The Science of Evil and Variations in Empathy

Simon Baron-Cohen's new book describes empathy and evil. Evil comes from empathy erosion and "turning people into objects." He gives graphic examples of this kind of evil throughout the book, from sadistic cruelty by soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the criminal in a supermarket line who robs a woman's ring, taking her finger with him.

What I liked about the book was the descriptions of different levels of empathy.

Level 0 represents a person with no empathy at all. These people find relationships difficult and don't understand having remorse for action because they cannot understand how another is feeling. They may or may not be cruel to others. Zero-negative personalities have no empathy for others and include the disorders of borderline personality, psychopaths, and narcissists. Individuals with Asperger's (high functioning autism) are zero-positive because they have a sense of fairness and learn moral codes through fierce logic, making them more systematic than the average person.

Level 1 represents a lack of self-control. Level 1 people hurt others because when they get upset they cannot control their behavior.

Level 2 people have difficulty with empathy but have enough empathy to understand that they have hurt someone afterward. But they continually commit faux pas without understanding why.

Level 3 people still have difficulty having and showing empathy. They know they don't understand something that everyone else does. Social interaction is hard in part because they try to be normal but can never quite be normal.

Level 4 people have a low-average amount of empathy. This level more typical of normal men. They prefer not to talk about emotions and base friendships more on shared activities.

Level 5 people are slightly above average on empathy and more typically female. They are careful about how they interact with others, trying to be sensitive to the feelings of others.

Level 6 represents people with unusually high levels of empathy. Their empathy is in hyper-mode. They can pick up on the feelings of others and are deeply interested in them.

The back of the book has an Empathy Quotient measure that you can take and score.

My only complaints about his descriptions are (1) I would not put these different types into a scale as he did because they have qualitative not just quantitative differences, in ways we yet do not understand; (2) I'd break the normal range up a little more---I'm not sure I fit any category.

Another disappointment with the book is that although he mentions parenting effects in passing, he gives an entire chapter to an "empathy gene," completely neglecting the larger role that epigenetics (environmental effects) have on personality development.

For example, we are finding in our work that parenting behaviors like touch are linked to empathy development in 3-year-olds (check out Development Optimization paper at my blogger profile site). There is considerable longitudinal work by Grazyna Kochanska showing that when parents have a mutually-responsive relationship with a child, the child is more empathic and agreeable. Clinicians like Allan Schore have been documenting how emotion and self-regulation develop through the intimate dance that the caregiver and child engage in from the beginning of their life together.

Also missing from the book are guidelines for developing empathy. So let me say a little about that.

I grew up with what might call suppressed empathy. It was not an emotionally safe household and was a lonely place. Plus I was a tomboy. But I did cry for suffering children when I saw or thought of them. When I was in college, I recognized that my compassion was low and set its cultivation as a goal for my life (with hopes that by the end I would have a good amount of compassion-still working on it!).

How can one develop empathy and compassion? Perhaps you have suggestions. These are things that I have found helpful:

• Get to know viewpoints other than your own through reading and/or watching films about real-life experiences and struggles (e.g., Hands on the Freedom Plow, female members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee working for civil rights; Freedom Riders, about those who risked their lives for the U.S. civil rights movement, in 1961, to challenge existing segregation in light of the Supreme Court's ruling against it).
• Commit yourself to a relationship in which you live with that person's struggles and challenges. A marriage relationship can do this, and/or raising children. Because there is an emotional connection, you are more likely to learn patience and listening habits than you would be with a stranger (although some loners may do better with listening to strangers). I was married to a man with a degenerative disease — I had fallen in love with him before I knew he had the disease (and he had just found out). We were together for the last 10 years of his life. I developed patience for those with disabilities and I learned kindness and respect for people who use wheelchairs.
• Take (respectful) responsibility to help others. This week was the anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination (June 5, 1968). In the C-SPAN special on him, an aide described Kennedy's shocked encounter with starving children, bellies distended, in Mississippi. For a long while, Kennedy tried to engage an emaciated child who could not stand from weakness. Later at home with his family, Kennedy told his children, as he had been told as a child by his parents, that they had to take responsibility and do something to help those children and others who suffer. This experience led to the establishment of the free Food Stamp program of the U.S. government.

Empathy Essential Reads

Why It’s Healthy to Like Horror

The Surprising Surge of Compassion in Modern Youth

I find such stories inspiring. But the caution is to be respectful in our acting-from-responsibility for the welfare of others. Too much damage has been done by well-meaning folks from wealthier places who arrive in a poor place (e.g., sub-Saharan African country) and think they know what is best for the locals. They usually don't have the understanding of the culture, the lifestyle, the social structures-the on-the-ground knowledge needed to make changes that are positive and lasting. Interventions also need to be transparent, avoid corrupt governments, be fragmented to local initiatives. See William Easterly's work on these matters (links below).

On a personal level, one might have an empathic reaction to a sad situation. But the reaction does not help the victim. It's only with careful deliberation and effort that we can make our empathy into habituated empathic concern, action that helps the homeless and suffering. J.D. Trout, The Empathy Gap, suggests that setting up structures--- like automatic deductions from our paychecks for an aid organization--- are the way to make empathy into certain action. I agree. It's especially worthwhile in a society that encourages distraction from and inattention to the needs of others.

If you are looking to show your empathy in action, food banks in my community are at a low ebb now that summer has come. You might check on the needs of your local food bank and make a donation.

Addendum

Here is a resource a reader pointed out: The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy.