Simon Baron-Cohen, the eminent researcher into autism, has set himself a mission. He wishes to convince us to jettison talk of "evil", and focus instead on the concept of empathy deficiency. For him, this represents a shift from a position that is woolly and permeated by theological assumptions towards something much more objective and scientific...
Baron-Cohen concludes by saying that "unlike religion, empathy cannot, by definition, oppress anyone". The trick lies in that phrase "by definition". From whose standpoint is oppression to be judged? Who decides what is the correct response to another person's thoughts and feelings? He is grappling with one of the most important questions for our times, and although his answers are partial, they are sophisticated. The debate will certainly continue. Joanna Bourke
Nearly everyone agrees that women, on the whole, are more compassionate than men. In a 2008 Pew research poll, 80 percent of Americans expressed that view.
Is this a sexist stereotype? Apparently not. Newly published brain-imaging research suggests that in this case, conventional wisdom is correct.
Interesting. In his very own book, Frans DeWaal writes: "None of this denies male empathy. Indeed, gender differences usually follow a pattern of overlapping bell curves: Men and women differ on average, but quite a few men are more empathy than the average woman, and quite a few women are less empathic than the average man. With age, the empathy levels of men and women seem to converge. Some investigators even doubt that in adulthood there's much difference left." (The Age of Empathy,67-8). Of course one big question: IF there is a difference, so what? Imo, and i suspect yours, too, it's more important to figure out how we can all grow empathy - whether some have more "naturally" than others is not that relevant then... <br/>
Rachel AB's comment May 11, 2011 6:39 PM
His take on the topic in the video starts at about 11:48 - talking about deeper levels of empathy. Since empathy originates in female care for the young, women have learned a deeper form of empathy - maybe this means men need to get involved in childcare ;-)
Thanks for pointing me to this interview! I really enjoyed it! Great questions, too.
I was a bit surprised when Frans was talking about how it's easy for men to turn off empathy for revenge or whatever.. he was so adamant about it.. I've seen that in women as well. ;-)
Simon Baron-Cohen says tales of Nazi horror motivated him to deconstruct human cruelty, sees empathy as worlds most valuable but ignored resource.
Psychopaths, narcissists, and people with borderline personality disorder sit at the bottom end of the scale -- these people have "zero degrees of empathy".
But rather than labeling them as evil, Baron-Cohen says they should be seen as sick, or "disabled", and we should seek to understand why they have such an empathy deficiency and help them replace it.
Baron-Cohen shies away from saying that psychopaths can be "cured" of extreme behavior, but he argues strongly against locking them up and saying there is nothing society can do.
Does Baron-Cohen’s theory illuminate mass outbreaks of evil, such as in Lenin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany. Pol-Pot’s Cambodia, or post-Habyarimana’s Rwanda, for example? I think the answer is no.
In Rwanda, for example, if accounts are to be believed, thousands of perfectly ordinary people, of no apparently psychopathic tendencies, took up machetes and other instruments and killed their neighbours, then enjoying their goods and feasting on their food, celebrating what they had done.
What would Baron-Cohen say about this (he does not use this example in his book)? Well, he would say, in certain circumstances – fear, mass hysteria, or whatever – some circuits in the brain overwhelm other circuits in the brain, those for example that are necessary for the expression of empathy. Remember that people are on a continuum of empathy: as circumstances grow more and more dire, so a bigger and bigger percentage of the population loses its capacity for empathy. > Theodore Dalrymple
Happiness Within Reach Conference at Stanford University 2011. Link to Slides http://bit.ly/euLB6m Real and deep happiness comes from connection, compassion and empathy with others. Emma Seppala
Does Simon Baron-Cohen's new book, The Science of Evil, offer a perspective on evil that leads to more questions... This begs the questions: Is evil treatable? And is lack of empathy the defining factor of evil? The philosophical questions are perhaps, in this day and age, more pressing than the psychological ones.
