The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain

by Daniel Gardner

Philosophers and scholars may debate the nature of justice, but for most of us justice is experienced as outrage at a wrong and satisfaction at the denunciation and punishment of that wrong. It is a primal emotion. The woman who murdered her little boy must be punished. It doesn’t matter that she isn’t a threat to anyone else. This isn’t about safety. She must be punished. Evolutionary psychologists argue that this urge to punish wrongdoing is hardwired because it is an effective way to discourage bad behavior. “People who are emotionally driven to retaliate against those who cross them, even at a cost to themselves, are more credible adversaries and less likely to be exploited,” writes cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker.