Zero Degrees of Empathy and Evil

In this posting I want to set out some thoughts about evil and empathy rather than pursuing a specific argument. My starting point is Simon Baron-Cohen’s book (2011, Zero Degrees of Empathy, Allen Lane.) Baron-Cohen defines empathy as follows,

“Empathy is our ability to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling, and to respond to their thoughts and feelings with an appropriate emotion.” (Page 11)

However it might be questioned whether a lack of empathy is really directly connected to evil. Consider the Milgram experiments. These experiments involved the participants in giving what they believed to be very large electric shocks to a learner. In practice there were no real shocks and the learner was really an actor who faked his response. This experiment raises two questions. Firstly were the participants doing something evil? It seems clear to me they were. Secondly did these participants lack empathy? There were 40 volunteer participants in the trial all male whose ages ranged between 20 and 50 and whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. Let it be accepted that sociopaths who lack all empathy can commit evil acts. However it seems improbable to me that Milgram could have picked 40 sociopaths for his experiment and that at least some of the participants must have had some degree of empathy. It follows evil acts can be committed by both people who lack and possess empathy.

Baron-Cohen suggests that the extremes of evil are usually relegated to the unanalysable, see page 100. The question immediately arises why do we want to analyse the term evil? Perhaps analysing the term evil might be useful in some contexts? Consider the case of Josef Fritzl who imprisoned and raped his daughter Elisabeth. It seems to me the term evil is useful in this context by simply expressing our moral disgust at Fritzl’s actions. To re-describe Fritzl’s actions as lacking in empathy rather than evil would seem to be much less effective way of expressing our disgust. The term evil simply doesn’t need analysing in this context. However the term evil may have other uses. Baron-Cohen further suggests we can replace the terms ‘evil’ and ‘cruelty’ with the term ‘empathy’ in relation to those with zero negative empathy, see page 65. I will assume here by ‘empathy’ he means ‘lack of empathy’. It seems obvious that simply labelling people like Fritzl simply as evil is not useful in the context of explaining their actions. This context includes both the causes of evil and the way it spreads. Indeed in this context such simple labelling prevents explanation. In the rest of this posting I want to examine the causes of evil and the reasons for its spread. In order to do so I want to differentiate between two categories of people who commit evil acts. Firstly there are people who do evil acts but who do not conceive the acts. They simply propagate these acts. Secondly some people cause evil, originate the evil acts that they and others propagate.

I will consider those who cause, originate, evil first. It seems to me there are three main reasons why people originate evil. Firstly they commit an evil act when pursuing some other goal; for instance the CEO of some company, who knowingly lets his company pollute the environment near to a factory, hereby causing birth defects, in order to maximise profits. Secondly some people simply enjoy the infliction of suffering. Lastly evil is committed to further some greater cause; for instance the purification of the Germanic race or a jihad against the infidels. In this last case the perpetrators of evil may actually see themselves as acting for the best especially if they understand morality in a utilitarian way. None of the above reasons for the origin of evil depend directly on the perpetrators of evil having zero degrees of empathy. The CEO may love his wife and children. The torturer who enjoys suffering may actually need some partial form of empathy with his victim in order to increase his pleasure. He needs the ability to identify what his victim is thinking or feeling even if he lacks an appropriate response. And lastly a Jihadist may have started his Jihad because of his empathy for fellow Moslems. In the light of the above it would appear there is nothing to be gained by simply re-describing people who originate evil as people possessing near zero degrees of empathy rather than evil people. Nonetheless it is true that some people who originate evil acts do have a zero degree of empathy. Does having a zero degree explain the origin of evil in these cases? It would appear not. For as Baron-Cohen points out people with Asperger Syndrome and mild autism often develop a moral code through systemizing rather than empathy and as a result would appear to be no more likely to originate evil than anyone else, see page 84. It would appear having a zero degree of empathy is not useful in explaining why some people originate evil.

