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The ‘Breaking Bad’ Syndrome? UCLA anthropologist exposes the moral side of violence

To the extent that their heinous behavior can be understood, murders, wife beaters, gang bangers and other violent criminals are acting out of a breakdown of morals, right? Not so fast, say social scientists from UCLA and Northwestern University.

In a new book, Alan Page Fiske and Tage Shakti Rai ascribe most acts of violence to a truly surprising impulse: the desire to do the right thing. (more…)

When danger is in the eye of the beholder

By Guest PostJanuary 7, 2014Scienceaggressive, beholder, big wave surfing, byproduct, colin holbrook, danger, dangerous sports, daniel fessler, dunedin nz, dynamometer, evolution, eye, fictional adventurers, fijian island, formidability, freestyle motorcycling, hostile intentions, human behavior, human nature, imagination, journal, los angeles, Media, middle eastern man, mindful decisions, phenomenon, photo, public settings, risk seekers, terrorist, ucla anthropologist, western civilization, yasawa

UCLA anthropologists study how, why we read into potential peril

They went boating alone without life vests and gave no thought to shimmying up very tall coconut trees.

And although they were only figments of a writer’s imagination, the fictional adventurers helped provide new insight into how humans, especially men, gauge the threat of a potential adversary. Those reading the stories — dozens of residents of a small village on the Fijian island of Yasawa — judged the characters to be risk-seekers. (more…)

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The ‘Breaking Bad’ Syndrome? UCLA anthropologist exposes the moral side of violence

When danger is in the eye of the beholder