Are You Good or Evil?
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Are You Good or Evil?

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Ratings: 6.69/10 from 42 users.

What makes us good or evil? It's a simple but deeply unsettling question. One that scientists are now starting to answer.

Horizon meets the researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers.

But there was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us.

We meet the scientist who believes he has found the moral molecule and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.

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$138279268
$138279268
9 years ago

It's really a choice. Evil isn't born or genetic. Just a poor decision some people make, like a choice to study for an exam the night before or to slack off and watch television instead.

Psychopaths aren't born, they are made and in some cases, self-made.

notsobigspender
notsobigspender
10 years ago

Has anyone ever done a "reverse" test of what was in the documentary (the experiment with the men paying rugby)? In other words, take KNOWN violent offenders/criminals and test their levels of oxytocin and testosterone. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF AN EXPERIMENT LIKE THIS HAS EVER BEEN PERFORMED?

katie
katie
10 years ago

this is interesting

Roy Nusser
Roy Nusser
10 years ago

I am neither and I am both. I am a part of nature.

Roy Nusser
Roy Nusser
10 years ago

I am neither and I am both. I am a part of nature.

Singapoera
Singapoera
11 years ago

Humans are equiped with a mechanism that allows survival of the species. In a healthy human this sometimes calls for self preservation, sometimes for acts of selflessness to let others survive. When this mechanism gets disturbed, excesses occur. That has nothing to do with good or evil.

Mike Mathwig
Mike Mathwig
11 years ago

The center of evil(lucifer) is ...........lazyness.

Zorthax
Zorthax
11 years ago

I seek to hang my families organs across the walls of my room, yet i do all i can to protect them from myself. Id be willing to give my life to save a man who has tortured me, yet i constantly think about torturing him in ways he couldn't even hope to imagine. People see me as good, and having a good life, but my own mind is torturing me. What the hell is wrong with me?!

alans
alans
11 years ago

If you write a dissertation in the comments section, then you might be a psychopath.

Frank Stapp
Frank Stapp
11 years ago

Fascinating study which brings up as many questions as it answers. Environment and genes interact in certain ways to make it probable that you may behave in certain ways. Poor impulse control continues to be a major factor in people's lives.

Kittenjsr
Kittenjsr
11 years ago

I think it would be hard to test babies, I mean, they can understand some things but how on earth are they going to be able to make a moral choice? I think, like most animals, babies are born with just the instinct of self-preservation. Nothing else matters at that stage of life.

diredamsel
diredamsel
11 years ago

I completely resent this black-and-white, binary idea of morality and behavior. It is so much more complex than that. Most people can be 'good' one day and 'bad' another, and the rest (psychopaths etc.) are few and far between. Nature and nurture, life experiences, genetics, all of these things can affect the demeanor of a human being on a day to day basis. Yin and yang is evident in all things in different ratios.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
11 years ago

At 4:11 behavioural scientists (controllers) have been playing out these scenarios for decades whereby participants are given the option of sacrificing one person in order to save the group. There have been examples of people overcoming this by disobeying the 'rules' thinking outside the parametre set as 'either or' but this does not produce the desired response. Most people like in the Milgram experiment will just do as they're told without question which is the desired result.This VR allows no collboration or thought just 'see/do'.

As Drones (civilian track and kill) are operated remotely as are CCTV's, it's useful to see how ordinary (media programmed) people respond to VR situations as the only available work will be of this nature. Can they depend on the general public to operate their police state? All military training is done virtually prior to any real time or field action. People can easily be trained to 'recognise' a target from among crowds as determined by the Stasi.

Yes, if they can get us to over ride our imperatives to 'do good' when confronted by a real situation (all these things are potty training, predictive programming techniques) it's going to make life hell of course but then hell
doesn't exist either, does it?

The point of empathy is one of utmost necessity for survival; it is our true defense against attack and extinction. This is why life is made so painful and frustrating for all; so we'll run like hell from the pain of empathic emotions, block it out (meds nice profit, zombie drone zone) reframe it (NLP mind morphing dissassociation) subvert and suppress it, leading to breakdowns.

Power Elites have waged war on nature and natural mankind ... if they could irradicate that messy painful business of empathy, conscience and higher reasoning, then we're like the 3 Wise Monkeys.

What happened to them? As they refused to hear the 'evil' of men in the forests, they failed to 'see' them until too late, therefore they never got to speak about the evil approaching or warn their fellows.

Ended up in a lab being horribly tortured for the rest of their lives. Endlessly fascinated by their own condition, the Military Psychopathic Elites permeate their psychopolitically created 'Kulture' with their own insane psychotic lack of the right stuff.

As they 'lack' something or the brain has been damaged to a point of specialised retardation by traumas, they rule by brutality via mass military drone forces who are barely human, terrorised through infancy to adulthood by sodomy and MK UlTRA grooming.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
11 years ago

Those apes, Freud, Darwin, Hawkins, Einstein ... making 'man' in their own image; down to their smut gutter insane debasement through the appliance of science producing nothing but instruments of torture, distruction and extinction.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
11 years ago

Do As Thou Wilt Crowleism 'Liberty (from Law) Equality (in class) Fraternity is Sodomitic Brotherhood. These days, 'Equality, Diversity, Sustainability'. Transhumanism: NO ENTRY planet earth: Strictly by Invitation Only.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
11 years ago

Before I start, imagine this is part of the ongoing dialogue in the 'change agent' field to convince people who don't know any better, that there is 'no such thing' as good or evil. The New Age Gurus and their channelled demons say so, that's why. There has to be something to justify the hell a-coming and replace the abolished religions with something universal: Enlightenment or Luciferianism, and if you check out David Spanger of UN and Michael Aquino of Temple of Set then there you have it: no good, no evil, just 'is'.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
11 years ago

Been studying 'the other' that which is not (psychopath) for going on 40 years: it's what passes for authorised history as it is both an inherited trait and one which can be induced by brain trauma, psychotropic medications etc. So will watch this as far as the olde BS detector gets triggered. As for the comments of Atheists on the question of no soul, or conscience, how they wish. But it is to bear in mind that those 'scholars' which they follow like sheep to the sermon preachers are absolutely 100% iredeemably psychopathic themselves.

Dexter22
Dexter22
11 years ago

A soul is a joke, there is actually no evidence at all for the existence of it, and is based on emotional values, because some if not all, would prefer it be true for the knowledge of being "special". therefore(the no evidence part) it is the most illogical explanation for anything. Anything that wants to be count as an explantion for anything, must be able to be investigated, provide evidence, else it cant hold any significance as truth, for it is not open to discussion. that is the scientific way, and the only sensable way to knowledge that we know of.

"The human language for example is so unique that it cannot have evolved from previous animals or chimps"

it sad to see such language from a descendant of a what we would call apes.

Evolution is a fact, theologians agree on that, so should you. not by what i'm saying just now, but the mountains of evidence that surpass the evidence for gravity,
therefor any ability a person has or could gain, is a product of evolution.

A conscience mind is a product of your brain, and the brain is a product of evolution.

your saying it doesnt exist, on the mere fact, that you dont like the way it sounds, im guessing which is not an argument at all for any explanation given. that is childish and pathetic, u dont have any evidence for your own argument, of immaterial logic, how can something immaterial, be based on anything? because of a creator ? the ones who to prove a point, will ask a father to sacrifice its son? that is no sense moralistic or anyone who you should take any advice from.

this is just a guess, that your a theist.

lets just say the cognitive neurobiologists are closing in,
they have mostly uncovered the processes of emotion, motor movement, somatosensation, which they can see is a product of brain structure. why not free will, in what sense should it be possible to love someone, based on biological processes, and not being able to construct free will?

íf im shown that you can get love neurobiochemically, and lets just say that it turns in psychology then you can get me to check out, and propably believe on grounds of reason, that it is at least possible to get free will out of neurobiochemical processes.

again you insisting on language, is the same lame poking the holes, as they did when they said that evolution couldnt make the eye.

and if you get some articles by leading experts, they are certainly able to fully, or at least mosly cover the evolutionary ability of speech, which many animals posses, only in a smaller sense.

Sorry for the juggled message if it is read so.

nice quote from the bible Troy.
"Believing, are the ignorant"

and anyone who adores an entity of any kind, that asks his believers to sacrifice ones own child should reflect on their stated moral determinism.

Dexter22
Dexter22
11 years ago

A soul is a joke, there is actually no evidence at all for the existence of it, and is based on emotional values, because some if not all, would prefer it be true for the knowledge of being "special". therefore(the no evidence part) it is the most illogical explanation for anything. Anything that wants to be count as an explantion for anything, must be able to be investigated, provide evidence, else it cant hold any significance as truth, for it is not open to discussion. that is the scientific way, and the only sensable way to knowledge that we know of.