One interesting point the author seems to make is that empathy can and should be taught to evil people. But how? And by whom? We don’t know for sure*, but there is evidence that psychopaths and other “evil” people are created by both nature and nurture combined. In order to study the process of their development we must first identify those most likely to become evil–is there an evil gene? Is it a mutation? Or, is evil a flaw or defect?
Simon Baron Cohen says evil can be understood as a lack of empathy, a condition that can be measured and is susceptible to treatment.
Psychopaths have 'zero degrees of empathy' A Jewish upbringing peppered with tales about the horrors of the Nazis' treatment of Jews and other minorities was early motivation for Baron Cohen to seek to deconstruct human cruelty.
He cites times when his father told him how the Nazis turned Jews into lampshades, or into bars of soap, and a tale about the mother of a family friend whose hands had been severed by Nazi scientists who switched them around and sewed them back on again so that her thumbs were on the outside...
His proposal is that evil be understood as a lack of empathy - a condition he argues can be measured and monitored and is susceptible to education and treatment.
Evil, he (Simon Baron-Cohen) believes, can instead be fixed by education - yes, everyone can be rehabilitated - if evil acts are recognized as a lack of empathy. So a child rapist-murderer needs to be understood better, basically. He gets a little fuzzy, believing the world needs more empathy and if we had it, that minor issue between Arabs and Israelis would go away. You'd think they'd have plenty of empathy since both have been kicked out of their homes at various times.
As a scientist seeking to understand random acts of violence, from street brawls to psychopathic killings to genocide, he has puzzled for decades over what prompts such acts of human cruelty. And he's decided that evil is not good enough.
"I'm not satisfied with the term 'evil'," says the Cambridge University psychology and psychiatry professor, one of the world's top experts in autism and developmental psychopathology.
With the killing of Osama Bin Laden, here are a few words by Barack Obama about empathy and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity.
So I was in the Middle East in the days after 9/11. And we had garnered the empathy of not only most of the world, but the Muslim world who were appalled at what had been done in the name of their religion.
And the tragedy was that if we had the courage to be vulnerable, if we had built on that empathy, we would be far safer and more secure today than we are.
Empathy has no religious, philosophical or ideological roots. Empathy is an emergent quality of the Natural Human being. As such it is a biological imperative; it is not a question, therefore of belief, but of a direct perception of the natural world, and guided by that intrinsic empathy material experiential knowledge appropriate to the nurturance of life is acquired: that is the basis for an truly healthy natural human being.
And that process starts from within the womb. The greatest Sacred Site is the mind of a Child. Corneilius Crowley
The conference will be focusing on empathy and compassion through the lens of the emerging science of empathy, which is demonstrating that we are actually wired for empathy and compassion. Rather than seeing human beings as an outcome of the selfish gene, knowing that empathy potential exists at a neurophysiological level gives us a completely different understanding of human nature.
To explore this reality we have brought together a distinguished panel of presenters. The well-known writer Karen Armstrong has been a leading proponent of the Charter for Compassion, which she will introduce. Iain McGilchrist will explore the neurophysiology underpinning empathy –the social brain - and its association with the right hemisphere.
The view that the urge to destroy, to compete, profit and come out on top, no matter what the price is simply human nature is a very commonly held belief. We might not find extreme selfish behaviour or ‘evil’ justifiable, but it is to be expected, because we assume it is what we are. In this climate, the idea of developing an attitude of love and compassion towards the world and its inhabitants can seem hopelessly idealistic.
Does it actually matter what society feels about whether the human potential for evil is inherently part of our nature, or whether we are more naturally disposed love and compassion?
In Wired to Care, we discuss how special cells in our brains called mirror neurons allow us to experience what other people are feeling — not just in an imagined way, either. Repeated tests have shown that both people performing an activity and people observing an activity experience identical brain activity. And new research shows that this goes far beyond our minds. Researchers in Europe recently went to the Spanish village of San Pedro Manrique to look at how mirror neurons respond to a particularly extreme physical test — ritualized fire-walking.
