Social Psychology Quotes

“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. KNOWING A MAN WELL NEVER LEADS TO HATE and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. TRY TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER!”
― John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

“Why do people want to talk to each other? I mean, what are the things people always want to find out about other people?”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.”
― Philip G. Zimbardo

“The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“Heroes are those who can somehow resist the power of the situation and act out of noble motives, or behave in ways that do not demean others when they easily can.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“إن الكثيرين لا يريدون منا حلاًّ لمشكلاتهم، بقدر ما يريدون القلب الذي يتوجَّع ويتأسَّى، وكما قيل:
ولابد من شكوى إلى ذِي مَروءةٍ يواسيك أو يسليك أو يتوجَّعُ”
― سلمان العودة, بناتي

“The level of shyness has gone up dramatically in the last decade. I think shyness is an index of social pathology rather than a pathology of the individual.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“There is one thing that, more than any other, throws people absolutely off their balance — the thought that you are dependent upon them. This is sure to produce an insolent and domineering manner towards you. There are some people, indeed, who become rude if you enter into any kind of relation with them; for instance, if you have occasion to converse with them frequently upon confidential matters, they soon come to fancy that they can take liberties with you, and so they try and transgress the laws of politeness. This is why there are so few with whom you care to become more intimate, and why you should avoid familiarity with vulgar people. If a man comes to think that I am more dependent upon him than he is upon me, he at once feels as though I had stolen something from him; and his endeavor will be to have his vengeance and get it back. The only way to attain superiority in dealing with men, is to let it be seen that you are independent of them.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

“Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.”
― Stanley Milgram

“Human behavior is incredibly pliable, plastic.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?”
― Philip Zimbardo

“Being hurt personally triggered a curiosity about how such beliefs are formed.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“One can't live mindfully without being enmeshed in psychological processes that are around us.”
― Philip Zimbardo

“Although there are certain needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, which are common to man, those drives which make for the differences in men's characters, like love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission, the enjoyment of sensuous pleasure and the fear of it, are all products of the social process. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function - although it has that too - but it has also a creative function.”
― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

“She wasn’t interested in making other people comfortable, which I really liked about her.”
― Amy Tintera, Listen for the Lie

“Why, oh why doth people gazeth into their damn'd phones in a restaurant when there is good fayre and wond'rful company to be enjoy'd?”
― Kevin Ansbro

“By what criteria can one decide which of a person's countless beliefs are primitive? The essential factor is that they are taken for granted: a person's primitive beliefs represent the basic truths he holds about physical reality, social reality, and himself and his own nature. Like all beliefs, conscious or unconscious, they have a personal aspect: they are rooted in the individual's experience and in the evidence of his senses. Like all beliefs, they also have a social aspect: with regard to every belief a person forms, he also forms some notion of how many other people have the experience and the knowledge necessary to share it with him, and of how close the agreement is among this group. Unlike other beliefs, however, primitive beliefs are normally not open to discussion or controversy. Either they do not come up in conversation because everyone shares them and everyone takes them for granted, or, if they do come up, they are virtually unassailable by outside forces. The criterion of social support is totally rejected; it is as if the individual said: "Nobody else could possibly know or have experienced what I have." Or, to quote a popular refrain: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen."
 A person's primitive beliefs thus lie at the very core of his total system of beliefs, and they represent the subsystem in which he has the heaviest emotional commitment.”
― Milton Rokeach, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: A Psychological Study

“Lucy, didn’t you want to be a writer once?” Keith peers at me as if I’ve disappointed him, this relative I barely know. “What ever happened to that?”
I wasn’t that good, I guess, is what I should have said. People love that sort of shit—humility and honesty, tied together to make everyone feel more comfortable after a rude question.
I smile. “Well, you know. No one wants to read a book from a murderer.”
― Amy Tintera, Listen for the Lie

“Do you know why the best politicians are stand up comedians?
Because people can't disagree with you when they're laughing.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“There are two people in the kingdom who can interrupt the King: the Queen and the Joker.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“People are primarily interested in themselves, so if you're not talking about them, they're probably not going to be all that interested in you.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“If you want to see what happens when nerds get power, listen to them argue about philosophy and religion.

They're so interested in dominating each other that they forget they're supposed to converting each other.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“Sometimes we help each other because we need a surrogate activity.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“Lemme guess: you know the future and want to tell me ALL ABOUT IT.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“They’re not interested in buying…they’re just lonely.”
― Michael Jagdeo

“Never fear your ability to stand out of the herd, only you will know if you can become the shepherd”
― Husam Wafaei, Honourable Defection

“The things that I did when I grow up and the standards I hold and followed in the society. Kept me safe and I was labeled as a good person, but those things costs me joy, happiness and pleasures of life. I had to fight nature and my feelings everyday. Today I am branded and trusted with titles that cost me my time and life. I still try to maintain the standards but I don't have life of my own or experience any pleasures of life.
I had achieved what I wanted and what other people wanted for me, but I had lost what it is important in this life. To live and experience life. All the good decisions I made then are now my biggest regrets, root of my depression and downfall.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Crazy people leave you no choices. They walk into your life not listening. They don't care about any outcomes; they do what they want when they want.”
― LaShonda C. Henderson, Selah The Myth of Love Life Stories