Who Are You?

Are You Evil?

The confederate and the subject were placed in separate rooms, but were able to communicate. The teacher was given a sample electric shock of about 45 volts and instructed to teach the confederate a series of word pairs. Each time the confederate got an answer wrong, the teacher was supposed to deliver an electric shock. When the confederate continued to give wrong answers, the voltage would gradually be increased to 450 volts, a potentially fatal level. In truth, the confederate wasn't being shocked, but pretended as though he had by screaming in pain and banging on the walls.

Milgram informally polled his colleagues and students as to what percentage of subjects would administer the final, fatal level of shocks. Their estimates topped out at 1 or 2 percent. And many subjects did express desire to end the experiment, but they were instructed to continue four times by the experimenters. The experiment was only halted if the subject still would not continue after the four commands, or if the subject had administered the 450-volt shock three times in succession. Shockingly, 60-65 percent of all the subjects gave the final shocks, despite their reluctance. Over half of the people tested would potentially kill another person just because they were told to do so.

The implications of Milgram's study are far-reaching. People, when placed in a situation demanding obedience, can commit acts they know to be wrong or evil. But what's even more interesting is a follow-up experiment conducted in Europe in 2006 testing a subject's willingness to administer shocks to a virtual victim. In this new scenario, the subject was explicitly aware that both the shocks and the virtual person were not real, yet the experiment duplicated almost exactly the same results as Milgram's original study.

These results mean a lot to gaming. According to Milgram, most people would willingly hurt another person just because they were told. The follow-up tells us it makes no difference if the person hurt is real or virtual. Suddenly, all those people I ran over in GTA and all those guys I teabagged in competitive FPSes make me feel a little dirtier. If placed in that situation, would I teabag a guy I had just shot?

The idea, then, that videogames can be a somewhat accurate test of the human psyche seems to be true. What does it mean in a game like Knights of the Old Republic, where the player can choose either the Dark or the Light side of the force to master? Is every person who plays as a Dark Jedi also evil in his non-gaming endeavors?

Gamers seem to fall into three categories. There are the noble players, those with a more neutral outlook and those who are just plain bad. Before discussing evil, though, it's important to define what exactly evil is. A succinct definition of evil, first written by F. E. Katz in his book Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil is any act that "deliberately deprives innocent people of their humanity." That just about covers everything from murdering grandmothers to stealing lunch money.