"The human language for example is so unique that it cannot have evolved from previous animals or chimps"

it sad to see such language from a descendant of a what we would call apes.

Evolution is a fact, theologians agree on that, so should you. not by what i'm saying just now, but the mountains of evidence that surpass the evidence for gravity,
therefor any ability a person has or could gain, is a product of evolution.

A conscience mind is a product of your brain, and the brain is a product of evolution.

your saying it doesnt exist, on the mere fact, that you dont like the way it sounds, im guessing which is not an argument at all for any explanation given. that is childish and pathetic, u dont have any evidence for your own argument, of immaterial logic, how can something immaterial, be based on anything? because of a creator ? the ones who to prove a point, will ask a father to sacrifice its son? that is no sense moralistic or anyone who you should take any advice from.

this is just a guess, that your a theist.

lets just say the cognitive neurobiologists are closing in,
they have mostly uncovered the processes of emotion, motor movement, somatosensation, which they can see is a product of brain structure. why not free will, in what sense should it be possible to love someone, based on biological processes, and not being able to construct free will?

íf im shown that you can get love neurobiochemically, and lets just say that it turns in psychology then you can get me to check out, and propably believe on grounds of reason, that it is at least possible to get free will out of neurobiochemical processes.

again you insisting on language, is the same lame poking the holes, as they did when they said that evolution couldnt make the eye.

and if you get some articles by leading experts, they are certainly able to fully, or at least mosly cover the evolutionary ability of speech, which many animals posses, only in a smaller sense.

Sorry for the juggled message if it is read so.

"Believing, are the ignorant"

Lynsee
Lynsee
12 years ago

Ok, so, this is just a thought I want to throw out there. I'm having a go at swallowing how drastic the verdict was for that case, and I got to thinking how this jury of peers came to such a conclusion... And I started to wonder whether these people can even be considered peers at all. I mean, there is a a genetic difference between that man and those people now, science has high lighted it, even drew pictures to keep them entertained.
Can we even begin to say he wasn't responsible for his actions? I'm more likely to tell someone off then my boyfriend; thus, I work harder to bite my tongue. There are lots of people who have that gene, that brain pattern, that do not kill others. He might have different factors than most of us, it doesn't make it right. That was a bad verdict; and puts everyone else at risk.

Troy Knudson
Troy Knudson
12 years ago

Psalm 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

Troy Knudson
Troy Knudson
12 years ago

Romans 5:12
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned."

Chris Glynn
Chris Glynn
12 years ago

Great food for the hungry mind. Where to now, perhaps discovery of the bias if one exists is nature v nurture 50:50, 60:40 ??? How strong are the genetics compared to the social/environmental factors??? A phd is waiting for someone who researches this.

His Forever
His Forever
12 years ago

One more step towards moral relativeism.

mwhist
mwhist
12 years ago

another show telling me most all genes just give u predispositions. And the underlying causes of most could be settled through restructuring society, cities and the like but also how we integrate such with the environment. All genes came from something we just have to figure what causes such to come about.

m l
m l
12 years ago

This documentary leaves out the biggest problem with our society, psychopaths in government. Much more dangerous than the corporate psychopath. Put the two together and you get what we have to day. Google Political Ponerology.....

users.hal-pc.org/~rcanup/problem.html

Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
12 years ago

Excellent, explains a lot

AbdelZ
AbdelZ
12 years ago

That's just the materialistic point of view, guys : too simplistic ,as if we were just chemistry, neurophysiology , biology, ecology ....with no free will , no spirit :

i wonder whether anyone is responsible for one's deeds according to this materialistic optic.

You can say as well that love for example is just ...chemistry, according to this materialistic reductionistic view : silly really .

Those scientists can stigmatise people when they pretend to have a neuro-physiological , genetic profile of psychopaths : reminds me of those silly "scientific facts " pretending to determin the intelligence of people just by measuring the sizes of their skulls or heads haha:

reminds me of those silly IQ tests as if intelligence can be reduced to statistics or as if beauty can be reduced to the size of the noze , the form of the jaw, ...while there are many sorts of intelligence for example science cannot measure .

roxwal
roxwal
12 years ago

we do choose. I believe we choose our entry into this physical world at the soul level before we enter, knowing what we have chosen

Jack1952
Jack1952
12 years ago

An angle that I considered concerning the puppet experiment...maybe a psychopath would choose the good puppet because it appeared to be the one that was easily manipulated. The puppet who ran off with the ball is too independent and therefore too hard to manipulate because its behavior is too erratic. The puppet who rolled the ball back was more trusting and it is this trust a psychopath takes advantage of. Just a thought.

