How Situations Subvert Conscience

Abstract

Decades of social-psychological research can be boiled down to one insight: if we want to predict someone’s behavior, we are better off knowing where they are rather than who they are. Personality is a poor predictor of behavior, and most of the time our actions are determined by situational pressures, not personality characteristics. Knowing about situations tells us a lot more about what people will actually do than knowing more about the people, themselves.² In our own lives, sometimes we are talkative and sometimes we are quiet. It depends on where we are and who we are with. People who are shy (personality trait) do not act shy around close family and friends; the situation has a great deal to do with how shyly a person acts.³

To know the right or feel the good is not necessarily to do the right or good.

John C. Gibbs¹