We all like to think that the line between good and evil is impermeable--that people who do terrible things, such as commit murder, treason, or kidna….

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

Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can kill you..

The Devil's strategy for our times is to trivialize human existence and isolate us from one another while creating the delusion that the reasons are ….

Human behavior is incredibly pliable, plastic..

Boys' brains are being digitally rewired for change, novelty, excitement and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional ….

The [Stanford Prison Experiment] was readily approved by the Human Subjects Research committee because it seemed like college kids playing cops and r….

There was zero time for reflection. We had to feed the prisoners three meals a day, deal with the prisoner breakdowns, deal with their parents, run a….

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

To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant — because you're always going against the conformity of the group..

The "Lucifer Effect" describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evi….

Societal expectations matter little; personal expectations matter tremendously..

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 i….

My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a very poor family. From Sicilian origin, I was the ….

If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples..

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 ….

Prejudice and discrimination have always been a big part of my life. When I was 6, I got beat up and called dirty Jew boy because they thought I look….

The level of shyness has gone up dramatically in the last decade. I think shyness is an index of social pathology rather than a pathology of the indi….

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 ….

At North Hollywood High School, I was shunned by everyone. I would sit down in the cafeteria, and students would get up from the table and walk away.….

When I look back on it, I think, "Why didn't you stop the cruelty earlier?" To stand back was contrary to my upbringing and nature. When I stood back….