Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

“He argues that people who commit evil generally don’t see what they do as evil, but rather as some sort of justified response to a difficult situation.” Read more...

The best books on Cruelty and Evil

Paul Bloom, Psychologist

“Baumeister reviews the various psychological roots of evil, and what we know about them from social psychology, history and criminology. He argues convincingly that aggression does not come from a single motive in humans, but from a variety of motives, such as practical means-end reasoning, moralistic vengeance, dominance and utopian ideologies. The widespread belief that evil acts come from evil minds is itself an interesting psychological phenomenon. Baumeister argues that the human conception of harmdoing, including violence, depends on whether one takes the viewpoint of the perpetrator or of the victim.” Read more...

The best books on The Decline of Violence

Steven Pinker, Psychologist