Evil The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side

What is it about evil that we find so compelling? From our obsession with serial killers to violence in pop culture, we seem inescapably drawn to the stories of monstrous acts and the aberrant people who commit them. But evil, Dr. Julia Shaw argues, is all relative, rooted in our unique cultures. What one may consider normal, like sex before marriage, eating meat, or being a banker, others find abhorrent. And if evil is only in the eye of the beholder, can it be said to exist at all? In Evil, Shaw uses case studies from academia, examples from and popular culture, and anecdotes from everyday life to break down complex information and concepts like the neuroscience of evil, the psychology of bloodlust, and workplace misbehavior. This is a wide-ranging exploration into a fascinating, darkly compelling subject.

Dr. Julia Shaw is a psychological scientist at University College London. She is the founder of the Bisexual Research Group, and in 2017 Shaw co-founded the memory science and artificial intelligence start-up Spot, which helps employees report workplace harassment and discrimination. She is the author of The Memory Illusion, which was published in 20 languages, and Evil, a bestseller in Canada and Germany. Besides her research, she is a regular keynote speaker on the topics of memory hacking, tackling workplace harassment, and artificial intelligence, and is the cohost of the BBC podcast Bad People. She lives in London.