Why Good People Can Be So Evil Dan Rather

       Philip Zimbardo , in his research on why good people can turn out to be evil and vice versa , found that there are three main factors underlying it , namely :

1 . Disposition ( can be regarded as a person's innate personality )

2 . Situations ( certain situations can make people become evil or good )

3 . System ( political , economic , etc. which creates a situation experienced by the people )

Of these three , former psychology researcher is convinced that someone has evil nature because they did have a ' seed ' evil since birth . But Zimbardo found that this is not true . He found that the environment was a bigger factor in making a person becomes evil . In the 1970s , he experimented a big risk on the matter, namely " Stanford Prison Experiment " .

       In these experiments , he asked for volunteers willing to help play a role as a jailer and inmates for 2 full weeks . The study involved people who did not have a history of going to jail or commit any crime , it can be said that they are all good people . From the beginning of the study , they actually scripted as prisoners , ranging from being picked up at their homes with a police car and handcuffs from the police , to the rules in the simulated prison located in the basement of Stanford University . The first days of the study took place as expected , but in a few days after that , there are events beyond expectations . The guards began to act out the instructions on the grounds ' educate ' the prisoners are not disciplined , followed by a reaction against the prisoner . There's even one prisoner until tantrums and eventually must be removed from the study because of worry will find negative effects of the experiment . Due to continuous chaos occurs , the study concluded in just over a week .

       From these studies , Zimbardo drew the conclusion that environmental factors are factors that are very strong and dominant in changing someone from good to evil or vice versa                  ( discovery against the old theory that the disposition ( personality ) is the dominant person in changing a person's behavior . And of research , Zimbardo offers a solution , ie heroism or ' heroic ' to fight the abominable system and the resulting situation for the good of mankind.

     Heroism is not a hero in the sense that Superman or the things that baffle others . The definition of heroism is the heroism in the sense that dared to challenge the system that is bad and focus on solving a bad situation better by being a little ' devian ' or different from others . Zimbardo pointed out that in the case of Abu Ghraib prison , there is someone who dared to reveal the treatment of human guards are not there to the media , namely Joe Darby . He dared to bear the terror threats just to do ' what he should do ' . And that is what is called the Zimbardo heroism by which he poured in his book , " The Lucifer Effect.