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The Situation of Genocide
Posted on December 5, 2008
Courtney Yager of CNN has an interesting piece on the work of Harvard University psychiatrist Robert Lifton, who has studied the psychology of genocides and found that situational factors can lead any human to partake in genocides. Yager discusses the work of other social scientists who have come to similar conclusions. We excerpt the story […]
Posted in History, Life, Public Policy | Leave a Comment »
Another Century of Genocide?
Posted on October 9, 2007
Earlier this year I posted an overview of my recent research demonstrating psychological mechanisms that can lead good, compassionate people, and their governments, to become numbly indifferent when the number of innocent victims becomes large, as in genocide. Failure to intervene to prevent or stop genocide has occurred repeatedly during the past century, as documented […]
Posted in Conflict, Emotions, Politics, Public Policy | 2 Comments »
“Ordinary Men” in Evil Situations
Posted on October 3, 2013
A few excerpts from an outstanding 1992 New York Times book review by Walter Reich of Christopher Browning’s remarkable book, “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland“: We know a lot about how the Germans carried out the Holocaust. We know much less about how they felt and what they […]
Posted in Conflict, History, Ideology, Morality, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Seeing Violence; Doing Violence
Posted on June 26, 2013
From Case Western Reserve University on Newswise: Aggression in school-age children may have its origins in children 3 years old and younger who witnessed violence between their mothers and partners, according to a new Case Western Reserve University study. “People may think children that young are passive and unaware, but they pay attention to what’s […]
Posted in Life | Leave a Comment »
Marines Defiling Dead Taliban – Might Recent Neuroscience Shed Light?
Posted on January 11, 2012
From The Daily Princetonian: Failure in the part of the brain that controls social functions could explain why regular people might commit acts of ruthless violence, according to new study by a University research team. A particular network in the brain is normally activated when we meet someone, empathize with him and think about his […]
Posted in Conflict, Neuroeconomics, Situationist Contributors | Leave a Comment »
Pinker on the Changing Situation of Violence
Posted on November 21, 2011
From the Harvard Gazette: Steven Pinker wants you to know that violence has declined. Despite civil wars in Africa and the Mideast, ongoing strife in Afghanistan, and the barrage of local and national crimes reported on the nightly news, people are living in a much more peaceful era than they might think. “During the thousands […]
Posted in Altruism, Conflict, Education | Leave a Comment »
Psychic Numbing
Posted on October 8, 2011
Situationist Contributor, Paul Slovic and his co-authors (including Situationist friend, Andrew Woods) just posted their superb chapter, titled “Psychic Numbing and Mass Atrocity” (in The Behavioral Foundations of Policy, E. Shafir, ed., Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton University Press, 2011) on SSRN. Here’s the abstract. * * * The 20th Century is often said to […]
Posted in Abstracts, Altruism, Book, Distribution, Morality, Situationist Contributors | Leave a Comment »
The Neuro-Situation of Violence and Empathy
Posted on April 11, 2010
From EurekaAlert: “Just as our species could be considered the most violent, since we are capable of serial killings, genocide and other atrocities, we are also the most empathetic species, which would seem to be the other side of the coin”, Luis Moya Albiol, lead author of the study and a researcher at the UV, […]
Posted in Abstracts, Conflict, Emotions | 2 Comments »
Steven Pinker Speaks at Harvard Law School
Posted on December 17, 2009
From HLS in Focus (describing the new student group working with the Project on Law and Mind Sciences (PLMS) at Harvard Law School and the fascinating talk that Stephen Pinker recently gave there). * * * “SALMS” is a recently formed group whose acronym stands for: Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences. They are […]
Posted in Choice Myth, Conflict, Events, History, Life | 1 Comment »
Steven Pinker at Harvard Law School
Posted on November 16, 2009
On Tuesday, November 17, The HLS Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS) and the HLS Harvard Graduate Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) Steering Committee are hosting a talk by Steven Pinker entitled “A History of Violence: How We Became Less Violent.” Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the […]
Posted in Events, History | 2 Comments »
Martha Minow Named Dean of Harvard Law School
Posted on June 11, 2009
Marth Minow has been a leading legal scholar and teacher for the last several decades and has been on the cutting edge of applying insights from social psychology and social cognition to her important research over the last several years. Today, she was named Dean of Harvard Law School. This is wonderful news for Harvard […]
Posted in Education, Law | Leave a Comment »
Sad News
Posted on December 11, 2008
From Stanford Report, by Adam Gorlick (December 11, 2009): * * * Robert Zajonc, pioneer of social psychology, dies at 85 He witnessed and survived some of the worst of human behavior to become one of the world’s leading experts on how people behave. And during the 85 years between his birth in Poland and […]
Posted in Classic Experiments, Education, Emotions, Life | 2 Comments »
