Science of Evil | National Geographic

neuroscience is the study of the brain
and in particular how the brain gives
rise to the mind that is how is it that
the physical mechanisms of the brain
lead us to do the sorts of things that
we think of the mind is doing can we see
these physical mechanisms at work in the
fMRI scanner at Princeton research
subject Tyler faces a rudimentary
dilemma designed to show increased
activity in parts of the brain
associated with emotion you’re walking
along a country road when you’re here a
plea for help coming from some roadside
bushes you encounter a woman who is
covered with blood the woman explains
that she was attacked while hiking and
asked you to take her to a nearby
hospital
our initial inclination is to help this
woman will probably die if she does not
get to the hospital soon a CVC however
if you help this woman her blood will
ruin your designer student is it
appropriate for you to leave this woman
by the side of the road
no it’s not appropriate
Tyler’s answer comes quickly and is
consistent with a majority of green and
Cohen’s data most people say no that’s
not ok well my theory developed with
John Cohen and other people is that on
the one hand we have an intuitive
emotional response that makes us say no
terrible don’t do that and if you look
at the brain data that is lots of people
answering lots of questions like this
and averaging it all together what you
see you see increased activity in parts
of the brain that are associated with
emotion and what we call social
cognition green and Cohen’s findings
suggest that if the woman were a
faceless person on the other side of the
world dying in the Congo for example
Tyler might have felt okay leaving her
by the side of the road but because
she’s right there in front of him he has
an intuitive emotional response that
tells him to help her and stops him from
committing what many would call evil