My 'Are people born evil' view

We're all physically different despite the fact we inherit things such as our eye colour and blood group but do we inherit our moral values? In other words, can people be born evil? The nature vs. nurture debate has been a psychological debate for many years with conflicting opinions from scientist to scientist and person to person. Nature referring to our charateristics and tendencies inherited from our biological mother and father that influence development, whereas nurture covers the experiences in early life as well as the environmental condition a child is brought up in. But which of these factors determine the level of morality a person is accustomed to?

A psychopath is defined, In the Collins dictionary, as someone who has a personality disorder where the person affected may display abnormal or violent anti-social behaviour and a failure to feel guilt for these actions. As part of a research experiment, the University of Chicago studied male prisoners between the ages of eighteen and fifty who had previously shown traits of a diagnosed psychopath (pathological lying, superficial charm, refusal to take responsibility of actions, criminal behaviour, callousness). Participants of the Chicago study were shown videos of people being intentionally hurt as well as others of faces reacting to pain while they underwent a brain scan. Their results, published in the Mail Online, revealed many men had less activity in certain areas of the brain that the average person, one of these areas being the amygdala. Without this key area, a person would lack the ability to understand other people's emotions and intentions causing a lower response to such feelings as empathy. Lead research professor, Jean Decety, said 'A marked lack of empathy is a hallmark characteristic of individuals with psychopathy'.
Furthermore, their results show that damage to these vital progressing areas is also linked to self conscious emotions such as embarrassment and guilt which could help explain why many convicted criminals often show no sense of remorse for their actions. Sometimes a psychopath from childhood may persistently express disregard for other people's feelings, be cruel to any animals or pets or may only show emotion while trying to manipulate a situation or intimidate a sibling.

Many serial killers or 'evil' people are diagnosed as psychopaths. Ted Bundy, Jefferey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy, just to name a few. However, all these men suffered a substantial amount of physical or emotional loss as well as instability throughout their childhood. Peter Sutcliffe killed 13 women during his five year killing spree lasting 1975-1980 before being apprehened in 1981. A recent documentary aired on channel 5- 'The Yorkshire ripper: Born to kill?' aimed to answer the question. Many of his victims were prostitutes earing him the title 'The Yorkshire Ripper' after Jack the ripper roughly one hundred years earlier. So what was his motive? During custody, Sutcliffe claimed to be on a mission from god to rid the world of prostitutes. Later at his trial, his claim was rejected by the majority of the jury. John Sutcliffe (Father of Peter Sutcliffe) had an impact on his childhood. Although Sutcliffe commended his father, he had a record of anger issues. Growing up, Sutcliffe believed he was under pressure to be more 'macho' in order to please his violent father. His killing could be a ritualistic and macho presentation in which he wanted his father to take notice in. Once, Sutcliffe witnessed his mother, Kathleen, cheat on his father. It made him develop a disliking to his mother and women alike. One of the most apparent reason for his specific attacks on prostitutes was because of an experience with a prostitute before the killings began. The woman made fun of his performance leaving him humiliated at the hands of a woman, with a feeling of misogyny.
With his already deluded and somewhat lessened view of females, he found pleasure in killing, his murders often involving a sexual nature as a result of mortification and the need to be in control. The 63 year-old is now in Broadmoor Hospital. A judge ruled in July 1981 that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars

Yale University opposes the nature argument. They believe babies are born with a hereditary sense of morality. A team or researchers based at their 'Infant Cognition Centre' began an experiment eight years ago on babies under the age of twenty four months. They aimed to discover how much an infant understood about good and bad behaviour. Babies were shown a puppet show which depicted two scenarios. In both, a grey cat attempts to open a box but cannot manage by itself. In order to show a moral attitude a bunny wearing a green t-shirt was helpful in his actions and assists the cat in opening the box. Whereas, when the scenario is repeated, an orange t-shirt wearing bunny was unhelpful by slamming the lid shut before fleeing the scene.
The baby is then presented with the two characters in front of them. CNN reported that more than 80% of the babies 3 months and older preferred the helpful bunny along with 87% of less than 3 month babies also favouring the well-mannered puppet by staring or reaching at it. A professor of psychology at yale says their study showed that 'even before babies can speak or walk, they judge good and bad actions of others because they are born with a rudimentary sense of justice'. Some people, however, could argue with the reliability of this study since babies may simply prefer the colour green over the colour orange or vice versa, therefore choosing it, while having no relevance to a moral code whatsoever. Can babies tell the difference or is it just a matter of preference?

Children who experience sexual or physical abuse at a young age are more likely to have affected development of the hippocampus (a part of the brain which allows memory and emotions to function) The Guardian also published an article based on a study which showed people who have been abused are twice as likely to suffer recurrent episodes of depression or anxiety well into their adulthood. Past abuse has also been proven to affect the personal view the person has on themselves. It has been show to cause confidence issues, feelings of diminished self-worth and an overall spitefulness to their surroundings. These people also have a lower chance of responding to treatments psychologically and medically.

The population of prisoners in England and Wales is now over 82,000. Out of them, 9 in 10 have a diagnosed mental illness such as depression or alcohol abuse. 1 in 10 also has a severe mental health problem that would affect judgement and emotions, especially when left untreated, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. This is 10 times as many as the population of the public. If the majority of prisoners are incapable mentally, how can they, as a person, be solely blamed for their criminal actions?

I believe some people can be born with a lack of empathy as the brain scans have shown causing them from an early age to be rebellious or callous. On the other hand, I also think people born without this brain abnormality can develop 'evil' like traits as a result of their upbringing and influences during childhood. For example, a child or teenager growing up in the centre of London will be more likely to connect with a group of 'bad' people and as a result into a life of drugs and crime than a child or teenage growing up in a rural place. Overall, I think having an evil nature can be a completely hereditary personality trait especially if their parent has experienced issues with mental health. In spite of this, a person may also develop these traits as a result of certain experiences, where they live and their childhood environment.