Name: Why Good People Become Monsters
Uploaded: 2025-06-19T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 8 min 15 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Good and evil are philosophical concepts debated for centuries.

But psychology can help us understand why people stray from morality.

When discussing serial killers, people often ask what happened in their formative years?

We watch documentaries feeling relieved that it couldn't happen to us or thinking we'd instantly recognize evil in others.

It's easy to believe we're immune to evil, but the uncomfortable reality is we all have the potential to be shaped by our circumstances.

Discussing morality can take us to dark places, so consider this a trigger warning.

Our morals can slip from good to monstrous when we let the situation change how we act.

Most of us behave differently depending on where we are or who we're with.

For example, when a CEO was assassinated, some people who would never support murder ended up justifying or even celebrating it because everyone else is.

It shows how easily we can bend our morals based on emotions or what's going on around us.

If we're not careful, we might lose control over our own values.

This is also known as the Lucifer effect.

The Lucifer effect is a term coined by psychologist Philip Zimbardo,

which refers to the transformation of ordinary people into individuals capable of committing acts of evil or brutality.

It is largely based on Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment,

a famous study from 1971 that examined how individuals would conform to rules of authority or submission in a simulated prison environment.

Your morals can shift more than you think depending on the situation.

Many of us believe we have strict codes, but circumstances can push us further than we expect.

Our moral boundaries are more flexible than we realize.

Authority figures often sway our moral compass by making us feel part of something larger.

This happens not only in extremes like wartime, but also in daily life.

Leaders might seem to guide us towards what's right, but history shows otherwise.

The atrocities of war like Nazi soldiers, just following orders, demonstrate how we can de-individualize ourselves and excuse immoral actions.

A smaller example is kids who bully just to fit in with a peer group.

These figures also turn us against others by dehumanizing them.

As seen in Nazi propaganda or euphemisms like ethnic cleansing.

Even on a smaller scale, friends can be authority figures, influencing our actions for approval.

Bullies use euphemistic language to justify mistreatment.

For example, because the person being bullied is labeled gross or weird, in their minds, it's okay to pick on them and they deserve it.

They justify their actions as helping or just pranking.

Belonging to a friend group is great for mental health, but as we seek people with shared interests, it's hard to predict the future of these groups.

For example, the church burnings and murders in late 80s Norway were tied to the black metal inner circle, which pushed members to adopt an evil aesthetic.

Over time, aesthetics alone weren't enough.

It's unclear if these individuals were good before joining, but this illustrates the power of group influence.

Many people claim to hate gossip, but join in when their friends talk negatively about someone.

We tend to adopt the attitudes of those we associate with.

You may think your views are forming organically when they're being pushed by those around you.

For the health of our social lives, we are often encouraged to endorse our friends' viewpoints.

Many incels aren't inherently resentful towards women.

They feel isolated and seek comfort in shared experiences.

In these communities, they may find reassurance that their struggles are caused by women, not themselves.

While not all incels are violent, harmful rhetoric has led some to commit violence against women.

Sociologist Randy Blazak notes that teens, due to uncertainty and change, are especially vulnerable to joining violent groups.

A single vice doesn't make a person evil, but if we let our vices control us, they can change us and influence our morals.

For example, a good person who tries gambling may find that the stress of large losses pushes them to do something out of desperation.

A porn addict may believe it's morally right to assault someone.

People whose lives are controlled by drugs and alcohol may manipulate others or engage in criminal activity to fuel their addiction.

But most people have watched porn, gambled, or tried alcohol without a decline in their personality.

These vices alone don't make you a monster.

In many cases, there needs to be preexisting conditions that facilitate a shift in someone's ethics.

Research links addictive personality traits with criminal behavior.

Issues like bipolar disorder can be worsened by alcohol, making mood swings worse.

A person who gets violent while drunk may have a mental condition that alcohol exacerbates.

Vices alone don't make someone evil, but when combined with preexisting struggles like addiction or mental illness, they can lead to destructive behavior.

So it's essential to understand that these challenges don't define a person's entire identity.

When a severely ill person or someone with an addictive personality becomes reliant on a vice, their morals could bend, turning an otherwise good person into a monster.

Addiction can happen to anyone, no matter how morally upstanding.

We must learn not to demonize addicts and people who are suffering from mental illness.

Love and community have been shown to help people overcome addiction more effectively than ostracism.

Sometimes being good also requires bravery.

It's difficult to say no when your friends want to pick on someone.

It's also difficult to say no to your family or your boss.

For people in the military, the idea of disobeying orders and acting on independent principles is borderline unthinkable.

In your own life, look at the groups you associate yourself with and whether or not their morals truly line up with your own.

Hate groups are a breeding ground for turning good, but lost people into monsters.

Loyalty to a group means nothing if being in that group requires you to abandon all of your own morals.

Be aware of how your vices are affecting your personality.

If they're pushing you towards desperation, making you take advantage of the people who you care about, it might be time to try to make a change.

The overarching lesson is that being good is difficult and no one is perfect.

Let's keep the conversation going in the comments.

What do you think makes good people monsters?

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