UH Manoa and Hawaii Psychological Association present free lecture on "The Psychology of Evil"

HONOLULU—The Department of Psychology and the College of Social Sciences at UH Mānoa, along with the Hawaiʻi Psychological Association, present "The Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good Apples are Corrupted by Bad Barrels at Abu Ghraib and Stanford University Prisons," featuring guest speaker Professor Emeritus Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. The lecture will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27, in Bilger 152 on the Mānoa campus.

Zimbardo will discuss models for understanding how ordinary people become perpetrators of evil, using the recent horrors of abuse of Iraqi prisoners acting as prison guards to set the agenda for exploring the psychological dynamics when humanity is brutally transformed.

As a recent expert witness for one of the prison guards at Abu Ghraib, Zimbardo had access to information about the person, the place and the system, which he will share with the audience. Additionally, he will share his perspective concerning who should bear the responsibility for these abuses.

The talk is free and open to the public. Parking is available on campus for $3. For more information, call Karl Minke at 956-6274.

About Philip Zimbardo
Philip Zimbardo is internationally recognized as the "voice and face of contemporary psychology" through his widely seen PBS-TV series, "Discovering Psychology," media appearances, best-selling trade books on shyness, and his classic research, "The Stanford Prison Experiment." Noted for his personal and professional efforts to actually "give psychology away to the public," Zimbardo has also been a social-political activist, challenging the government's wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the American correctional system.

He has twice served as president of the Western Psychological Association, as president of the American Psychological Association, and is currently the newly elected chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), representing 63 scientific, mathematical and technical associations with 1.5 million members.