Customer Reviews

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

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This is the book for anyone who has ever been the victim of a crime and wishes to understand how or why it happened, or whose profession requires frequent contact with perpetrators of evil and who needs to understand the thinking process of such people. I have read several other books on the subject, mostly approaching it from the perspectives of literature, religion or mythology, but these works tend to provide unsatisfying answers to the basic questions of what inspires evil and what causes it to spread. Dr. Baumeister's work answers both of these questions convincingly, along with many others, such as why evil people almost never consider themselves to be evil; why there is not more evil in the world, considering how often evil goes unpunished; why revenge is usually disproportionate to the initial offense and why it settles nothing and often inspires further and greater evil; why drugs and alcohol so often accompany evil and whether they are actually a cause of evil; whether low self-esteem or high self-esteem is more conducive to evil, and the role which self-esteem, and challenges to self-esteem, play in the initiation of evil; and how the perpetrators of evil manage to live with themselves. This is not only the best book I have ever read on the subject; it is the only one I have read which approaches the problem from the standpoint of empirical research rather than mere ideology. It is also extremely well written, accessible to the general reader and generously illustrated with examples from history and current events.

In the course of reviewing over 20 books on the topic of human violence and mass murder, I found this to be far and away the best. Some obviously have problems with the author's attempts to understand and not just demonize killers. I can think of no other way of getting into the heads of those who commit violence in the name of a state, an ideology, an ethnic group, a religion or indeed any other belief system. Confronting the "banality of evil" is indeed an unpleasant exercise, but necessary if we are ever to achieve a deeper understanding of our greatest failing as a species. To summarize, this work is probably the best research-based study of the psychology of human mass violence currently on the market.

Important topic, promising approach, but the insights offered are too few and too shallow.

I bought this book partly on the strength of its readers' reviews here on Amazon, but found myself disappointed. The book's subtitle, "inside human violence and cruelty," promises much, but the author, I feel, has not really delivered.

A social psychologist, Baumeister avoids a philosophical and theological discussion of evil in favor of a psychological one, based on facts gleaned from history and experiment. This approach is attractive and promising, but somehow, in almost 400 long pages, not much seems to come of it. Too often I felt that the insights offered by Baumeister were mere banalities, such as that evil acts are experienced more strongly by victims than by their perpetrators--a point Baumeister repeats many, many times.

The author uses this observation to conclude that "evil is in the eye of the beholder"--and even launches the book with a clever anecdote about an event in which two people see each other as evildoers, despite no intentional act of harm being committed. But this is surely a special case, and not comparable to the operation of a system of death-camps, or hacking apart defenseless people huddling for safety in a church. Baumeister takes pains (repeatedly) to stress that he wants to see evil acts through the perpetrators' eyes, and not prejudge events from the perspective of victims, but the result is an uneasy or indecisive tone that wavers between a normal-sounding condemnation of evil and a moral relativism that really believes that evil is merely in the eye of the beholder--that is, there's no such thing as evil, as long as you're the one perpetrating it.

Baumeister finds four basic psychological causes of evil: greed/lust/ambition, or evil as a means to an end; revenge for insulted egotism; ideological evil; and actual sadism--deriving pleasure from harming others. The author discusses each of these at length, but does not come up with many conclusions. He observes that crime, for the most part, does not pay as well as even the lowest-level jobs, and that people who commit crimes generally have a poor idea of the long-term consequences of their actions. This, to me, is another banal point, not an insight that requires much discussion.

Baumeister makes much of his conclusion that standard psychology is wrong when it attributes violent, bullying behavior to low self-esteem; he feels that the facts show that bullies and violent people in fact have high self-esteem, in the sense of high or even inflated regard for themselves. As an example, he points out that convicted, incarcerated rapists often think of themselves as "superachievers." Technically this might be called high self-esteem, but I would call it delusional, and I think there is a difference. Maybe I'm alone here, but I think of high self-esteem as being realistic and adaptive, not the fragile egotism of the narcissist. Baumeister spends much time trying to disprove the "low self-esteem" model of violent behavior, but I was never persuaded.

My overall impression is that there is length here, but not depth. I did not feel I got "inside" human violence and cruelty. Having read only the first chapter or so of James Waller's "Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing", I already feel that I am getting a much deeper and also more sympathetic view of how and why evil is committed, from a social-psychological perspective.

Roy examines the mechanisms in the human psyche that make evil attractive while preventing self-knowledge and recognition that what one is doing is in fact evil. It is refreshing to read that there is a time and place for guilt - according to Baumeister guilt serves as the only effective restraint on evil behavior. According to the author, evil is caused by four basic factors; desire for money or power, threatened personal egotism, idealism, and/or the prusuit of sadistic pleasure. Although people tend to assume that most evil is due to the latter cause, in reality it is rare.

