THE SCIENCE OF EVIL

ON EMPATHY AND THE ORIGINS OF CRUELTY

Simon Baron-CohenProfessor, Developmental Psychopathology

Departments of Experimental Psychology and PsychiatryUniversity of Cambridge

WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE A LACK OF EMPATHY? Four kinds of conditions in people

exhibit lack of empathy Psychopathy Narcissim Autism Asperger Syndrome

BARON-COHEN Evil and Cruelty are the result of Lack of

Empathy Not the result of theological category of

‘sin’ Not the result of an incarnate evil-

i.e.‘devil’ Not purely the result of social disorder

or environment Not purely the result of a physical

condition Reflect variety of categories and

associations

THE EMPATHY CIRCUIT Six Levels of Empathy, based on

Empathy Quotient Questionnaire MRI evidence of regions of brain

operative in empathy—ten in all:Medial prefontal cortex (comparing

oneself with others)Orbitofrontal cortex ( social

judgement, socially disoriented Frontal operculum (Language

processing)

THE EMPATHY CIRCUIT (CONT’D) Inferior frontal gyrus (emotional

recognition) Caudal anterior cingulate cortex and

anterior insula (pain matrix-both personal and observing)

Temporoparietal junction (intentions and beliefs)

Superior Temporal Sulcus (judging someone’s direction of looking)

THE EMPATHY CIRCUIT (CONT’D) Somatosensory Cortex (coding sensory

experience) Inferior Parietal Lobule, Inferior Parietal

Sulcus( Actions & response recording ‘mirror’ neurons)

Amygdala (emotional learning and regulation)

ZERO-NEGATIVE (NOTHING POSITIVE TO RECOMMEND) Personality Disorder Borderline: Type B-

Extreme saying destructive things to others (Marilyn Monroe)

Psychopath: Type P- Total detachment from other’s feelings...cold, calculating, completely selfish

Narcissistic: Type N- Total entitlement of self, ‘using’ others, discarding those ‘useless’

ZERO-POSITIVE Asperger Syndrome (Avoidance of the

social, loneliness, patterning obsession) Autism (Underactivity in Empathy,

without words for emotions, systemitizers to the extreme, innovators)

GENETIC EVIDENCE Aggressiveness Gene: MAOA-H ‘Warrior

Gene’ Emotional Recognition: 1. Serotonin

transporter (SLC6A4) 2. Arginine Vasopressin Receptor (AVPR1A) Autism-linked, fear and anger)

Empathy Gene (Several Genes involved)

QUESTIONS Can you develop empathy? If you have none are you necessarily

bad? Can a state be empathetic (i.e. Ban the

death penalty)? Can one be super-empathetic to the

point of being dangerous?

EVIDENCE NOT CONSIDERED Daniel Frankfurter: Evil Incarnate:

Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual Abuse in History. Princeton, 2006.

Social Construction of Evil: Endorsed in Rituals of Political, and Religious Intent

No Notion of Cruelty Universal, it is all constructed locally and from local social and psychological conditions

EVIDENCE NOT CONSIDERED Why is the demonic, the chaotic, the

marginal regarded cross-culturally as “a realm”?

Why is the definition of evil often in the hand of “authorities”...prophets, presidents, popes?

What role does ‘fear’ play in definitions of cruelty, and evil?

What role does conspiracy play in the meaning of evil?

CRITIQUES OF BARON-COHEN Difficulties with his ‘measurement’ of

empathy. Extensive cognitive location of empathy

raises critical questions about ‘the circuitry’ ideology

Are cruelty, evil, lack of empathy, etc. one and the same set of phenomena?

Are there differences between personal lack of empathy and the social perception of evil?

Why is evil behaviour apparently limited in time and scope?

CONTACT INFORMATIONEarle Waugh, Ph.D.Director, Centre for the Cross-

Cultural Study of Health and Healing

Department of Family MedicineUniversity of Albertaearle.waugh@ualberta.ca780-492-6424