16 Psychological Reasons Good People Do Bad Things

Getty/Spencer PlattIn 2004, media mogul Martha Stewart was found guilty of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a stock sale."The line between good and evil is permeable," said psychologist Philip Zimbardo, "and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces."

As Zimbardo and other social scientists have shown in a range of experiments, actions we deem evil - cheating, lying, stealing, and worse - don't spring from people's character, but the situations they find themselves in.

To better understand why, we examined research from the fields of psychology and ethics. Here's what we found.

Max Nisen and Aimee Groth contributed to this story.