BBC Horizon - What makes us good or evil? (1/4)

The difference between Normal People and Psychopaths
Broadcast 7th September 2011 on BBC2

What makes us good or evil? It's a simple but deeply unsettling question. One that scientists are now starting to answer.

Horizon meets the researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers.

But there was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us.

We meet the scientist who believes he has found the moral molecule and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.

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[CurtHowland]

Psychopaths are simply people without a conscience. That doesn't mean just "killers", but politicians, too.

[dinkaDPB]

@Sarstan i dont think they were told that anyone would get shot and weren't given advanced warning of the red guy's intentions

[jessicalilac]

looool too cute to choose one

[SuperSkeem]

Easy choice Soldier sacrifice themself for the many soo why not chose the guy on the bottom Floor :)

[schizo440]

May be babies prefer strong colours. May be some home factors may have played a role in their selection. And that Yale guy saying they are probably bad as if conclusive and not considering the fact has his experiment may be just bogus.... Hmmmm........ Now that is evil...Plus isnt good and bad mostly a relative thing... U kill another human being fighting in other side then you are a hero... Do that at home u are the monster... Tis whole idea sucks

[schizo440]

May be babies prefer strong colours. May be some home factors may have played a role in their selection. And that Yale guy saying they are probably bad as if conclusive and not considering the fact has his experiment may be just bogus.... Hmmmm........ Now that is evil...

[LT89NL]

@MrThewaffen Germany and the Netherlands both share the 1st place for highest average national IQ, with an average IQ of 117 in both countries.

[TheUndertakerSaysRIP]

@IAmTheMostUnique I can differentiate good from evil actions... But if I were to be in a desperate situation, I wouldn't have time to think; I would act on my instinct to ensure the safety of my survival...like all other animals.. ; there is no thought for the civilized concept of morality there

[IAmTheMostUnique]

@MisterMistmoore They controlled for the color of the shirts and randomized it between independent trials.

[IAmTheMostUnique]

@TheUndertakerSaysRIP Hint: That means you are slightly sociopathic. There are objectively evil actions, and an inability to recognize that demonstrates the threat you pose to other human beings.

Get help before you hurt someone.

[FreddPepper]

Human motivation is as complex and richly varied as any of the things we witness in the physical world, it can not be understood purely - if at all - with brain scans and simplistic experiments. The greatest artists, writers, poets, musicians, philosophers and theologians have for centuries tussled with questions of the soul; so how absurd to watch a bunch of neuroscientists arrive on the scene with their thermal imaging, spooky music and crass reductivist ideas. "Moral molecule"? Rubbish.