The Power of the Situation

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Chaney's a great example, because he does seem sometimes like the embodiment of pure evil. I'm sort of willing to give the same amount of moral blame and environmental defence to most people. And it may be the fact that chaney didn't have any heroin waiting training when he was a kid either. Wewtan thar'll be a funny skita child. ia, well, so longs yo raptis.

After discussing some listener feedback about the movie Swingers, Tamler and David talk about two classic experiments in social psychology: the Milgram Experiments and the Zimbardo Prison experiment. They discuss the power of the situation, its influence on recent philosophy, and whether there is room given the evidence to believe in moral character and virtue. Also, Tamler admits to his former struggles with hard core street drugs, and Dave ponders which prison gang would be most accepting if he had to serve hard time.

Links

"Swingers," Directed by Jon Favreau [metacritic.com]

The Milgram Experiment [Wikipedia.org]

Video clip of a replication of the Milgram Experiment [youtube.com]

The Stanford Prison Experiment [Wikipedia.org]

Short video on Stanford Prison Experiment [youtube.com]

Asch Conformity Experiment [youtube.com]

Jon Doris "Lack of Character" [amazon.com]

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