add water and stir

Situations have the power to do 3 things:

• inflame hostile imagination to perpetrate evil
• inspire heroic action
• render most people ‘passive bystanders’ and guilty of ‘the Evil of Inaction’

7 Social Processes that grease the slippery slope of Evil

• Mindless taking of the first step (carelessness)
• Dehumanisation of others ("them")
• De-individuation of self (anonymity)
• Diffusion of personal responsibility (someone else's problem)
• Blind obedience to authority (true believer)
• Uncritical conformity to group norms (groupthink)
• Passive tolerance of evil through inaction or indifference (apathy)

The Lucifer Effect: understanding how good people turn evil
Philip Zimbardo