Evil acts mainly arise from organizational pathologies rather than intrinsically evil individuals

Evidence

Where does it lie? What I suggest is that the prototypes we carry around about the sources of evil actions, which assign those actions to individuals who are themselves in some way intrinsically evil, causes us to ignore the more likely source of harmdoing actions, which is organizational in nature. If harmdoing actions are in the main committed by individuals caught up in organizations and their pathology, then prevention or amelioration of evil may be best done at the organizational level. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4037

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the banality of evil thesis and to Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments discussed earlier in this book; also echoes the Milgrom material on institutions shaping behavior. — connects to: Institutional evil requires a social psychology of how settings override members’ moral scruples — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 4030