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The Science of Evil On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty

Simon Baron-Cohen Professor, Developmental Psychopathology Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry University of Cambridge. The Science of Evil On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty. The Legacy of Hitler The Violence of the Herd Wanton Killing of Innocents Impact of Stressors

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The Science of Evil On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty

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  1. Simon Baron-Cohen Professor, Developmental Psychopathology Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry University of Cambridge The Science of EvilOn Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty

  2. The Legacy of Hitler The Violence of the Herd Wanton Killing of Innocents Impact of Stressors Ease of Torture Human Destruction of Rape and Murder The `Sick` Mind in Mayhem on Streets and among Families The Random Act of Violence At Issue: Can Ethical Behaviour be Accounted for in Brain Circuitry?

  3. GeorgieFluter: A Personal Story Backgrounder on Byron-Cohen’s Book 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

  4. 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’ s argument

  5. Four kinds of conditions in people exhibit lack of empathy Psychopathy Narcissim Autism Asperger Syndrome Why do people have a lack of empathy?

  6. 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) BAron-Cohen: The Empathy Circuit

  7. 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)

  8. 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)

  9. Personality Disorder Borderline: Type B- Extremes: 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’ B-C’s categories: Zero-Negative (Nothing Positive to Recommend)

  10. Asperger Syndrome (Avoidance of the social, loneliness, patterning obsession) Autism (Underactivity in Empathy, without words for emotions, systemitizers to the extreme, innovators) B-c’s categories: Zero-Positive

  11. RELATED: WAR HARD-WIRED INTO HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS? A section of over 8000 Terracotta Warriors in the mausoleum of the first Qin emperor outside Xian, China. Intense warfare is the evolutionary driver of large complex societies, according to a new mathematical model whose findings accurately match those of the historical record in the ancient world. (Credit: iStockphoto)

  12. Aggressiveness Gene: MAOA-H ‘Warrior Gene’ Emotional Recognition Genetic Constructs: 1. Serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) 2. Arginine Vasopressin Receptor (AVPR1A) Autism-linked, fear and anger Empathy Gene (Several Genes involved) Genetic Evidence for Circuitry

  13. 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? Even if circuitry explains lack of empathy can this transmute into larger category of evil? CRITIQUE of bAron-cohen: EMPATHY RELATED TO BROADER RANGE OF EVIDENCE?

  14. This is response in the right amygdala across groups of low (L), medium (M) and high (H) psychopathy participants, when they adopted an imagine-self and an imagine-other affective perspective while viewing bodily injuries. Groupwise effects (bars at the bottom of the figure) are expanded to show the contribution of continuous PCL-R subscores on factor 1, which encompasses the emotional/interpersonal features of psychopathy. Jean Decety, Chenyi Chen, Carla Harenski and Kent A. Kiehl.AnfMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00489 New study: Imagining others in Pain

  15. 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 by b-c.

  16. Why is the demonic/evil, 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 Byron-Cohen ‘an authority’? What role does ‘fear’ play in definitions of cruelty, and evil? What role does conspiracy play in the meaning of evil? Are his Assumptions acceptable?

  17. 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. Other Critiques of Baron-Cohen’s Thesis

  18. No proof that cruelty, evil, lack of empathy, etc. one and the same set of phenomena. What of the differences between personal lack of empathy and the social perception of evil? Can a theory in one area of scientific knowledge necessarily apply in others? Other Critiques of Baron-Cohen’s Thesis

  19. Why is evil behaviour apparently limited in time and scope..i.e. to the Hitler model? Cultural determinants--Impossible to disengage notion of evil from Western cultural experience, including its religious connotations. Perceptions of evil are real—as in GeorgieFluter- but can they be reduced to a model of lack-of-empathy? Variables in human mind are so great that isolating one circuitry hardly explains all. Some Critiques of Baron-Cohen’s Thesis

  20. Earle Waugh, Ph.D. Director, Centre for Health and Culture Department of Family Medicine University of Alberta earle.waugh@ualberta.ca 780-492-6424 CONTACT INFORMATION

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