Nonetheless Baron-Cohen is correct to connect evil and empathy. A lack of empathy may not originate evil but if someone has sufficient empathy his empathy might act like a vaccine preventing him from originating evil. Sufficient empathy may be very important in controlling what we can think of as permissible. Indeed I would suggest that in the Western World the re-description of the civilian victims of bombing as collateral damage might be seen as an unconscious, at least I hope unconscious, attempt to limit our empathy. After all we describe famine victims as victims and not as the collateral damage caused by drought. It is an interesting question as to what proportion of evil doers are capable of originating evil. Perhaps this question is open to empirical research.

I now want to consider the possible causes for the propagation of evil? I would suggest three main interconnected causes. Firstly it seems clear from the Milgram experiment that respect for authority is a factor. In this experiment the experimenter told the teacher either it was essential to continue, the experiment required that he continue or that he had no choice but to go on. The experimenter would seem to be a figure of some authority. The second cause is linked to the first. Most people seem to find some sort of reassurance that what they are doing the right thing if others behave in a similar fashion. The Herd Instinct seems to confer some sort of legitimacy to their actions. The Herd Instinct means people tend to act as others do and their individuality declines. Lastly if the number of people contributing to an evil act is large enough individuals may not see themselves as really responsible for the act. The trouble is no one else may see themselves as responsible for the act. I argued in my posting of 24/05/11 that in such situations responsibility becomes smeared, see also Parfit (1984, Reasons and Persons, Oxford, page 80).

What then might be done to combat the propagation of evil? I argued above a lack of empathy does not cause someone to propagate evil. In addition I suggested if someone has sufficient empathy his empathy might act like a vaccine preventing him from originating evil. I believe this suggestion also applies to the propagation of evil. Intuitively it seems plausible that increasing someone’s empathy might help him resist both authority and herd pressure in his dealings with others. I am however doubtful that increasing someone’s empathy will make him more aware of his responsibilities. Empathy might be increased in at least three ways. Firstly, John Bowlby’s attachment theory shows that children who experience stable loving parenting are likely to grow up well adjusted to the world. This good adjustment may be partly due to an increased capacity to feel empathy, see my posting of 30/03/09. Attachment theory predicts trans-generational effects so it follows that society should take active steps to enable parents, especially mothers, who experienced attachment problems as children become good parents. Someone might object I am encouraging the nanny state and that parenting is a purely personal matter. Let it be accepted bad parenting harms children. Mill argued “that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” (1859, On Liberty, quote from Penguin Books 1974 page 72.) In the light of the above it would appear that my objector must either accept that the state should be concerned with good parenting or that the state does not have a duty to prevent harm to others. In the real world we of course accept that the state has a duty to prevent harm to children by our acceptance that the state has a duty to ensure children’s education. What steps can the state take to aid good parenting? One way in the UK might be to use the Sure Start scheme. Sure Start was originally conceived as means of teaching poor parents to parent. It has now become popular with parents because it gives them free day care and other benefits. Perhaps it is time Sure Start returned to its original goal of enabling ‘poor parents’ become better parents when ‘poor parent’ simply means one lacking in parenting skills. However not all ‘poor’ parents will use the scheme. Perhaps poor parents might be encouraged to use the scheme by nurses at pre natal checks. Another way of encouraging good parenting might be a campaign similar to the one designed to encourage healthy eating by consuming five portions of fruit or vegetables a day as suggested by Chris Paterson for Centre Forum, see http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/parenting-matters.pdf .

Secondly it is possible that individual empathy flourishes better in less individualistic and more caring societies. Robert Cialdini’s work has shown if we give someone something he is likely to reciprocate, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini. Cialdini’s work is based on giving and not on expressing an emotion. However it seems plausible that the expression of an emotion leads others to reciprocate. Anger leads to anger and perhaps empathy to empathy. It is possible that a more empathic society might increase individual empathy. Someone might object that the above is too simplistic. He might point out there are angry people, empathic people but there are no angry or empathic societies. I accept my objectors point. I would however suggest societies in which people feel at ease are societies which contain less angry and more empathic individuals. I would further suggest people might feel more at ease in caring, giving societies. Lastly in a more speculative vein in the future we might be able to enhance our natural empathy by biomedical means. For instance Paul Zak has shown oxytocin delivered as a nasal spray increases our natural empathy, see http://www.luiss.it/esa2007/programme/papers/3.pdf .

