[Music] ding-ding-ding-ding-ding watch these teams we're bombarding them with every trick of the trade to get them to cheat and lie it's what we do hi I'm Joseph Brennan and I'm David Maxfield we're the behavioral science guys a year ago we dropped by to visit friend of the show and legendary psychologist Albert bandura he's been thinking a lot about the ways good people can be manipulated into doing horrible things and more importantly how you can make yourself immune to that manipulation so we gathered together a few dozen teens to test his ideas first let's explore the dark side of the force how can you help good people disengage from their moral conscience we put two subjects on a team with two Confederates we told them that they were competing in a ball toss challenge with another team that didn't really exist [Music] at the end of each round each team member reports his or her score if their team total is higher than the fictitious other team's total they get one dollar for each point if not they get nothing so when you put good kids in a competitive situation like this what happens well a little bit of cheating a third cheated plus two thirds told the truth every single time not bad so there's the baseline now let's use dr. bender as tactics to kill their conscience --is bandura says there are four different ways to get good people to disengage when their conscience offer moral justification and justify that they have to do what's right for the sheriff and minimize the consequences of sight Patamon exaggerate it was general Barry he humanized the victims are a bunch of animals they deserve a gun and displace responsibility to do that Apple I what that if I was responding for the fourth is my favorite first we'll give them a moral justification for cheating we gave our subjects the option of either keeping their winnings or donating to carry [Music] these good kids almost universally chose to donate to a children's charity great kids subjects were also told the other team was keeping their winnings their land for their own money has not died so now listen to how our Confederates use this information for didn't seem fair I mean they didn't keep the money when I got home for a great cause quite a charity next we had the Confederates manipulate language to minimize the consequences [Music] catch us - you okay third week to humanize the other team each team had a name we told them the other team called themselves the rat the rats threats if you like a very good team name and finally we absolve them of responsibility if someone else is in charge you don't have to consult your conscience right all made und you guys don't put your numbers I'll put all the blame on people end up on my last game mine is okay dangerous work shows that these kinds of manipulations have allowed decent people to manipulate markets put out unsafe products perpetrate fraud and even commit genocide but did they work on our intrepid team well turns out teens are human too who'da thought yes when exposed to the full force of these pernicious influence tactics two-thirds cheated at least once and the total number of lies went up 300% Wow but there were some who didn't hate they are the ones we want to learn from they're giving us the PS you can use yes watch them see the body language notice how they break off eye contact they physically turn away some even took control of the conversation they sense that something is happening to them that they don't like think of all the kids you know I really want to give the money for them but I want to do it in a fair way here's the big idea if you can name the game it loses its power over you these kids felt the pressure recognized it and then change the game either by disconnecting or taking control I just tune them out and drop out my score that I truly caught and that they're cheating there's getting money for yourself three every time we thought subject either break eye contact and turn away or a go public about their discomfort they stayed morally engaged you know they got this so what's the point here if you can name the game you don't have to play it the only way you can make yourself immune to manipulation is to learn to spot it and repel it you can repel it by quitting the game or by quickly going public about your concern both strategies keep you connected to your moral compass ensuring you'll continue to follow it good people always do good things if they're morally engaged if you learn to recognize four ways others disengage you you could combat the cleverest efforts to control you I'm Joseph Brennan and I'm David Maxfield and that's all the BS for today sharpen your behavioral sciences skills by subscribing to our channel for our latest videos and updates click here to subscribe where we always promise to share some BS you can use because they're being jerks and keeping the money for themselves I want them to do that you might as well say 15 you 15 boxes kids can do it for ya I'm going to battle off and call it the next around perfect okay cursing [Music]