Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Murder - Hardcover

Waller, James E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195180933 ISBN 13: 9780195180930

Publisher: OUP USA, 2007

Synopsis

Social psychologist James Waller uncovers the internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts of evil. Waller offers a sophisticated and comprehensive psychological view of how anyone can potentially participate in heinous crimes against humanity. He outlines the evolutionary forces that shape human nature, the individual dispositions that are more likely to engage in acts of evil, and the context of cruelty in which these extraordinary acts can emerge. Eyewitness accounts are presented at the end of each chapter. In this second edition, Waller has revised and updated eyewitness accounts and substantially reworked Part II of the book, removing the chapter about human nature and evolutionary adaptations, and instead using this evolutionary perspective as a base for his entire model of human evil.

About this title

Review

.,."offers a psychological explanation as to why some human beings are so deliberately harmful to others...A fascinating glimpse of evolutionary psychology is presented... an eyewitness account of inhumanity."--Journal of American Medicine Association
."..offers a psychological explanation as to why some human beings are so deliberately harmful to others...A fascinating glimpse of evolutionary psychology is presented... an eyewitness account of inhumanity."--Journal of American Medicine Association

..".offers a psychological explanation as to why some human beings are so deliberately harmful to others...A fascinating glimpse of evolutionary psychology is presented... an eyewitness account of inhumanity."--Journal of American Medicine Association

..".offers a psychological explanation as to why some human beings are so deliberately harmful to others...A fascinating glimpse of evolutionary psychology is presented... an eyewitness account of inhumanity."--Journal of American Medicine Association

About the Author

James E. Waller is a Professor and Chair in the Psychology Department at Whitworth College.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195180933
• ISBN 13: 9780195180930
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 384