Creatix / January 21, 2026
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If you asked people throughout history whether they were on the side of good or evil, almost all would answer the same way: good. Even those who committed acts we now describe as horrific often believed the acts were justified or necessary to achieve a greater good.
That alone should make us suspicious of the idea that evil is something obvious, visible, or consciously chosen as “evil.” Neuroscience reinforces that suspicion. The brain does not contain an “evil switch” or an "evil circuitry". There are no "evil" brains and "good" brains. There are weaker brains, damaged brains, and dysregulated brains out of balance.
Neuroscience reveals that objectively harmful behavior usually emerges when normal systems that regulate judgment, empathy, and self-control fall out of balance.
Good, Evil, and the Problem of Perspective
“Good” and “evil” are moral labels, not biological categories. In conflicts, wars, revolutions, and even everyday disputes, the same action can be praised by one group and condemned by another. Perspective matters.
Still, most societies agree that certain behaviors (e.g. torture, rape, cruelty, exploitation of the vulnerable, unprovoked violence) cross a certain human line. Assuming such behavior can be described as objectively wrong, what does neuroscience say about what is happening in the brain when people cross that line?
The answer is not that people suddenly become monsters. It is that brain systems stop working the way they should.
The Brain Under Moral Strain
When someone acts in ways we label as “bad,” several brain networks tend to shift at the same time.
The prefrontal cortex (PFC), located just behind the forehead, is what normally acts as a brake, restricting bad behavior. The PFC helps us pause, weigh consequences, consider other people, and inhibit impulses. When this region is underactive impulses win. The underactivity may be due to stress, intoxication, fatigue, emotional overload, developmental immaturity, brain damage, or other biological anomalies. People may still know something is wrong, but the knowledge arrives too late or too weakly to stop the action.
At the same time, the PFC is underactive, the emotional and reward systems tend to be hyperactive. The amygdala, which detects threat and generates fear or aggression, may become over sensitive. In this state, the world feels hostile. Anger feels justified. Violence can feel necessary. Actions are framed as self-defense. The dopamine system, which reinforces behaviors that feel rewarding or effective, can also play a dangerous role. Power, revenge, dominance, and even humiliation of others can activate reward pathways. This happens because all brains, including human brains, evolved in environments where status, dominance, and threat removal directly increased survival and reproductive success. Those animals that got a "high" from being dominant and aggressive survived and reproduced, and thus their instincts and traits survived in us. Asserting power or retaliating successfully are dopamine-reinforced behaviors and still fire today, even when social, moral, and long-term consequences make them destructive rather than adaptive. In addition, once the brain learns that harm “works,” it becomes easier to repeat.
Meanwhile, something critical often goes quiet.
Empathy Goes Offline
Empathy is not just a moral idea; it is a neural process. It involves several interconnected regions that allow us to feel the emotions of others and recognize them as fully human. During harmful behavior, this network is often suppressed.
This suppression can be temporary—such as in war, tribal conflict, or intense group loyalty—or more persistent, as in certain personality structures developed over time. Once empathy is dampened, moral barriers collapse quickly. People stop asking, "How are they feeling and what am I doing" and start asking What do they deserve, what am I getting, what do I need to do?
This is why evil movements begin with the programmatic dehumanization of the "enemy". When others are framed as enemies, animals, numbers, or abstractions, the brain’s natural resistance to harm them weakens. If they are presented as human beings, our natural breaks can be more easily activated. And this is because we also inherited dopamine-linked triggers to help others and be good to one another. Those who felt good cooperating and helping others were also helped and survived and reproduced. Their traits survived in all of us.
The Greater Good Story
One of the most disturbing findings in moral neuroscience is this: people rarely feel evil while doing harm. Instead, they report feeling: justified because they were pressured or threatened. They tend to feel entitled for some reason or another. They are also typically emotionally detached and feel morally correct in their acts. This is because they construct stories that make their actions feel reasonable. They rationalize their emotions as we all do. Interestingly, the narrative is not always conscious or deliberate. It can emerge automatically as the brain works to resolve internal conflicts. In other words, in most cases, wrongdoing often feels like doing the right thing under bad circumstances.
Are Some Brains More Prone to Harm?
Yes, but vulnerability is not destiny. Certain factors increase risk such as early trauma or neglect, chronic stress, substance abuse, brain injury, genetic differences affecting impulse control or emotional regulation, and repeated exposure to environments that create loops rewarding bad behavior.
Neuroscience supports the idea that environments and incentives can slowly reshape neural habits. In addition, bad behavior tends to escalate as bad acts are repeated and become a normal behavioral baseline. Small moral compromises, once rewarded, can train the brain toward larger ones. Think of a white collar criminal or a mafia hitman. Wrongdoing becomes rewarding and habitual.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Evil is not a separate category of human behavior. It is what happens when:
self-control weakens
empathy narrows
threat perception dominates
reward systems reinforce harm
narratives justify outcomes (end justifies means)
That combination can occur in almost anyone under the right conditions.
Why This Matters
If evil were caused by monster brains, prevention would be impossible. But because it arises from distorted versions of normal processes, it can be reduced by: strengthening empathy, slowing decision-making, preserving fairness, designing institutions that reward restraint instead of cruelty, teaching people to recognize when justification narratives are taking over, and training citizens in citizenship.
Civilizations, religions, laws, and moral traditions can be seen as neural stabilizers: systems designed to keep human brains from drifting into their most dangerous modes.
The most dangerous myth about evil is to assume that we're immune.
Neuroscience suggests something far more sobering: evil can trap anyone because it is what the human brain does when it stops pausing to reflect about adverse consequences, stops seeing others as brothers and sisters, and starts rewarding harm.
Understanding the neuroscience of bad behavior does not excuse it. It may be the best way to prevent it.
Now you know it.
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