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Surprising Science

What Is Evil, and How Do We Defeat It?

Science says Syndrome-E can tell us who is and isn’t evil, but how we really know and what we can do about it isn’t so simple. 
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We’re hearing a whole lot about evil these days.

You may have heard about something called Syndrome E — it’s not a plot point of a 1960s science fiction movie, although it sounds like one. It’s when the more advanced part of the brain, the part in charge of decision-making and risk-taking (the prefrontal cortex) goes so far into overdrive that it overrides the signals from the more primitive parts of the brain, like the fear center (the amygdala).

The “E” in this case stands for evil. But what is evil? Who is evil? And what can we do about it?

One mode of investigating evil, presented by Dr. Michael Stone.

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