Matthew KrugmanMrs. GigerEE10 May 2014What psychological influences contribute to an intrinsically good person becoming evil?IntroductionThis research paper discusses how an intrinsically "good" person can, under the right circumstances, become "evil" and the psychological effects behind the change. Understanding how a person can cross the proverbial line from good to evil; we need to give a definition to evil itself. The word evil has been a catch-all term to describe everything from biblical aspects to natural disasters, even to describe the human condition. In this article we will focus exclusively on the human aspect of evil. The Oxford Dictionary describes evil as “deeply immoral and malevolent.” To further understand this concept, philosopher Peter Dews, author of “The Idea of ​​Evil,” writes “The basic notions of offense and punishment, of transgression and forgiveness, seem to lose their hold in the face of profound and far-reaching desecrations of the human. For these types of crimes, “evil” is still the only word we have.” (12) The ethics of these experiments will not be discussed in this research paper. Each of these experiments is considered unethical nowadays, yet they served the purpose of discovering which psychological aspects contribute to evil in a given individual. Milgram's Obedience Experiment To get a comprehensive look at how a person can go from good to evil, multiple case studies on this topic will be discussed. The first of which will be the 1963 Milgram Obedience Experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University. This experiment is based on the theory of obedience through authority. Milgram created this experiment to examine the justification of the accused during World War II. Obedience t......middle of paper......to follow orders. When other nurses were asked to discuss what they would do in a similar situation (e.g. in a control group), 21 of 22 said they would not comply with the order. Hofling concludes that people are very reluctant to question supposed "authority", even when they may have good reasons to do so and are willing to follow authority blindly even against their better judgment and the rules in place (Mcleod 2008) . Yale Prison Experiment Yale psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 decided to take these experiments one step further, to put a normal person in a position of power to see how they would treat another human being. In 1973 Zimbardo created the Yale Prison Experiment that would be cited in major prison cases in the United States today. To study roles in prison life, Zimbardo transformed Stanford's basement into a prison.