They Don’t Think They’re Evil. That’s Why It Works

In this influential lecture, Professor Jiang Xueqin explores how evil operates not through individual malice, but through systemic structures that diffuse personal responsibility. He argues that atrocities in history are rarely carried out by inherently evil people, but by ordinary individuals who have outsourced their moral agency to authority, consensus, trauma, or ideology.

The core idea is that evil triumphs when people no longer feel personally accountable—when they believe they are merely following orders, conforming to norms, or serving a higher cause. This psychological shift allows otherwise decent individuals to participate in harmful actions while maintaining a sense of innocence.

The Milgram Experiment: Authority Transfers Responsibility

Jiang references the Milgram experiment to illustrate how authority figures can induce people to administer what they believe are painful electric shocks. Participants continued because a man in a lab coat calmly instructed them to proceed—no coercion, just permission. The lesson: people obey not out of cruelty, but because they transfer moral responsibility upward.

This mechanism enables bureaucratic violence—soldiers, officials, and professionals carry out destructive policies while telling themselves, “I’m just doing my job.”

The Asch Conformity Experiment: Consensus Transfers Reality

In the Asch experiment, individuals conform to a group’s false perception—even when the truth is obvious. Jiang explains that when everyone agrees, individuals begin to doubt their own senses. This shows how social consensus can override objective reality, making harmful actions seem normal or necessary.

When authority says “this is needed” and society echoes “yes,” individuals lose both guilt and critical perspective.

Trauma and Pleasure: Engineering Loyalty

Jiang describes how institutions like Sparta or extremist groups use trauma and reward to create absolute loyalty. By destroying a person’s world and then offering safety or ecstasy, they become dependent on their oppressors. This creates warriors who kill not out of hatred, but out of longing for belonging or paradise.

This dynamic explains why people remain loyal to systems that harm them—they’ve been psychologically conditioned to equate survival with obedience.

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