Read "What makes good people do bad things?", by MELISSA DITTMANN
Which statement best supports Zimbardo’s belief that individuals aren’t inherently “good” or “evil”?
A. “‘Any of us can move across it... I argue that we all have the capacity for love and evil — to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein.’” ( Paragraph 3)
B. “In one condition, they overheard an assistant calling the other students ‘animals’ and in another condition, ‘nice.’” ( Paragraph 8)
C. “The same social psychological processes… that acted in the Stanford Prison Experiment were at play at Abu Ghraib, Zimbardo argued.” ( Paragraph 16)
D. “As such, the Abu Ghraib soldiers' mental state… may have further contributed to their ‘evil’ actions, he noted.” ( Paragraph 18)
Answer: A. “‘Any of us can move across it... I argue that we all have the capacity for love and evil — to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein.’” ( Paragraph 3)
Explanation:
Zimbardo posits that the distinction between good and evil is not fixed, suggesting no one is born strictly into either category. Rather, everyone has the potential to traverse this boundary, particularly when influenced by specific situations. For instance, the mindset of the soldiers, combined with insufficient oversight and accountability, was involved in the mistreatment of an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib.
