Semantics/rhetoric
• Abdication of responsibility
• Baby steps toward evil
• Baby steps towards cruel authority
• High exit costs
• Make ends justify means

Question 4

*Tricks to make sure you don’t Suspend your Moral Reasoning

Answer 4

How to NOT do bad things (Resist Situational Evil):

• Admit your mistakes
• Don’t go on autopilot
• Take responsibility
• Assert your identity
• Respect just authority but rebel vs. unjust
• Value your independence
• Be frame-vigilant
• Check if you are rushing
• Don’t sacrifice rights for security
• Have courage in the face of unjust systems

Question 5

*Eichmann’s Defense:

Answer 5

Guilty, but not of that.

Major organizer of the holocaust (dealt with holocaust logistics).

Question 6

*Eichmann was normal… maybe to normal

Answer 6

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Question 7

“The Household Use of Kant by the Little Man”

Answer 7

Obedience to authority was good. Following his own heart was evil.

For Kant, every man was a legislator the moment he started to act. In Eichmanns “household use of Kant by the little man” all that remains is the command to go beyond obeying the letter of the law.

Eichmann distorted the imperative to read: Act as though your principles conformed to the will of the legislator