ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the narrower class of barriers to harming others. It uses 'harming' as a broad term covering three things: humiliating, physically injuring, and killing. It claims that there are widespread psychological barriers against harming, since there are data which suggest that a small percentage of people simply do not. Human beings have psychological barriers against various actions, for example: approaching the edges of cliffs, stealing, handling corpses, standing too close during conversation, eating rotten food, handling snakes, or speaking in public. Some-like those concerning conversational distance-may vary with culture, upbringing and individual history. The barrier theory of evil says that evil acts are bad acts that are made possible by people using an innate or learned strategy to overcome barriers to harm. The barrier to harming humans is not restricted to killing. Combat sports like boxing, kick-boxing, muay thai, and mixed martial arts tournaments like K1, Pancrase or UFC.
