The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths and Everyone In-Between

by Abigail Marsh

At fourteen, Amber could boast of killing her guinea pig, threatening to burn down her home, and seducing men in exchange for gifts. She used the tools she had available to get what she wanted, and she didn't care about the damage she inflicted. A few miles away, Lenny Skutnik was so concerned about the life of a drowning woman that he jumped into an ice-cold river to save her. How could Amber care so little about others' lives while Lenny cared so much?

Neuroscientist Abigail Marsh studied the brains of both psychopathic children and extreme altruists and found that the answer lies in humans' ability to recognize others' fear. By studying people who demonstrate heroic behavior and evil behavior, we can learn more about how human morality is coded in the brain. An enlightening read, The Fear Factor is essential for anyone seeking to understand the heights and depths of human nature.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Neuroscience, Mental Health, Education, Philosophy

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2017

About the author

Abigail Marsh is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgetown University. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health. She's currently the President of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society.

Her research is aimed at answering the questions, How do we understand what others think and feel? What drives us to help other people? What prevents us from harming them? She uses functional and structural brain imaging as well as behavioral, cognitive, genetic, and pharmacological techniques to answer these questions, and she has more than 80 publications in journals that include Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behavior, Psychological Science, and JAMA Psychiatry. She's also authored articles for The Washington Post, NPR, Psychology Today, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Her research has received awards that include the Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The S&R Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good, and the Richard J. Wyatt Fellowship award for translational research from the NIMH. She serves on the advisory boards of the National Kidney Donation Organization and 1Day Sooner, and is the co-founder of Psychopathy Is.

Reviews

[L.A. Starks · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best nonfiction books of the year--make room in your schedule to read The Fear Factor!

Marsh contrasts scientific studies and brain scans of psychopaths and altruists to demonstrate pyschopaths do not feel fear, either their own or others. On the other hand, altruists and those we think of as heroic feel fear intensely yet act in the face of it, while maintaining they are doing--as they truly believe--"what anyone would do."

In a special note for readers: literacy and reading is correlated with higher altruism. So is living in individualistic countries such as the UK, US, New Zealand, and others.

Although scientific in approach, Marsh's book is highly accessible. She starts with a fascinating story of being saved by a heroic altruist from her own near-death experience in a traffic accident on a rainy night.

Very upbeat ending, as Marsh describes allo-parenting and the significant human and (mostly-universal) trait of generosity.

Everyone will find the book's insights useful.

Another of my top recommendations: "If you only read one book in the next month, The Fear Factor should be the book."

[Stabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was mostly very interesting and well-researched. One thing I took serious issue with though was her almost nonchalant dismissal of the concept of "rape culture." In her support for the idea that people think the world is much worse than it is, she writes "A Google Trends search finds over ten times as many news stories on campus sexual assault in 2016 than there were five years prior. The word 'epidemic' frequently crops up in these articles, which probably contributes to the fact that four in ten Americans believe that the US currently fosters a 'rape culture' in which sexual violence is the norm... But this is not remotely true." She goes on to say that "[t]here is no epidemic, other than an epidemic of awareness." But I would argue that this "epidemic of awareness" is actually an awareness that sexual violence is indeed the norm. While some journalists may be wrongly concluding that sexual assaults are more frequent now, that doesn't preclude the fact that sexual violence IS normalized in our culture. And I have never heard anyone who talks about "rape culture" talk about it in terms of statistical trends. It's more about exposing that sexual violence has been a historical constant that our society has mostly just accepted- until now hopefully. I felt like Marsh could have made her point without including a spurious jab at the entire concept of "rape culture."

