People Who Believe In Pure Evil Support Harsher Punishments For Perpetrators Of Violence

By Emily Reynolds Whether you believe in such a thing as “pure evil” — that there are individuals inherently predisposed to intentionally harming others — can fundamentally change how you see the world. Strong belief in pure evil, for example, has been linked to increased support for the death penalty, torture, and racial prejudice. Now a new study, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, has looked at the link between belief in pure evil and the attributes we ascribe to perpetrators of violence. Focusing on mass shootings in the US, the team once again finds a relationship between belief in pure evil and harsher approaches to punishment. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four articles from USA Today, all of which they believed were real, about a mass shooting at a shopping mall. Two of these articles mentioned that the shooter had a brain tumour, and contained a fictitious quote from a neuroscientist explaining how the tumour may have affected the shooter’s behaviour. The other two noted that the perpetrator’s brain scan looked normal. The articles also differed in how the shooter’s behaviour and traits were described. In the “stereotypically evil” condition, the shooter stated that they had enjoyed the act, while a quote from a security guard described the perpetrator as “smiling, smug… like he got some thrill out of doing it”. In the “non-stereotypically evil” condition the sec...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Forensic Terrorism Source Type: blogs