Philip Zimbardo Quotes

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Philip Zimbardo

Profession : Psychologist

Birth : March 23, 1933

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 alone, isolated on e-mail, in chat rooms, which reduces their face-to-face contact with other people.

Philip Zimbardo

A good cult delivers on its promises. A good cult nourishes the needs of its members, has transparency and integrity, and creates provisions for challenging its leadership openly. A good cult expands the freedoms and well-being of its members rather than limits them.

Philip Zimbardo

That human behavior is more influenced by things outside of us than inside. The 'situation' is the external environment. The inner environment is genes, moral history, religious training.

Philip Zimbardo

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

Philip Zimbardo

I'm saying to be a hero is means you step across the line and are willing to make a sacrifice, so heroes always are making a sacrifice. Heroes always take a risk. Heroes always deviant. Heroes always doing something that most people don't and we want to change - I want to democratise heroism to say any of us can be a hero.

Philip Zimbardo

Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.

Philip Zimbardo

Academic success depends on research and publications.

Philip Zimbardo

Evil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.

Philip Zimbardo

Bullies may be the perpetrators of evil, but it is the evil of passivity of all those who know what is happening and never intervene that perpetuates such abuse.

Philip Zimbardo

Heroes are those who can somehow resist the power of the situation and act out of noble motives, or behave in ways that do not demean others when they easily can.

Philip Zimbardo

One can't live mindfully without being enmeshed in psychological processes that are around us.

Philip Zimbardo

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. They thought I was from the Mafia.

Philip Zimbardo

Human behavior is incredibly pliable, plastic.

Philip Zimbardo

Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.

Philip Zimbardo

I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

Philip Zimbardo

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 looked Jewish.

Philip Zimbardo

Bullies are often people who are shy and can't make friends easily, so, as the theme of the movie 'A Bronx Tale' tells us, it is better to be feared if you can't be loved.

Philip Zimbardo

After doing psychology for half a century, my passion for all of it is greater than ever.

Philip Zimbardo

Being hurt personally triggered a curiosity about how such beliefs are formed.

Philip Zimbardo

Careers in virtually all academic disciplines are fostered by being a superstar who knows more about one subject than anyone else in the world.

Philip Zimbardo