In most cases people avoid perceiving their activities as evil by concentrating on the methodology of their activities, avoiding empathizing with the victim, and/or believing that the end justifies the means. Thus in order to effectively combat evil, one must expose it publicly and strip away the illusions of the perpetrators. The historical arguments for this which the author provides are compelling. I would recommend this book as good therapy for anyone who has been the victim of evil. It is also very useful as a tool to clarify choices for anyone caught up in a moral dilemma. Particularly helpful should be Roy's discussion that resulting human suffering, not personal or idealistic motivation, is the better tool for judging whether a particular planned action might be evil.

I have taught a course on violence and culture for a few years, and the last few times I have taught it, I have included this book as a required reading. It is smart, organized, and engaging. Students really enjoy it for its analytical clarity and its rich descriptions. It is an important read for anyone interested in the human roots of violence.
As he points out, the "myth of pure evil" asserts that "evil" is a force or entity apart from us, rather than behavior that we engage in. WE are always good and innocent, but THEY are always evil and solely responsible for the bad in our life. That is just silly.
Baumeister's analyses of the group effect, the root causes of violence (we should stop using the term "evil" altogether, since one person's evil is another person's noble truth), the escalating factors, and more are valuable to anyone who is seriously interested in why we normal regular humans perform violence sometimes and even feel good about it...or feel nothing at all.
I integrated insights from this book, as well as many other sources, including Zimbardo's work, Kreisberg's work, and many cross-cultural studies into my own recent book, "Violence and Culture" (Wadsworth 2005). If we want to do anything about violence, we must understand it realistically, not just attribute it to some irrational, foreign, and sadistic force or being that could never just be us. As Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments illustrated, it could be and has been us.

"Evil", in the strict sense of the word, might best have been left out of the title of this book. Baumeister does an excellent job of explaining the inner workings of the human psyche as it pertains to cruelty and violence. These actions are deeply or thinly veiled in all humans and held in check by the strength of ones self control and/or morality. A small step at a time could lead any human to acts of cruelty or violence, scarcely noticing the descending path one has taken. I wouldn't say that this book is light reading and it is sometimes disturbing, but it is well worth the effort for anyone who seeks insight into the darker sides of humanity. Beware, you might recognise some small part of yourself within these pages.

I am a subscriber of Scientific American and was referred to this book by their recommendation.

This remarkable book begins to give us a firm basis for hope, because it provides a deep and accurate understanding of evil. This well researched and well written book examines and discredits the "myth of pure evil", and instead rigorously examines the point of view of real perpetrators to understand the true causes of evil.

After adopting the simple definition of "intentional harm to other people", the author identifies the four roots of evil as greed, egotism, idealism, and sadism, and explores each of these in depth. He dispels the popular misunderstanding that low self-esteem is a major contributor to violent behavior. Instead his careful analysis establishes that people who have high self-esteem, but lack a firm basis for that belief, are especially prone to be violent. He describes how an ordinary person crosses the line into evil, how evil spreads, and how perpetrators deal with guilt. After examining the provocative question of "why is there not more evil" he describes the central role of self-control in preventing evil. He also describes how typical bystanders often unwittingly contribute to evil acts.

Central to the analysis is the principle he calls the "magnitude gap." This describes the discrepancy between the importance of an evil act to the perpetrator and the victim. This magnitude gap accounts for the rapid escalation of violence that is so typical in retaliation. The response chosen to avenge each provocation is amplified at each round to account for the victim's point of view.

Because lasting peace will come only from a profound understanding of violence, the analysis and insight this book provides is an important contribution toward a more peaceful world.

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty is certainly a well written contribution to the study of the darker inner workings of the human mind. Baumeister does an excellent job providing a detached and logical viewpoint supporting the notion that evil exists primarly, if not entirely, in the eyes of the victim. Evidence tends to weigh heavily in the favor of the anecdotal. While this may stray from pure psychological science, Baumeister artfully implements these vivid illustrations to keep the reader turning pages and drive his point home. While repitition and redundancy may detract from readibility in the latter stages of the book, they do serve to illustrate the thourghness in which Baumesiter examines the topic. Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty falls short of being all ecompassing but gives valuable insight and perspective into the movtivation of individuals who have for so long perplexed so many.

I picked up this book thinking it would be a study of serial killers or something. I was happily surprised to find a well written book about the myth of evil. Baumiester does a good job of introducing difficult concepts that challenge our belief systems. One particularly interesting facet of his theory is the "perception gap" between the victims of evil and the perpetrators of evil. Baumiester uses both scientific research and real-life examples (O.J., Sadaam Hussien, Bosnia) to illustrate his points, making the information very accessible. As a writer, I found the information on what causes people to commit evil actions fascinating and helpful in creating fictional characters with dimension. As a someone who works in the prevention field, I applied his theory about egotism and violence to school bullies. This book is a must read for writers, teachers, law enforcement, prevention specialist, counselors and so forth. This book will definately make you think.

This book can be really helpful for abuse victims. I was one myself & never could understand how people could harm others or witness it & do nothing about it. This bookhelped me understand that