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Born to be Good? Are we born to be good? We have asked ourselves this question many times over the past few days. We believe like Ms. Kitzinger, that when we are born, we can be either good or bad; however, some social circumstances can influence our behavior. Even though we are nurtured and taught morals by our parents or caregivers we can ultimately cave into the pressures of society. Everyone has his or her own way of reacting to social situations. What drives us to behave the way we do? There are many contributing factors that determine the way we may behave in different situations, such as situational attributions (social influences), our personal filters (our life experiences on which we base our judgements), and our personal attributions (personal characteristics that are derived from our filters). Social influence and conformity play a huge role in the way people act in social situations. "...people conform because they fear the social rejection that accompanies defiance," (Kassin, 1998, p.501). As Kitzinger pointed out in her article "Born to be Good," the "bystander effect" (or conformity) caused the public not to intervene when a New York woman was in trouble, merely because the other people around them were not eit