The Science of EvilOn Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty

Simon Baron-CohenProfessor, Developmental Psychopathology

Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry

University of Cambridge

Backgrounder on Byron-Cohen’s Book Georgie Fluter: A Personal Story The Thesis: Why Do People Lack Empathy? Baron-Cohen on the Brain and Autism

Circuitry Zero-Negative Zero-Positive Genetic Evidence Critique: Evidence Not Considered

Class Outline for teaching session with Earle Waugh, Ph.D.

Four kinds of conditions in people exhibit lack of empathy

Psychopathy Narcissim Autism Asperger Syndrome

Why do people have a lack of empathy?

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

Baron-Cohen

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

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)

The Empathy Circuit (cont’d)

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-Negative (Nothing Positive to Recommend)

Asperger Syndrome (Avoidance of the social, loneliness, patterning obsession)

Autism (Underactivity in Empathy, without words for emotions, systemitizers to the extreme, innovators)

Zero-Positive

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)

Genetic Evidence

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?

CRITIQUE: BROADER RANGE OF Evidence?

Daniel Frankfurter: Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual Abuse in History. Princeton, 2006.

Social Construction of Evil: Endorsed in Rituals of Political, Social and Religious Intent-but not universally accepted.

No Notion of Cruelty Universal: It is normally 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? Isn’t he ‘an authority’?

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

What role does conspiracy play in the meaning of evil?

Assumptions acceptable?

New Studies do not support conclusions◦ i.e. Some Children lose Autism Diagnosis: Fein D et. al. Optimal

outcome in individuals with history of autism, J.Child Psyh and Psychiatry, 2013 DOI 10.11/jepp.1203-7.

◦ i.e. Decision-making much more complex than circuitry ideology. Haelener, RM. et al. Inferring decoding strategies from choice probabilities in the presence of correlated variability. Nature Neuroscience. 2013 DOI: 10.1038/nn.3.309.

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?

Direct Critiques of Baron-Cohen’s Thesis

Why is evil behaviour apparently limited in time and scope..i.e. the Hitler model?

Impossible to disengage notion of evil from Western cultural experience, including its religious connotations.

Perceptions of evil are real—as in Georgie Fluter- but can they be reduced to a model of lack-of-empathy?

Direct Critiques of Baron-Cohen’s Thesis

Earle 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

CONTACT INFORMATION