The Origin of Evil: Tracing the Roots of Wrongdoing

Do you often wonder why people do evil things? Why would they do so when they know they are in the wrong? Do they not know how to treat people in a good manner? You are not alone in pondering those questions. The answers I want to give you in this article are not as black and white as you might think. You might think I'm making too many generalizations or you might feel like I'm pointing the finger at you. In fact, I aim to highlight that all of us, without exception, are capable of wrongdoing.

There is an evil side to all of us.

Let’s define what doing evil even means. That’s already where a lot of you will disagree. Looking at it from a morally relativistic side, I don’t believe that there is absolute good or evil. These terms rather define what is considered good or evil at a certain time or place, within a certain group. Evil is specifically being defined as the intentional and malicious actions or intentions that cause harm, suffering, or destruction to others or oneself. A lot of the things I am about to mention are not evil by this definition, but I will mention them because very often it is these precise things we mean when we are talking about doing evil.

Ethics and Equilibrium

Here we will delve into what makes someone ethical. Without this contrast, we wouldn't be able to identify what doing evil looks like.

There is no shadow without light. Only in the presence of light can shadows emerge.

Without significant external influence, systems tend toward equilibrium. It's the same with human society, where ethical behavior unfolds. Generation upon generation, people have debated what is right or wrong. Ideas and ideals that did not withstand the test of time are no longer part of our ethical system. Time has shaped the current state of society. We hold our ideas about how things should work because other ideas were proven to fail, at least under the given circumstances. Of course, I am talking about mainstream society – I am sure you can find a niche for just about anything somewhere – pockets of society where unusual thoughts linger and persist.

So, we find ourselves at a relative equilibrium. People wouldn’t have the mental energy to adapt to drastically shifting societal values and ethical norms within days. These usually change much slower. We are hesitant about change in our daily lives and accept changes gradually over time. That's why we feel threatened if something disturbs this equilibrium, something we are unaccustomed to considering. These outrageous acts are what we could consider evil.

Evil is the potential for chaos that threatens our norms and values.

We strive to keep this potential for chaos as minimal as possible, punishing those who increase it and educating our children to do the same. This way, we feel secure. After all, we have built a society and a livelihood upon these norms and values. Why should we risk losing it if we are unsure about whether there would be something to gain? Moreover, our minds have already established how things ought to be. It would take time and effort to forge new connections.

We were raised to uphold certain values and will likely teach our own children values that are similar to these. We expect our children not to stray too far. If they do, we punish them to get them back on the correct path. Through praise and punishment, we reward or penalize an action to make its occurrence more or less likely - an effective strategy for maintaining relative equilibrium and avoiding evil.

We enforce norms and values to ensure stability, keeping people on the right track.

These dynamics can vary significantly across different groups or individuals. In school, we are usually confronted with the norms and values of mainstream society and the state, whereas at home, the norms and values might be quite different. Our value system is also heavily influenced by our genetic disposition. Let's look at our genetics as sources of potential in certain areas, with societal and environmental influences acting as tools to either tap into these sources or block them, making them unavailable or harder to access. We usually aim to block a source that threatens to spoil everything around us.

I don’t believe we are completely hardwired to either do evil or to completely avoid it. As I will explore further, you will notice that everyone possesses a certain chaos potential capable of disrupting societal order.

Genetics, Environment, and Personality

Empathy is probably an area in which the influence of genetics is most recognized. I mentioned that we all have a certain potential to do evil, but some are definitely more prone to do so than others. As an example, research has shown that individuals with lower levels of empathy may be more likely to engage in unethical or morally questionable actions. A deficit in empathy is associated with increased aggression, lower prosocial behavior, and decreased moral sensitivity. So, we can clearly see that this is what a typical evil-doer sounds like. You probably already have some famous psychopath in mind.

Genetic studies have identified specific genes associated with empathy-related traits, but it’s also environmental factors, such as parenting style, early childhood experiences, and exposure to violence, that can influence the development of empathy and ethical behavior. It’s really hard to tell whether nature or nurture is more important regarding empathy levels. It’s probably most useful to look at genetics as the foundation and outside influences as how the foundation was used to build something upon.

It’s harder to build something stable on rugged terrain.

There are other psychological factors that may or may not make a person do evil. The Big Five personality traits are a widely recognized model for understanding human personality. They include the traits for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. The personality traits associated with behaviors perceived as "evil" or morally problematic can vary, but some key traits often implicated include:

Low Agreeableness: Individuals low in agreeableness tend to be more antagonistic, manipulative, and less concerned about the well-being of others. They may lack empathy and be more inclined to prioritize their own interests over those of others.

Low Conscientiousness: Low conscientiousness is associated with impulsivity, irresponsibility, and a lack of self-discipline. Individuals low in conscientiousness may engage in unethical or antisocial behaviors without considering the consequences.

High Neuroticism: High neuroticism is characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, and vulnerability to stress. It may contribute to maladaptive coping strategies, such as aggression or avoidance, in response to perceived threats or challenges.