ZarathustraSpeaks
ZarathustraSpeaks
12 years ago

Why odes the good girl look better than the evil girl with horns?

orewatt
orewatt
12 years ago

If the documentary states are true, does that make the likes of Hitler not responsible for their actions?

I seem to remember watching a doc, on a serial killer (physio) and this guy stated in an interview that to blame your actions on your up bringing was a copout.

Seems a bit of a contradiction from where I stand.

As for the warrior gene even the most dull witted must have some idea what crime they want to commit is “out of step”.

ForeverDove
ForeverDove
12 years ago

We need bad people, that's just the way life is.
We need psychopaths and serial killers and mass murderers.
We need nuns and nurses and humanitarians.
Its just balance.
You don't need somebody to tell you weather your good or bad.
If your good, that's good.
If your bad, too bad.
Get over it and move on, the sun is still going to come up in the morning.
And everyone that reads this is still going to die.

So if you want to be good, do something good for those that you love.
And if you want to be bad, do something bad to those that you hate.
And if you're not sure, that's fine, just kick back and eat more pizza.

There's no criteria to how a person should or shouldn't behave.
And if you have scientists and experts trying to find ways to identify and modify a persons behavior, i say to hell with them!

Walk in the light, or creep in the shadows.
If the devil knocks at your door, he/she must want your company.
If there's an angel at your table, feed him/her well.
Everything happens for a reason.

There are no rules to this thing called "Life".
Love who you want to love.
Hate who you want to hate.
Be who you want to be.

tariqxl
tariqxl
12 years ago

In 1986, now declassified by the Russian government, the Russians seeded the radioactive cloud from the Chernobyl meltdown to make it rain radioactive material back down onto Belarus because the cloud was predicted to head directly over Moscow. With a much greater population many more would die but 60% of that material fell on Belarus causing mutant births, cancer and mass relocation. I would like to know what your thoughts are on this as its a typical case of sacrificing the few to save the many but in this extra-ordinary case the 'few' were so many. Truly a test of moral fibre.

awful_truth
awful_truth
12 years ago

A good documentary. In the end, it is only logical to conclude that pyscopathy is a combination of genetics and environment. For those who question whether such things as good and evil exist, (and what that is) may I suggest an easy way to identify evil. In my opinion, all people have the potential for good or evil actions, (no question they exist) it is identifiying them with certainty that is the problem, and here is the solution.
We acquire physical strength from the resistance of gravity. Some people would extend this argument that morality is acquired from the resistance caused by immorality.(evil actions) I say draw the parallel, and ask the question, is gravity evil? I can answer this with a resounding NO. The reason gravity isn't evil is because it effects everyone equally. (what a qauint idea) Man made rules are seldom equitable, making evil easy to identify. (inequity) We all have different levels of strength, intelligence, and financial postion in life. It is the explotation and subjugation over others who have less then we do in these different areas that is evil. Some would have you believe they are clever because they utilize their strength over others. The root cause of these actions are based in your seven deadly sins that we all hear about.(pride, sloth, envy, ect. - no religious connotations intended)
If everyone applied this to all aspects of life, they would easily identify those with immoral intentions,(evil) critical thinking would rule the day, and brainwashing and indoctrination would be minimized. The banking and corporate world wouldn't be robbing everyone blind, the American public wouldn't have supported the attack of Iraq,(for oil) and those who were persecuted by the Nazi's and fled to create Israel couldn't have stolen the homes from the Palestinians who had built them, and justified it as acceptable. Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.(almost everyone) Recently, I watched a documentary on the 3rd Reich where Nazi propaganda films were making statements like, ' the greatest threat to the German people are the Polish terrorists '. (sound familiar???) Here we are 70 years later, and nothing has changed because people refuse to acknowledge(apathy) their actions for what they really are. With that said, if we can't see it in ourselves, no doubt we won't see it from those who would manipulate us for their own ends.(Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Cheney, Ted Bundy - same crap, different pile) The bottom line is this. Anything worth having does not come easy. For evil to be sidelined instead of running the show like it always has, calls for endless vigilance. The second anyone drops their guard, the people with evil intentions will be there waiting to exploit it! This is not clever, it is just evil, but the second you call someone on it, wait and see the list of excuses they use to justify why they deserve more than they have, (especially if they haven't actually earned it - sloth) or why they deserve more than they need. (greed)
Live long and prosper everyone.

