This week, we focused on the concept of evil once more but in regards to the readings we had previously done. Many interesting concepts had come up in our discussion, but one of the ideas that provoked the most reflection for myself was the distinction between an evil act and an evil intention, as well as what other factors come into play. Even further, I thought about the Milgram example discussed in social psychology, based upon the concept of obedience. A perfect example of this is in Baumeister (2001), who gives the example of Hyun Lee, a North Korean woman who was a member of the military. When she was asked by the leader of her country to bomb a South Korean airplane to prevent them from hosting the Olympics which would reunify Korea, she did as she was told. It was pointed out, however, that although she did not immediately feel remorse for her actions, she soon did. Further, her actions were brought on by the leaders of her country whom she trusted and the ideals that were instilled in her. This brings up the questions then: were her actions evil or her intent? Or were both evil? Was the fact that she was obeying an authority figures demands, make it okay for her to conduct this act?

I personally think based on this example that Hyun Lee’s actions were evil, but not her intent. She did feel remorse for her actions, which based on week 1’s discussion, was something an evil person could not do. Further, she was doing what she believed was best for her country and her family, and this was not done out of malice for others. She does have her own moral responsibility to do what is right, which I believe makes her actions still evil and why she should still take responsibility for the actions she had done. It definitely creates a divide, and there can be multiple different views on whether her intent was evil, and if not, if this makes someone an “evil” person. What do you think?

On this idea of evil actions versus evil intent, I found an interesting media piece that I think captures this idea quite well. Staub (2020) posted about the roots of good and evil, and what makes an individual commit acts like these. He speaks on the idea that people need to satisfy their basic psychological needs, such as having an understanding of the world and having security within their nation. When these needs are not met by an individual, people can turn to others and their ideals, such as what occurred in the Nazi regime. This relates back to Hyun Lee and her violent actions, and may be one way to examine what was occurring in her mind during that time. He also speaks about how individuals change when they harm others, and if there are no restraining factors they can justify the harm they had done. In Hyun Lee’s example, however, she was caught and was able to reflect on her actions to feel guilt about the wrong she did. To be able to help heal after perpetrating violence, Staub (2020) discusses understanding the roots of evil to be able to move towards positive behaviour. Hyun Lee was able to understand the acts she had committed and why they were wrong when looking back and this allowed her to plead guilty and feel actual remorse towards her actions.

This interview Staub (2020) conducted, provided different views on the psychological aspects that are involved with these evil acts, and how it is not necessarily someone just performing an evil act, but instead there are a multitude of different reasonings behind these acts. I think that is especially important when examining this concept of “evil”, to be able to see why each individual may commit these acts.

In addition to these ideas, the article I found further demonstrates this dilemma of whether there are purely evil actions or evil intent. Passini (2017) speaks to the extent that intergroup relationships, and obedience, impact an individual’s ability to conform to the acts occurring. In Hyun Lee’s example, she was conforming to the prejudice her leader put upon her, which is an excellent example of how obedience led her to do these evil actions. The concept of “banality of evil” is discussed, which is where evil actions are perpetrated without thought due to obedience of an authority figures own demands. This occurred in Hyun Lee’s example of the bombing of the plane. It was discovered in the study that individuals who experienced indifference to parliamentary bills being conducted, were more likely to submit to authority, be more conventional and have subtle prejudices. These individuals can support policies of their government that they may not normally agree with, based on these traits. This all comes back to Hyun Lee bombing the plane due to an authority figure’s own demands and not her own ideologies.

Overall, evil actions and evil intent are very different from one another and need to be distinguished from each other when discussing the concept of evil. Hyun Lee may have committed an evil act, but her intent was not to do such a thing, and had her country’s best interest at heart. This makes her example extremely hard to comprehend, and evokes a negative response in many individuals. When you look at the concept of obedience, however, this can help to explain how an individual can commit an act, so incredibly evil, while not having the same evil intent.

References:

Baumeister, R. (1997). Evil: Inside human cruelty and violence. New York, NY: W.H. Freemand and Company.

Passini, S. (2017). Subtle prejudice and conformism: The intergroup indifference. International Journal of Psychological Research, 10(1), 25-34. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy1.lib.trentu.ca/10.21500/20112084.2338

Staub, E. (2020, January 6). This is how one man has spent his life studying the roots of good and evil. Thrive Global. Retrieved from https://thriveglobal.com/stories/this-is-how-one-man-has-spent-his-life-studying-the-roots-of-good-and-evil/

Hi! My name is Harper Spring, and this is my PSYC 4720, Psychology of Evil blog for the duration of the course. I am enrolled in this class to learn more about what it means “to be evil”, and the psychological aspects that make individuals commit these acts. I believe this is an important and interesting concept to learn about as the media enforces many of these aspects, and many of these evil actions are predominant in many media sources today, whether it be for real or fictional events. This blog will further explore issues around evil in the recent media and how this enforces the academic concepts learned about in class. I found this an especially interesting part of the course, as this was the main reason I enrolled in this class!

Reflection on Activity This Week

This week, we discussed in small groups what made someone evil, and the definition of this concept. Our group came up with the definition of evil as : an intentional act that crosses social boundaries and morals, which inflicts harm upon an individual. A large issue for us, however, was the problem of when an individual should know right from wrong which was what we deemed as important for understanding how one can commit evil actions. For our group, we thought about an age limit, but as Professor Navara pointed out it is more of an issue of culpability than concrete age, as someone could experience a developmental delay and may not fully understand the consequences of their actions. I viewed this as an interesting point, which made me wonder how many people who commit evil actions are seen as culpable? As a whole class, many words and examples were discussed on this topic of evil. Upon reflection, some of these terms I thought needed to be discussed further. For example, one term that was used to describe what evil is, is that it is a repeatable action which can escalate over time. I do not necessarily agree with this, as an evil action may only happen once to one individual and still be seen as evil such as the assassination past presidents. I think this is important to mention since the definition of evil can include such a variety of actions. Another item that I reflected on in this context are the different domains of evil, such as murder or rape. These are two distinct evil actions, that hold different weight to different people based upon an individual’s own experience and thoughts. Therefore, when examining evil actions it is important to distinguish between the different domains of evil within the context of the example to further comprehend the psychological aspects of evil in that specific instance. The last aspect that I found the most interesting is that there are multiple perspectives that come into play when discussing evil. Those are that of the victim and that of the perpetrator, which comes back to the idea of the “eye of the beholder”. Some perpetrators may see themselves as victims and that they completed an evil action because of their past, or that the action as necessary. Meanwhile, the victims may see this act as something completely random, and believe they did nothing to deserve this. Due to these competing views, it is crucial to try to understand the event as a whole and ensure that one is looking at the context of the action. These are just a few of the items that stood out for me during this discussion, and I believe hold importance when discussing the concept of evil.

Looking forward to sharing what I am learning through the readings, lectures, media and articles during this class!

References :

Sarah Anderson. (2014). Evil Media. Retrieved from http://www.composingdigitalmedia.org/f14_dmtp/webs/sand/EvilMedia.html