Can a “villain” make the world a better place? With a bold, critical perspective in her talk “Kẻ phản diện” (The Villain), Mai Ngoc Ha offers a compelling interpretation of the “villain” through the lens of scientific theories on human behavior and cognition, uncovering where our judgments and labels originate.
Rather than viewing the “villain” as a symbol of evil, she explores the concept as a psychological metaphor for those who dare to face uncomfortable truths, hold firm to their principles, and do what they believe is right—even when doing so isolates them and turns them into the “villain” in the eyes of others. Mai Ngoc Ha is the winner of the TEDx Thang Long University 2025 Student Speaker Contest “The Exceptionals: Out Loud”. A K36 Multimedia Communication student at Thang Long University, she is the runner-up of the ThangLong Debate Tournament 2024 and the creator behind multi-platform channels on YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify, engaging an audience of over 40,000 followers. Beyond public speaking, her creative work was selected as one of the Top 20 pieces showcased at the exhibition “Freedom with the Colors of Emotion.” Ha’s interests lie at the intersection of youth voices, visual storytelling, and media literacy—using debate-honed reasoning and creative production to spark conversations about how young people perceive, express, and navigate emotions in the digital age. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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