tkingsky
tkingsky
12 years ago

A great doc. I really enjoyed it. A few questions arose...scans of schizophrenics show their disease only AFTER it has occurred, leaving me to wonder if it could be true of psychopaths? I wasn't all that shocked to hear that there are a number of psychopaths in high ranking postions in the Corporate World, but to be fair, the same could be said of many areas of society if examined. I was amazed when the fella who was related to Lizzy Borden ended up having the same brain scan as is common with serial killers--yikes! But this too leaves me asking more questions...It was said early on in the doc that serial killers need to do extreme things to feel any emotion--what is it that this fella is doing? Is it his career, etc. "Warrior Gene" brings up many conotations that don't exactly fit the bill. All in all, I love a doc that brings many questions to the surface and makes me have some "wow" moments and if I laugh, I gotta give a 9 outta 10

marcosanthonytoledo
marcosanthonytoledo
12 years ago

The problem is that psychopaths don't in the end think they act for normal people if given time to think and cool down they will not commit the crimes. Thinking is the only thing that will prevent us and putting ourselves in the others place will also stop us from committing crimes.

tomregit
tomregit
12 years ago

Could not watch all of it. The premise that there is absolute good and evil in the world is unprovable and probably unmeasurable. The first three "experiments" were so flawed that they bear no resemblance to science and I watched no further. If women were examined in the rugby test would they show the same level of the rise in testosterone? If not, what would it tell us? Are women less evil than men? Should we keep a close watch on the men with the greatest testosterone rise? All of us have baser instincts that society discourages and we can rise above, and we all have noble instincts which society encourages. "There's a lot of cooperation in the world and we don't know why" is obviously a foolish statement. When there are common goals cooperation ensues among chimps, wolves, whales, dolphins, and not surprisingly, humans. Nature vs nurture is an argument where the pendulum has swung back and forth and most actions are undoubtedly a combination of the two.

Immediately below, Kim Bruce poses a reasonable question which is answered by Far Spam with a lack of empathy. I doubt very much if either of them are evil.

Mass hatred must be indoctrinated into a population by politics, nationalism, militarism, religion, or similar ideals.

Kim Bruce
Kim Bruce
12 years ago

What makes a group of Muslims to go wild in the streets of Cairo and kick the crap out of a Christian Copt until he is dead?
Is this caused by an evil gene? Or is it indoctrination into killing in the name of one's religious ideology?

Mário Silvério
Mário Silvério
12 years ago

The good and bad depends on the eyes that judge it.

Typical example: I am atheist. in front of me are two persons.One tells me, "almost everything is wrong with you, after all you are an atheist". The other tells me, "i see nothing wrong with you, after all you choose to be an atheist."

In this example, we can see the definition of bad and good, without changing the initial condition. Social, cultural, and moral bases are common to all humans as a starter kit at the moment we are born. These "starter kits" change from society to society.

To talk about an absolute definition of good and bad, in my humble opinion, is pure nonsense.This issue is too complex to be talked in such a simplistic manner.

Earthwinger
Earthwinger
12 years ago

Since my last post, I've slept deeply and imbibed copious amounts of coffee, so I'm firing on all cylinders now (or as close to that as I ever get).

Methinks that these studies are fundamentally flawed in that, they start out based on an assumption that good and evil really do exist, and lo and behold, they find evidence that *suggests* exactly that.

I'm not questioning the validity of studying brain activity in differing personality types, I think a fascinating area of study, and very worthwhile. What would be even more interesting though, and possibly a lot more telling, would be to introduce a control group, ie. brain scans of people from indigenous tribal cultures, that don't have psychopaths/serial killers.

I'm going to hypothesize here, and suggest that it's quite likely one would find similar degrees of variance in brain activity. Perhaps in another culture, the sort of patterns that we would ascribe to psychopaths, would be the best hunters, and the other extreme end of the spectrum might be healers or storytellers and the like.

As I said earlier though, pure hypothesis on my part, but I suspect that without such a study, our culture's concept of good and evil is really an untested one, and assumptions based on it, are in all likelihood, inherently flawed.

Of course, without good and evil, there would be no need for organized religions. No great loss there! ;)

natasha0
natasha0
12 years ago

All psychopaths should be taken out of society, and placed in secure laboratories.
Taking the place of animals in medicinal and cosmetic experiments.
Much better than allowing the animals to suffer, they don't care anyway!

Simple Simon says
Simple Simon says
12 years ago

this will explain why Inbreeding is bad and why, torys, zionist, and bnp
types are the way they are, from isolated council estates, isolated
zionist groups and our ruling class are all inbred and have the primitive minds of a less developed human, intelligence has nothing to do with it, it is all to do with developing empathy, many of the researchers of this were from the Zionist group and were shocked to find out that they had high intelligence but though there own test found out that they had no empathy at all, this is why we can no longer let inbred types run anything.

It does explain why the banking families are the way they are and the suffering they have caused us over the ages.

PavolvsBitch
PavolvsBitch
12 years ago

'there's a lot of co-operation in the world but we don't know why' ... there speaks the stupidity of the scientist or psychopath, they just, duh, can't figure it out. The quest for the empathy signature will or is already leading to a brave new generation of psychopaths; remove the code, remove the feeling and experience. That Prof. Bloom looks like he could be Al Gore's brother and THAT's worrying enought. The precious Oxytocin necessary for bonding between mother/child is largely lost with the placenta.

Interesting that the analogy of rugby is used as a metaphor for natural life struggles but the truth is, we have no natural predators and the game of life should be win-win with little cause for 'struggle'. So what and who is the opposing 'force'?

Suprisingly candid talk from the Marines and the admission (rarely aired) that man is by no means a 'natural' killer. Killing to protect life? The same manipulation is done on dogs. A sizeable proportion of the sample range of psycopaths portrayed had one thing in common: Jewry. A dispropotionate number of psychopaths are. They aim to create man in their own image and via chemical/psychological manipulation, they're doing a damn fine job.

Natural selection becomes reality when the military (operated by psychopaths) selectively recruit psychopaths to operate drones, prisons and hospitals. Note how they glamourize the deficiency via 'warrior' genes. Double-think. Scientists should be looking for psychopaths - in the mirror.

They make a mockery of the American Dream - you've got to be a psychopath to enjoy and thrive within the nightmare. They should all be behind bars; the insane have to be contained until there is a proven cure. I think that we used to be able to identify psychopaths through our senses but with their imposition of addictive, limiting technologies, these senses have been largely lost as we have become so image-conscious. There is definitely something missing in the eyes and I'm certain that empathic people are able to tune in to the vacant coldness of these beings.

adilrye
adilrye
12 years ago

I think humans are hard wired for compassion and kindness...evolutionary psychology would tell you that. It just makes no sense for us not to show compassion for our fellow humans.

But the question posed at the end is incredible. Because genes and our early environment tend to shape who we are...do we really "choose" who we are? Are we truly culpable for our actions? That is a dangerous idea for law and justice; how many murderers will be allowed to get off easier because "they are the result of poor genes and a bad childhood" ? What does that mean for the victims and their loved ones? So none of those people are responsible for their actions?

Earthwinger
Earthwinger
12 years ago

I'm really not sure that there's such a thing as good and evil, so I'd question the very basis of this documentary.

I suspect this is all tied in with the school of thought described by the environmentalist, Richard Manning, when he talks about the "cage of civilization" that we've locked ourselves into. People are just people, intrinsically neither good nor evil, but because we've lost touch with who and what we really are, it can and sometimes does, lead to aberrant behaviour.

When you look at indigenous tribes, you just don't see the same sorts of aberrant behaviour patterns that you see in our so called "civilized" societies. I think that's quite telling.

Manning describes it all far better than I could though, so if interested, try searching on Youtube for "Richard Manning on the psychosis of civilization".

CREEPY CREEPER
CREEPY CREEPER
12 years ago

First of all, the initial study was flawed from the get go. The babies tested were already influenced and manipulated subconsciously by what they've already experienced in society (parents, siblings, other relatives, strangers, playmates, television, videos, ...).

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

The more one gets rid of the negative(evil) thoughts, the more one is aware of what remains.
az

Neal Boyd
Neal Boyd
12 years ago

I'm evil, but incompetent. I always do really nice things with the worst intentions... never really pans out right for me.

Eric71Can
Eric71Can
12 years ago

The 3 puppets test is a joke. And they asked to choose between 2 of them, the two almost identical puppets.
I think we are all good and evil, everything depend on your life experience.