Social – October 2010

Date

Thursday October 21, 2010

Agenda

6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Registration and networking
7:00 p.m. Evil
Introduction to Evil by Guest Curator, Dei Murray
How people become monsters … or heroes, Philip Zimbardo at TED 2008
In Search of Meaning, Viktor Frankl at Toronto Youth Corps 1972
Would You Kill the Big Guy? BBC World Service
8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Discussion By Attendees

Venue

The social event was held at the Creative Arts Center, 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, California, 90266 USA.

Pictures

Daniel Sofer took some more great pictures.

Discussion

After the videos discussed Evil. These were the topics we discussed:

1. As you think back over the presentation this evening, what stood out for you?
2. How do you think you would have responded to the Stanford Prison Experiment if you were given the role of guard? What kind of guard would you have been? How sure are you?
3. Does Zimbardo’s thesis that the situation we are in governs our behavior change your view of someone who commits a crime? Are criminals truly guilty or is their behavior just a question of the circumstances they find themselves in?
4. The rules for conducting social psychology experiments have changed since the Milgram and Zimbardo studies. Do you think these studies were ethical? Is it proper to lie to study participants in order to advance our knowledge of human behavior?
5. Do you see any practical implications of what you saw tonight for your own behavior? What are those implications?

Other Resources

Many people were very impressed with Viktor Frankl. To find out more visit his foundations website.

During the evening we also talked about the My Lai Massacre. These are some links to some resources if you wish to learn more about the My Lai Massacre:

Wikipedia
BBC Documentary

Finally there is a short video about “Trolley Problem”. Would you kill the big guy?