In the light of the above it might appear that we should embrace all three of these means of increasing our natural empathy in order to combat the spread of evil. However I would urge caution. Firstly caution is needed with all biomedical enhancements. Secondly the above appearance depends on the assumption that increased empathy will reduce evil. However we should consider exactly how empathy might be increased. Empathy might be increased in two ways. Firstly empathy might be increased by increasing the empathy we feel towards those people who we already feel empathic concern for. Secondly it might be increased by increasing the range of people we feel empathic concern for; it might increase our domain of empathic concern. I would suggest simply increasing empathy, whilst desirable, is not always useful in combating the spread of evil. For instance if the empathy Germans felt for Germans under the third Reich had been increased it is extremely doubtful whether this increase would have prevented the Holocaust. It follows if we are serious about using increased empathy to combat the spread of evil that we must pay attention to increasing the domain of empathy in addition to increasing empathy in general.

The second cause of the propagation of evil I mentioned above was the herd instinct. For instance when crossing the road a Leeds University study discovered pedestrians are likely to act as a herd, blindly following other pedestrians, see http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-pedestrians-herd-instinct-road.html . It therefore seems quite plausible someone might blindly follow others, the herd, in propagating evil. One way of combating the herd instinct is to encourage individuality. It might then be suggested encouraging empathy damages individuality. Accepting this suggestion gives us a further reason to be cautious about simply increasing our empathy if we are seriously thinking about combating evil. However I would reject such a suggestion. I don’t believe building a more caring society must inevitably damage individuality. Firstly if we attempt to increase empathy by encouraging good parenting it seems likely any increase in empathy will not damage individuality. In what follows I will assume individuality means the capacity to act autonomously. Bowlby’s attachment theory predicts children with firm attachment will be more confident in exploring relationships with others. This confidence should increase rather than decrease their capacity to act autonomously. Moreover this confidence to explore their relationships with others should expand the domain of their empathic concern. The second way in which we might encourage empathy I listed above was to foster more caring and giving societies. I see no reason why increasing empathy by this means should damage individuals capacity for autonomy provided this is done from a position of epistemic humility. I believe truly beneficent care must involve adopting a position of epistemic humility, see my posting of 19/06/08. Building a more caring society from such a position means we must give priority to respecting the autonomy of others and provided we do so we should not damage individuality. Unfortunately even if we increase empathy by building a more caring society does not automatically follow that we increase the domain of our empathic concern, which is what I have suggested, is really needed to combat evil. It seems to me that the way our society is structured may be much more likely to increase empathy than by increasing how much it cares. Lastly it seems it may be possible to enhance our natural empathy by biomedical means. I would argue such enhancement should not be attempted if it damages our capacity for autonomy. In addition there appears to be some evidence from Zak’s experiments that such enhancement may only increase our empathic concern for those we already feel some empathy for, rather than expanding the domain of our empathic concern.

I have considered using increased empathy like a vaccine to combat the spread of evil caused by either deference to authority or an inability to resist the herd instinct. However I have suggested increasing empathy may not increase our sense of responsibility. In addition men as a whole feel less empathy than women. Lastly there are some people are incapable of feeling any empathy at all. In the light of these facts are there then any other means of combating the spread of evil? It is possible that increasing individuality might help in combating the spread of evil. I would suggest seeing ourselves as individuals rather than part of a herd increases our ideas of responsibility. Individuality can only flourish in a tolerant society and it might appear that a tolerant society is simply one accepting Mill’s dictum “that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” However as with the domain of empathic concern mentioned above there might be a problem with the domain of ‘civilised community’. For instance a large number of whites in apartheid South Africa did not regard non whites as part of their ‘civilised community’ and as a result many evil acts were tolerated. It follows simply accepting Mill’s dictum is not enough to ensure toleration or prevent evil. Perhaps however if we accept his dictum should apply to all autonomous creatures we might live in a more tolerant society which encourages individuality hence lessening the propagation of evil.

In conclusion I would suggest the methods discussed above can control the spread of evil acts to some degree. Unfortunately I believe these methods will do less to prevent the occurrence of evil acts such as those committed recently in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik.