Roots of brutality

Laura Spinney, "Roots of brutality", dans New Scientist, n° 3047, 14 novembre 2015.

Article au sujet du Syndrome E et les travaux d'Itzhak Fried sur la question ainsi que le colloque "The Brains that pull the Triggers", organisé à l'IEA de Paris les 28 et 29 avril 2015.

Extrait de l'article

"Why would an apparently normal young adult drop out of college and turn up some time later in a video performing a cold-blooded execution in the name of jihad? It’s a conundrum we have been forced to ponder ever since a group calling itself ISIS declared war on infidels. But 70 years ago we were asking something similar of guards in Nazi concentration camps – and, sadly, there have been plenty of opportunities to ponder the matter in between.

What turns an ordinary person into a killer? The idea that a civilised human being might be capable of barbaric acts is so alien that we often blame our animal instincts – the older, “primitive” areas of the brain taking over and subverting their more rational counterparts. But fresh thinking turns this long-standing explanation on its head. It suggests that people perform brutal acts because the “higher”, more evolved, brain overreaches. The set of brain changes involved has been dubbed Syndrome E – with E standing for evil."

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