Good People, Bad Things
Speaking lesson · B2 to C2
Why do good people do bad things?
A conversation about obedience, silence and the stories we tell ourselves. Built around three famous ideas from psychology, one uncomfortable dilemma, and a debate you might lose on purpose.
Discuss human behaviour and responsibility using real psychology, and say what you actually think.
Third and mixed conditionals: If I'd been there, I would have...
Hedging: I'd like to think I would... It's hard to say, but...
The grey zone
Rate each situation, then explain your number.
- Keeping extra change a cashier gave you by mistake
- Lying to a friend about liking their cooking
- Not reporting a colleague who takes long lunch breaks
- Taking credit for a team idea in front of your boss
- Watching someone get bullied and saying nothing
Follow-up: Where's the line? What made some feel worse than others?
Are people basically good, basically selfish, or something else?
Three ideas from psychology
Read or listen, then summarise each one in your own words before we discuss it.
Just following orders
Participants were told to give electric shocks to a "learner" every time he got an answer wrong. The shocks were fake, but they didn't know that. Most kept going to the highest level, simply because a man in a lab coat told them to continue.
Would you have stopped? Why do you think so many people didn't?
Someone else will help
The more people who see an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help, because responsibility feels shared. The famous Kitty Genovese case that made this idea popular was later shown to be exaggerated by the press, which is a story in itself.
Have you ever been somewhere where everyone waited for someone else to act?
The stories we tell ourselves
People rarely see themselves as bad. Instead, they use mental tricks: "I was only following orders", "Everyone does it", "They deserved it". Softer language helps too, like "collateral damage" instead of "civilian deaths".
Which of these excuses have you heard at work, in politics, or in your own head?
For advanced students. Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil": terrible things are often done by ordinary, unremarkable people doing their jobs. And the Stanford Prison Experiment, once famous, is now heavily criticised. How much should we trust famous research?
Words for the grey zone
The dilemma
Your manager's numbers
You work at a mid-sized company. You discover that your manager, who has always supported you and is about to get you promoted, has been slightly inflating the sales figures. It isn't much money. Nobody else seems to have noticed.
First, talk it through. What do you do? Who do you tell? What could you lose?
Then raise it with your manager. They'll push back with lines like these:
- "Everyone rounds up a bit."
- "It's helping the whole team."
- "Do you really want to throw away your promotion over this?"
Can you hold firm?
"Evil is made, not born."
Argue one side for three minutes. Then switch and argue the opposite. Use real examples from history, films, the news, or people you know.
Back to the big question
- Has your answer changed?
- When might you go along with something more than you'd like to admit?
- What protects people from doing bad things? Values, relationships, courage, rules, or fear of consequences?
Describe a time you saw someone cross a line. Why do you think they did it?