“Look at the case with Rev. Jim Jones, a pastor who got 912 of his followers to commit suicide at his direction,” he said. “More crimes are committed in the name of obedience than disobedience.”

Another way to get people to do something evil, he said, is through the power of anonymity. “When one changes his or her outside appearance, when the personal responsibility is taken away, that has been shown to trigger violence in good people,” he said.

Remember Sgt. Frederick and his painted face? A perfect example, Mr. Zimbardo said. Another example is the Ku Klux Klan, whose members wore sheets over their heads to inflict fear.

It’s also easier to perform “evil” acts when people are dehumanized right from the start.

“Dehumanization is central to prejudice and discrimination,” he said. “It enables people to be perpetrators of evil.”

In the end, Mr. Zimbardo offered up a challenge: He wants people to think of themselves as heroes in waiting. By thinking of ourselves as everyday heroes, he said, we can promote a heroic imagination in our children. And heroism is the anecdote to evil.

“I am working on a curriculum … I want to refocus from evil to understanding heroes,” he said.

Mr. Zimbardo said after his in-depth research on what makes people evil, he now wants people to realize that the same situations that can push good people to do evil things can just as easily push them to do heroic things.

“A hero is simply someone who acts when others are not,” he said. “It’s about not being ego-centric but social-centric.”

For information on Mr. Zimbardo’s book or his research, visit zimbardo.com. To read more about his book, visit lucifereffect.com.

n Jerri Brouse is a freelance writer who lives in Lewisburg. E-mail com-ments to scoop@ptd.net.