Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence

About this book

Integrating evidence from psychology criminology sociology history anthropology and other disciplines to provide insight into the roots of cruelty and violence Baumeister finds vivid examples both historical and modern that address compelling human issues: How do "ordinary" people find themselves beating their wives? Murdering rival gang members? Torturing political prisoners? Betraying their colleagues to the secret police? Why do cycles of revenge so often escalate? With an examination of our cultures myths about evil the book progresses through the "whys" of evil toward a discussion of a paradox in human psychology - our tendency toward guilt a natural mechanism that suppresses evil and our inclination toward ambivalence a feeling that enables evil to flourish.