Emilie A. Caspar

Just Following Orders

Atrocities and the Brain Science of Obedience

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

How can obedience and carrying out orders lead to horrific acts such as the Holocaust or the genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, or Bosnia? For the most part, it is a mystery why obeying instructions from an authority can convince people to kill other human beings, sometimes without hesitation and with incredible cruelty. Combining social and cognitive neuroscience with real-life accounts from genocide perpetrators, this book sheds light on the process through which obedience influences cognition and behavior. Emilie Caspar, a leading expert in the field, translates this neuroscientific approach into a clear, uncomplicated explanation, even for those with no background in psychology or neuroscience. By better understanding humanity's propensity for direct orders to short-circuit our own independent decision-making, we can edge closer to effective prevention processes.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 261
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. September 2024
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 158mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 510g
• ISBN-13: 9781009385435
• ISBN-10: 1009385437
• Artikelnr.: 69553246

Autorenporträt

Emilie A. Caspar is a Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, specializing in social and cognitive neuroscience. She is one of the few neuroscientists worldwide working on the topic of obedience and she has received many awards for her research, which combines neuroscience with field interviews involving former genocide perpetrators.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: understanding genocide as a means to prevention; 1. Listening to the perpetrators of genocide; 2. A brief history of the experimental research on obedience; 3. How do we take ownership and responsibility over our own actions?; 4. Moral emotions under obedience; 5. Just giving orders? In the brain of those who command; 6. Desolation is everywhere; 7. Conclusion: How ordinary people stand up against immorality; Epilogue: A hopeful horizon.