Zero Degrees of Empathy
A new theory of human cruelty
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
In Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty and Kindness Simon Baron-Cohen takes fascinating and challenging new look at what exactly makes our behaviour uniquely human.
How can we ever explain human cruelty?
We have always struggled to understand why some people behave in the most evil way imaginable, while others are completely self-sacrificing. Is it possible that - rather than thinking in terms of 'good' and 'evil' - all of us instead lie somewhere on the empathy spectrum, and our position on that spectrum can be affected by both genes and our environments?
From the Nazi concentration camps of World War Two to the playgrounds of today, Simon Baron-Cohen examines empathy, cruelty and understanding in a groundbreaking study of what it means to be human.
'Fascinating ... dazzling ... a full-scale assault on what we think it is to be human' Sunday Telegraph
'Highly readable ... this is a valuable book' Charlotte Moore, Spectator
'Important ... humane and immensely sympathetic' Richard Holloway, Literary Review
Customer Reviews
Utterly brilliant
An extraordinarily helpful book that gives a scientific rational insight into the reasons we behave and think as we do.
At times there’s a bit too much science for the ordinary reader which you can brush over without the book losing its meaning. But the empirical research does help prove the author’s thesis and take this book from the ‘self help’ section of the bookstore to psychology.
I’ve been recommending to everyone I know. He’s also on YouTube with a summary.