Zero Degrees of Empathy: A new theory of human cruelty Book

Simon Baron-Cohen expert in autism and developmental psychopathology has always wanted to isolate and understand the factors that cause people to treat others as if they were mere objects. In this book he proposes a radical shift turning the focus away from evil and on to the central factor empathy. Unlike the concept of evil he argues empathy has real explanatory power. Putting empathy under the microscope he explores four new ideas: firstly that we all lie somewhere on an empathy spectrum from high to low from six degrees to zero degrees. Secondly that deep within the brain lies the 'empathy circuit'. How this circuit functions determines where we lie on the empathy spectrum. Thirdly that empathy is not only something we learn but that there are also genes associated with empathy. And fourthly while a lack of empathy leads to mostly negative results is it always negative? Full of original research "Zero Degrees of Empathy" presents a new way of understanding what it is that leads individuals down negative paths and challenges all of us to consider replacing the idea of evil with the idea of empathy-starvation.

Simon Baron-Cohen, expert in autism and developmental psychopathology, has always wanted to isolate and understand the factors that cause people to treat others as if they were mere objects.