My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a very poor family. From Sicilian origin, I was the first person in my family to complete high school, let alone go to college.
The level of shyness has gone up dramatically in the last decade. I think shyness is an index of social pathology rather than a pathology of the individual.
I’ve always been curious about the psychology of the person behind the mask...
If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.
There are no limits to what I would do to make my classes exciting, interesting, unpredictable.
The Stanford prison experiment came out of class exercises in which I encouraged students to understand the dynamics of prison life.
Being hurt personally triggered a curiosity about how such beliefs are formed.
The greatest gift that you can give to others and to yourself is time. Embrace the gift of time whether you give it or receive it.
The Devil’s strategy for our times is to trivialize human existence and isolate us from one another while creating the delusion that the reasons are time pressures, work demands or economic anxieties.
Companies that model best practices, that model the most upstanding principles, end up as the most profitable. It’s not a trade of profits versus principles.
Bullies are often people who are shy and can’t make friends easily, so, as the theme of the movie ‘A Bronx Tale’ tells us, it is better to be feared if you can’t be loved.
Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.
When I look back on it, I think, “Why didn’t you stop the cruelty earlier?” To stand back was contrary to my upbringing and nature. When I stood back as a noninterfering experimental scientist, I was, in a sense, as drawn into the power of the situation as any prisoners and guards.
Heroism is the antidote to evil.
Many cults start off with high ideals that get corrupted by leaders or their board of advisors who become power-hungry and dominate and control members lives. No group with high ideals starts off as a cult; they become one when their errant ways are exposed.
Societal expectations matter little; personal expectations matter tremendously.
Most of us fail to appreciate the extent to which our behavior is under situational control, because we prefer to believe that is all is internally generated. We wander around cloaked in an illusion of vulnerability, mis-armed with an arrogance of free will and rationality.
I started studying shyness in adults in 1972. Shyness operates at so many different levels. Out of that research came the Stanford shyness clinic in 1977.
At North Hollywood High School, I was shunned by everyone. I would sit down in the cafeteria, and students would get up from the table and walk away. They thought I was from the Mafia.
Mama, humanity is my business.
The line between good and evil is movable and it’s permeable.