"There are broader ramifications, too. **The FAE undermines arguments based on the idea of ‘a few bad apples’, whether that’s torturers at Abu Ghraib or everyday criminals who are ‘just born that way’.** This isn’t to excuse bad acts; it’s simply being clear-eyed. ‘**While a few bad apples might spoil the barrel … a vinegar barrel will always transform sweet cucumbers into sour pickles**,’ notes [[Philip Zimbardo]], in a paper entitled ‘A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil’. (Zimbardo’s notorious [[Stanford Prison Experiment]], in which students asked to play prison guards behaved with striking cruelty towards students playing prisoners, shows how powerful situational influences can be.) "So, he wonders, ‘**does it make more sense to spend resources to identify, isolate and destroy bad apples, or to understand how vinegar works?’"** --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[juicy-sentences]], [[systems-thinking]], [[fundamental-attribution-error]], [[context]], [[organisational-culture]] **Source** -- [[20241114100017 - B - Help!]]