Tim Ferriss interviews Dr. Phil Zimbardo of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment on what makes a person either heroic or evil under pressure.

This was an amazing episode. They go very in depth on the research around this topic from antiquity to the cutting edge, and they identify several key things to watch out for in order to avoid being evil.

I hadn’t really considered it before, but Dr. Zimbardo hammers home the point that groups of people will often do things that many of them would never consider doing on their own. I would have scoffed at this, but they discuss in depth the enormous experimental evidence which suggests that situations and groups around you have an huge impact on your subjective morality and choices.

There are lots of great examples and lots of practical things to watch out for. This is a must-listen. I will certainly revisit this episode many times.

Listen;