Description
Book SynopsisSocial psychologist James Waller uncovers the internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts of evil. Waller offers a sophisticated and comprehensive psychological view of how anyone can potentially participate in heinous crimes against humanity. He outlines the evolutionary forces that shape human nature, the individual dispositions that are more likely to engage in acts of evil, and the context of cruelty in which these extraordinary acts can emerge. Eyewitness accounts are presented at the end of each chapter. In this second edition, Waller has revised and updated eyewitness accounts and substantially reworked Part II of the book, removing the chapter about human nature and evolutionary adaptations, and instead using this evolutionary perspective as a base for his entire model of human evil.
Trade Review"...offers a psychological explanation as to why some human beings are so deliberately harmful to others...A fascinating glimpse of evolutionary psychology is presented... an eyewitness account of inhumanity."--Journal of American Medicine Association
Table of ContentsPART I. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF EXTRAORDINARY HUMAN EVIL?; PART II. HOW DO ORDINARY PEOPLE COMMIT GENOCIDE AND MASS KILLING?; PART III. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