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While at times interesting, overall this was a not particularly well written book about Marsh's research that wasn't really pulled together well into a cohesive narrative. Marsh has found that psychopaths do not recognize faces that display fear, they are not sure what a fearful looking face represents. On the other end of the spectrum, at least I think this is what she was saying, is that people who are super altruistic, like kidney donors, are hyper aware of fearful faces. Near the end of the book she addressed my number one question, which was how she recognized a super altruist. She thought that if a person gave a kidney to someone they didn't know just out of the goodness of their hearts, they are a super altruist. Near the end of the book she confronted those who would say they are not pure altruists because they are doing it to get a hedonic shot in the arm. Marsh basically said that's not true, that these people could feel good doing a hundred different things than risking their lives just to get some hedonic boost, and that they didn't know they would get this hedonic boost. Her very short address of this issue does not satisfy the issue at all to me, and makes me think she is grasping at something she has spent so much time researching trying to make it relevant and true despite the potential problems with it. I immediately came up with easy counters to her counter, and while I may certainly be missing something, she should have addressed it in more detail in my opinion.

[Adrian Boca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less is more.

Pentru a înțelege rating-ul de două stele, cred că e important să evidențiez modul meu de notare:
1) La cinci stele nu cred că e cazul să explic
2) Patru stele - mi-a plăcut foarte mult, dar nu se apropie de favoritele de cinci stele
3) Trei stele - de cele mai multe ori din cauza mea, pentru că tărăgănez cu lectura și ori îi pierd firul, ori sensul, ori pur și simplu îmi pierd interesul. Exemplu: Saramago - Eseu despre orbire, care la pasajul cu semaforul, mi-a făcut pielea de găină. Ori e vreun personaj lame, cu care nu pot să empatizez, cum e tânărul Werther a lu` Goethe.
4) 1 (o stea) nu dau. Ce s-ar încadra la o stea, din principiu, nu citesc oricum.
5) Nici două stele nu dau, de regulă. Tot cam în categoria de mai sus s-ar încadra.

Totuși, cartea de față se recomandă a fi mai mult decât ceea ce este. Coperta e prea frumoasă, sinopsisul te păcălește, iar peste toate astea mai e aruncat și un citat din Rafael Garcia Marquez, care să te ducă mai mult în eroare.
Cumva, mă așteptam să fie ceea ce s-a dovedit, dar, din nou, less is more. Dacă ești în căutare de studii asupra neurologiei, psihopatiei și pentru a înțelege mecanismele creierului uman, cartea de față nu e cea mai rea. Dar găsești totuși și articole mai reușite prin alte părți.

[Candi Sary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about 'The Fear Factor' a few times on NPR and it sounded intriguing. I read mostly fiction. I pick up non-fiction now and then and I'll read a few chapters at a time between novels. But 'The Fear Factor' I finished in less than a week. It was as compelling as a novel! Diving into the psychology of psychopaths and altruists pulled me in while Marsh’s relatable writing kept me interested. Her personality comes through the writing and makes the book as enjoyable as it is powerful. The chapters on psychopaths were fascinating-- I kept stopping and going to find my husband or call my adult daughter to reread passages because I had to share the information. I learned so much and I can’t help but view people differently now. The other day I encountered an unusually mean man and instead of simply making assumptions about his life experiences, I found myself wondering about the size of his amygdala. And the chapter The Milk of Human Kindness opened my brain to brand new ideas about why humans (and animals) are compelled to nurture that I can’t stop thinking about. I also loved the optimism Marsh offers: "It is easy to be misled by attention-grabbing atrocities, but try not to be. The actual numbers are clear: goodness is overwhelmingly common, and kindness is the norm, not the exception.” This captivating look at the best and worst of humanity is one of my favorite reads this year.

[Liam Pyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read exploring the role that fear (or lack thereof) plays in altruism and psychopathy (which Marsh positions as opposite traits). Unlike most social psychology books I’ve read, this one stayed on a fairly specific topic, which I ended up enjoying.

[Rossdavidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Abigail Marsh, the author of this book, seems to be entirely too nice a person to be studying psychopaths. She shares tales of her own fears, embarrassingly emotional responses to baby turtles, and otherwise seems like the nicest person. Picturing her interviewing one psychopath after another is kind of the thing that you would expect to be set up in a Hollywood thriller, where you just know the nice blond lady with the big smile is going to get kidnapped or worse.