The empathic implications of this are quite remarkable. When we view someone else as being like us, whether through family ties, friendship, or simple identification, we are capable of literally syncing our physiology to them — feeling what they are feeling. ...
"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil, I think I've come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It's the one characteristics that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil I think, is the absence of empathy." From Nuremberg (2000) Nazi Leaders on trial.
Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist at Cambridge, argues that we can do better than the concept of evil as an explanation for cruel behavior.
But it is a profoundly naïve work of moral philosophy, one whose conclusions suggest the natural limitations of Mr. Baron-Cohen's approach. The trouble with taking great issue with "evil," not the thing but the word, is that it misunderstands why such terms exist in the first place. Most people who use the word would agree that malicious actions usually have causes. Evil is something rather separate, having to do with the effects those actions produce, not their causes. The reason that the concept of evil recurs in religious belief is not that it exceeds the bounds of rational consideration. It is that wickedness throws a troubling wrench in any attempt, religious or otherwise, to consider the world systematically. Raymond Zhong
Simon Baron-Cohen has been battling with evil all his life. As a scientist seeking to understand random acts of violence, from street brawls to psychopathic killings to genocide, he has puzzled for decades over what prompts such acts of human cruelty. And he's decided that evil is not good enough.
"I try to keep an open mind. I would never want to say a person is beyond help," he explains. "Empathy is a skill like any other human skill -- and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it."
It is now called empathy deficiency, and it's treatable. In Waterloo, Illinois a man stands accused of strangling to death his wife and two small children.
For an expert witness, the defense could do worse than recruit Simon Baron-Cohen, author of Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty. While the casual observer would insist that Chris Coleman is merely evil, Baron-Cohen would contend that the sick videos prove Coleman suffers from a disability, i.e., a severe lack of empathy. Naturally, a man with "eroded empathy" cannot be found guilty of homicide.
Ever find yourself physically cringing as you watch those hopeful contestants on American Idol who have no clue that they can't sing? If so, you're probably a highly empathetic person, according to new study published in the journal PloS One.
In fact, the study finds, the experience of vicarious embarrassment affects the same brain regions that light up when you empathize with someone's physical pain. The study adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that physical and emotional pain are processed in the same brain regions, which is probably why we describe ourselves as "hurt" whether we've just been dumped by a lover or broken a leg.
Simon Baron-Cohen talks to Ian Sample about his proposal that we should redefine 'evil' as an absence of empathy, outlined in his book Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty.
Barack Obama talks about empathy and terrorism. ' I'm not somebody that draws a direct line between poverty and fanaticism or nihilism. I'm not interested in making to many excuses for somebody who would see people as such abstractions, with such contempt, that they would be willing to kill 3,000 people and think they're making a political statement.
There are no excuses for that, and that's where my empathy stops. I can't get into that mindset. But what I can understand is that if a child in Pakistan has no prospects, no future, has watched their parents grind out terrible subsistence existence and then the only avenues that they have for not only advancement but some sense of meaning in their lives is a Madras's in which they are drilled with a very narrow fundamentalist brand of Islam. Then translates itself eventually into violent political acts, not always but sometimes. That there is a connection there.
Our foreign policy and our perspective in how to deal with terrorism has to reflect not only the interest in not only stopping the immediate threat of terrorism but also in creating a foreign policy that promotes justice, economic development, the rights of women, and those are all central aspects to dealing with terrorism.
Now that nobody in their right mind really believes in the goaty old Devil, all hooves and pitchfork, Hitler is our benchmark of evil. Yet we don't know what the word means. It's self-referential. What was Hitler? Evil. What's evil? It's what Hitler was.
Baron-Cohen's "new theory of cruelty" is that there is also a spectrum of empathy, and at the far end of that spectrum, evil - cruelty - lies.
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