We can assume that most people, most of the time, are moral creatures. But imagine that this morality is like a gearshift that at times gets pushed into neutral. When that happens, morality is disengaged. If the car happens to be on an incline, car and driver move precipitously downhill. It is then the nature of the circumstances that determines outcomes, not the driver's skills or intentions.

If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.

Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.

I've always been curious about the psychology of the person behind the mask.

After doing psychology for half a century, my passion for all of it is greater than ever.

To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant — because you're always going against the conformity of the group.

... In contrast to the "banality of evil," which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the "banality of heroism," which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil.