ABSTRACT
Evolutionary biology assumes a biological basis for human behavior. Evolutionary psychology tries to explain social evils in a variety of ways. Evolutionary psychology evolved out of evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biology has been criticized on many other grounds. Reimann and Zimbardo believe there is a unique neural framework that underlies the mechanisms of human evil. This work focuses on the neuroanatomy of aggression and anti-social behavior, pointing out that decreased activation of pre-frontal lobe structures, temporal lobe lesions, and abnormalities of subcortical structures such as the amygdala are associated with aggression. In this vein, Stein distinguishes between the neurological basis of banal evil and sadistic evil; banal evil may involve a dissociation of cortico-striatal processing from limbic input (disconnecting reason from passion), whereas sadistic evil may involve a dissociation of limbic processing from frontal controls – passion without reason.