Above that, there are three traits that are usually referred to as the Dark Triad traits:

Machiavellianism: This refers to a strategic and manipulative approach to social interactions. Individuals high in Machiavellianism are often cynical, distrustful, and willing to exploit others for personal gain.

Psychopathy: Psychopathy encompasses traits such as callousness, lack of empathy, and deceitfulness. Psychopathic people may exhibit a superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, and a propensity for manipulation and exploitation.

Narcissism: Narcissism involves an inflated sense of self-importance, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. Individuals high in narcissism may be preoccupied with fantasies of power, success, and superiority, and may exploit others to maintain their self-image.

Alongside the Dark Triad traits, there are usually two other traits mentioned:

Sadism: Sadism involves deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others. Individuals high in sadism may exhibit aggression, cruelty, and a disregard for the well-being of others.

Authoritarianism: Authoritarianism involves a preference for rigid social hierarchies, obedience to authority figures, and hostility toward out-group members. Individuals high in authoritarianism may prioritize conformity, tradition, and order over individual rights and freedoms.

I personally disagree with authoritarianism being on this list because it is very often considered a positive trait when displayed in a way that is morally commendable. It’s usually people in past or different cultures that are considered evil when displaying authoritarianism. You could also say that sadism and the Dark Triad traits are not as reliable either, but these will more less to give you an idea. It's always useful to categorize things to be able to analyze them more deeply.

By categorizing different personality traits, we can evaluate more differentiated.

The Big Five traits are usually the ones that are more consistent measures of psychological evaluation. Aside from the usual impacts that may have caused these traits, I will also mention bigger impacts, meaning trauma. Traumatic experiences might have greatly impacted a person’s character and therefore his potential to do evil. It’s generally associated with negative psychological experiences that overwhelm a person’s ability to cope. Therefore, they have a huge impact on mental health and may lead to other behaviors that would be considered negative by society.

Motivations behind Evil Acts

Let us talk about the more immediate reasons why people do evil. There is a whole list of reasons, but I can’t possibly mention every single one. First of all, let’s establish that we all want to do good. Say what? Didn’t we just talk about why people do evil? Well, what’s good for you, might not be good for someone else and vice versa. We are talking both about the societal and the individual level. We all strive to do things that positively impact our group or ourselves. Let’s talk about the main motivations for why people do evil:

1. Greed: It is beneficial for us to possess large amounts of resources, whether it is in order to help us survive, have more status among our peers, more power to control other people or to have enough for oneself so that others go empty-handed. Whoops! That escalated pretty quickly. Greed is when we simply can’t get enough. From another person's perspective, this is usually not a good thing.

2. Sexual gratification: It’s useful to have a sexual drive. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to procreate. We ourselves wouldn’t even exist if it were not for the fact that our ancestors had their fun. The potential for chaos arises if the fun isn’t shared. People are very strongly emotionally involved in everything sex-related, so it comes as no surprise that we judge harshly when it comes to sexual misconduct.

3. Attainment of status: Status gives us not only power but security. It serves a lot of our other needs, be it the acquisition of resources or an easier position to satisfy our sexual desire. People go all out on their way to obtain status. That’s why people like to bend the rules. Sometimes a bit too much.

4. Acquisition of power: It’s similar as with the status, but power is not just about having status. If people want to change things in the world, they need power. If I want to change a whole lot, I would need a whole lot of power. Often nepotism and underhanded tactics are associated with wanting to become more powerful. Hence, its bad reputation.

5. Self-pleasing: Most of the time it’s hard to know why we even do things that we do. Some things just feel good. Acting out from a perspective that I want to feel good seems egotistical. Often this is framed that way, so that we make other people feel good instead and add to their own egotistical need. But if we lean too heavily on the side of self-indulgence, we are sure to bump heads with others.

6. Self-protection: This is a big one. We have to protect ourselves to survive and often that involves protecting ourselves from other people. If our reaction to another person’s attack is inappropriate however, it could lead to serious accusations. Or maybe everything was just a misunderstanding? We can get very aggressive if we feel like we have been driven against the wall or being treated unfairly.

7. The greater good: This entails a whole lot of motivations I won’t get further into. Usually, it’s a means to an end. Acts that we know are immoral, even if we are not completey upfront about it. These often serve a higher purpose such as being for the benefit of the group or having spiritual significance.

These are some main motivations on why people do things that are unacceptable in the eyes of others. Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but it serves to give you some insight.

Social Survival and Morality

We are social creatures. Everyone one of us, more or less, wants to fit in, and not fitting in means a loss in status. Not only that. It reduces our power and makes us less able to survive. The satisfaction of all the desires, or motivations that I mentioned above, are impeded when we don’t fit in our social group. So, you can see that we are strongly motivated to avoid being ostracized.

This, in turn, makes us likely to go along with a whole lot of things that people could consider evil. Of course, it wouldn’t be branded as such at that given time and space. After all, we only want to do good, remember? At this point, I will spare you the totalitarian horror stories you have heard so many times over. You get the point.

Wanting to be a part of the group is essential.

Not only can wanting to be part of a group make us go along with something we consciously know is morally wrong, but in order to cope, we convince ourselves that what we do is morally just. It’s much easier to get along when we have a clean conscience, so our mind tends to make it so. One thing less to worry about! This is what causes moral distortion.

