Member-only story
Beneath Office Rivalries Lurks an Evil Pleasure
What does it take to expose your devil inside?
When I was in my late teens, I deliberately told a lie. A young lady I was fond of asked if I had a girlfriend. I said no. But I did have a girlfriend. In fact, after months apart, I’d just fought hard to get back together with her days earlier.
Nevertheless, there I was. Just a boy. Standing in front of a girl. Telling her I was available. Even though I knew I wasn’t, and every bone in my body was dancing with wickedness.
It was a flipped and twisted version of the famous scene with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. And it concluded as most Hugh Grant movies do: I bumbled my way through it and ended up looking like a complete jerk.
It’s hard to admit, but we’ve all done it, haven’t we?
Something a little naughty?
Something even evil?
The Lucifer Effect
“The line between good and evil is permeable,” says psychologist and author Dr. Philip Zimbardo in his book, The Lucifer Effect. “Almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.”
On the pendulum of good and evil, most of us aspire to swing towards the good. But Zimbardo argues our…