Why does evil exist?

“Each of us has three possibilities: be passive and do nothing, be evil or become a hero” Philip Zimbardo

About him evil gene A lot has been written and researched. It’s really interesting. Do psychopaths have a special genetic makeup that determines their illness? The truth is that there are numerous studies that focus on the debate about whether the evil gene exists. On the other hand, the results of these studies do not point in the same direction, something that has opened up the debate even more.

What do some authors tell us?

Cruelty is associated with the X chromosome that makes MAO-A. Hans Brunner decided to investigate the case of a Dutch family in which 40 of its male members had committed crimes. His discovery was that everyone had MAOA-A.

According to him Dr Nigel Blackwood, member of the Institute of Psychiatry at King College, the MAO-A would not be the promoter of crime itself, but would also influence a traumatic childhood. The most interesting thing about the idea of ​​MAO-A for him is that a suitable therapy can be developed for these people in whom genetics plays a disfavor.

He Dr. Kent Kiehl, neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico, discovered that psychopaths have lower neuronal density in the paralimbic system. This is one of the fundamental areas for processing emotions.

According to him Dr. Marcelino Cereijido, “There is no gene for evil in humans, but there are biological and cultural circumstances that foster perversity.”. Maybe this could be the most interesting explanation.

Milgram and obedience

Throughout the history of psychology there have been numerous experiments who have questioned the intrinsic evil in human beings. One of them the Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment. In it he encouraged a group of volunteers to press an electric shock device. 65% of the participants gave electric shocks capable of killing a human being.

It must be said that the downloads were not real. The subject receiving the shocks was an accomplice of the experimenter.

Standord prison experiment

Another experiment, from Stanford prison, Psychologist Philip Zimbardo chose people to play the role of jailers and others to play the role of prisoners. The psychologist who devised the experiment himself decided to suspend the experiment because both prisoners and jailers had assumed the role as if it were real. And not only that, but they had come to humiliation, insults and mistreatment.

So that, Does intrinsic evil exist in human beings? So we can all be cruel to the extreme at a certain moment? There we leave a question that has given rise and continues to give rise to numerous conflicting debates. What there is no doubt about, based on social psychology experiments, is that the conditions in which we move can exert enormous power over us.

Finally, perhaps the most beautiful thing about these experiments is not discovering that, under certain circumstances, a large majority of us can cause very great damage. The greatest source of hope is that there are people, heroes, who, even if they find themselves in a context conducive to causing harm, do not do so.

Another point of view: Buddhist psychology

From the Buddhist perspective, there is little evil in the world. What we call evil, Buddhism calls ignorance. Ignorance, in short, would be not knowing how to connect with our authentic nature. This nature would be serenity and love towards ourselves and towards others.

Buddhism assures that we all seek happiness, however, we do not always get the forms right. The Holiness of the Dalai Lama does not classify people as good or bad, but rather he qualifies their actions of lucky or unlucky. Depending on the learning history of each of us, we have been taught to pursue happiness in one way or another.

In a consumerist society where personal success prevails above all else, it is not difficult to fall into selfishness and individuality. This thought would lead us to look out for ourselves in such a way that we forget others. And in this way, we would seek our happiness from selfishnesswith the possible consequence, of hurt others if necessary.