There are also other factors that lead to moral distortion, like misinformation or individual perception, but social pressure plays a leading role in this. Maybe you heard of the bystander effect. It refers to the psychological phenomenon that occurs when the presence of other people discourages someone from intervening in an emergency situation. It suggests that the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The same goes for people who witness immoral actions taking place.

The bystander effect enables wrongdoing.

This is a significant reason for how people get away with doing evil. Even the bystanders in these situations might later be accused as being wrongdoers, or at the very least, enablers of the crime. In regards to the bystander effect, there are three major factors that might stop people from intervening:

Diffusion of responsibility: Individuals in a group tend to feel less personally responsible for taking action, believing that someone else will or should intervene.

Social Influence: Bystanders monitor the reactions of other people in an emergency situation to determine if there is a need for help. If others do not act, individuals often take this as a signal that a response is not needed or not appropriate.

Evaluation Apprehension: Potential helpers may fear that other bystanders will judge them negatively if they intervene and something goes wrong.

You all know this kind of shock moment, when you think it might be correct to intervene, but you are too scared to act on it. Next time, rationally consider if there really is a good reason to stay passive. Or maybe you should consider otherwise. Since you’re not the only passive bystander, not doing something doesn’t even feel that bad, right?

Let me briefly mention other social dynamics that make one more likely to commit a crime:

Being anonymous can be a determining factor. Anonymity makes us more likely to abuse our power and it even makes us more aggressive. If another person doesn’t even know that we are the perpetrator, it also makes us more likely to commit a crime, because we know we can get away with it.

Wearing a uniform or other symbols of group affiliation can act as a catalyst for immoral behavior as well. It strengthens our sense of belonging to a certain group which in turn, makes us more judgmental about people who are not, increasing the potential for immoral acts against them. The same could be said about symbols of group affiliation in those who are acted against.

We humans are social creatures, but that entails that we care most and foremost about our own group. Sometimes other groups can be seen as the enemy. If we feel that our actions against another group are justified, we are more likely to commit them toward members of this group. These would often be considered morally wrong under normal circumstances. We can see other groups serving as scapegoats or being dehumanized. It’s really easy to do evil against someone you think is a bad person or not even a person at all. We should become aware of these dynamics in order to prevent them from happening.

Needs first

Having considered the main motivations and social dynamics leading to evil acts, let’s take a look at influences that make us more or less likely to be evil.

It’s especially dangerous if basic needs are not being met. The world looks much different when we are hungry. Consider your level of aggressiveness when you are really hungry and then immediately after you have eaten. You will most likely feel a difference. In German, we have a saying that translates to “First the food, then the morals.” Hunger triggers our survival instincts, which can override our consideration for social norms. If we have gone a long time without food, not only can our sense of judgment and decision-making be impaired, but we are also more irritable.

Feelings of desperation create a potential for chaos.

The same goes for being tired. When people are tired or exhausted, they act more impulsively, as their self-regulation is impaired. The threshold for frustration is lower and it’s harder to control yourself. You are desperate for rest, pushing you to find relief no matter what. Ethical concerns are not the first consideration anymore.

We have talked about the social dynamics before, but what if we actually feel like we are not treated fairly by society. If we feel like we do not get what we deserve, it can seem like we should fight the system, instead of integrating ourselves. We have a vested interest in changing a system that doesn’t serve us. Other people might not share the idea, though, so we might be accused of being evil. The more we feel alienated, the less we care about societal norms. We do not feel constrained by them anymore, which makes us much more likely to act against them. It also pushes us into survival mode, letting us put moral concerns aside more easily.

It’s the same with retribution against a group or a person. As long as we feel like someone deserves punishment, it's easier to justify doing them wrong.

What also makes it much easier to break the norms is to call it by a different name. You may have heard the word reframing before. Reframing is used to turn a murder into an act of self-defense and any immoral action into an act of sacrifice, often for the greater good. We really like our words. It feels so much better to reclaim something than it does to steal.

Coming up with nice words can make us feel better.

It’s not always obvious if something evil is the result of an outside influence or simply a person’s character. For example, someone can be really convinced about something being worth pursuing. This tunnel vision is influenced by factors like the information the person has been given or the psychological state a person is in. People who are convinced that they are morally justified are likely to follow their judgment.

You really need to be aware of the standpoint from which someone is acting. At this point, we haven’t even discussed the influence of drugs or chemicals in general. I will just add that whatever is able to change our mental state can change our likelihood to act immorally.

What to avoid and what to embrace

Everything has an impact on our behaviour. Every factor interacts with a multitude of other factors. To understand why people do evil, we best take a look at ourselves. We can all be victims under the same circumstances. We can understand others better if we work on understanding ourselves. There is the potential for evil in all of us. Understanding that serves as a tool to be able to prevent it. We don’t need to be afraid of it, but use it instead to our advantage. Being aware of many of the mechanisms, we are prepared to go a different way when we ourselves are faced with the decision of whether to do evil or prevent it from happening. We really can do such much more good, if we are aware of what to prevent and what to look out for.