But, thus far at least, she seems to have been able to generate a lot of excellent science by studying a group of people right out at the very edge of human variation along the empathy axis. Or rather, and even more interestingly, two groups. Because the other group that she tells us about in this book, is composed entirely of people who have been anonymous donors of their kidneys, to people they don't know. People so empathic they are as far removed from typical (in this regard) as psychopaths, but in the other direction.

But, lest you think that Marsh is just doing this because she is perhaps a people person, she is doing this as a means of testing a very specific thesis about empathy (though I'm guessing she is also a people person). Marsh believes that at the root of empathy, is our ability to feel fear. In particular, the fear of others.

There is a famous story, quoted by Marsh in this book as well, of a researcher named Essi Viding, testing psychopaths in an English prison on their ability to interpret human facial expressions. One subject in particular was among those who were completely unable to recognize a fearful expression when he saw it, causing him to say, "I don't know what that expression is called. But I know that's what people look like right before I stab them."

Of course, psychopaths also like to mess with researchers, perhaps. But far from being a single anecdote about a single subject, this is instead part of a large and growing body of evidence that says that psychopaths not only don't care about the emotions of others, they also just aren't that good at perceiving them. In some ways, this is not too surprising; most of us aren't good at learning about what we don't care about. But Marsh believes the causality works both ways. She believes that psychopaths cannot feel even their own fear as well as others, and this impairs their ability to feel the fear of others, and that impairs their empathy.

Now she certainly does not seem to deny that it can work the other way as well, but the idea that psychopathy originates in a disability (more like blindness than like toughness) is interesting. I would also not taken it as totally proven, although Marsh provides a lot of very interesting and worthwhile research. It helps that her writing is enjoyable as well, with just the right mix of chart-driven study results and personal anecdote to keep all parts of your brain engaged. I get the impression that if she were the professor in your class on psychology, you might consider becoming a psychologist.

But, if your college class days are behind you, there is still good news, as you have an another option for discovering cutting edge research about how our minds work. You can read this book.

[Costin Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

You remember when you had to write a paper for college and you had the thing that you wanted to say, but then your coordinator told you to make it a chapter, and then add others that are related for context? This book kind of feels like that. In English it is called The Fear Factor, but the Romanian edition calls it "Altruist or being good without reward" (my direct translation, as Good for Nothing didn't feel right, even if it is the title of the book in the UK), showing that even editors didn't really agree with the author on the right way to label it.

Overall, what Abigal Marsh tries to say is simple: our capacity to do good to others without expecting a reward stems from an ancient mammalian mechanism designed to bond mothers to children and it is triggered by our ability to empathize with the fear other feel, while regulated by a network of brain centers, mainly our amygdala and hippocampus using the oxytocin hormone. This takes the book through eight chapters, each kind of separate and which I liked in different measures. The ones describing carefully crafted experiments and their outcomes I liked best, the ones that felt like fillers or the ones affirming that correlation doesn't imply causation then proceeding in describing a lot of correlation less so.

Marsh goes out of her way to portray a positive image of humanity, where most people are generous, empathetic and altruistic. She describes people who aren't capable of it - psychopaths and their amygdala dysfunction, people on the other side of the curve - superaltruists who don't care to whom they do good, they just do it, goes to very interesting experiments and comes with theories about how and why altruism, fear and empathy work. Her conclusion is that our focus on negative things makes us falsely believe things are getting worse, people less trustworthy, when the actual opposite if overwhelmingly true.

Bottom line: I liked the book, but some of the chapters felt forced. I didn't really need the exposition of her beach trip to save the turtles or how much she feared and then appreciated the help of a random guy who looked like a hood thug. Most of the information interesting to me was concentrated in the first chapters, while the last, explaining what to do to become more altruistic and how that improves our well being and filled with international statistical charts on altruism I could have done without entirely. It's not that it wasn't correct or well written, it just felt like an add on that had little to do with the book or, worse, was there just to fill up space.

If you search on TED Talks, you will see the author have a talk there titled Abigail Marsh: Why some people are more altruistic than others.

[Robert Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psychopaths, according to the author, Abigail Marsh, do not recognize expressions of fear. They do not experience humility either. Altruists do acknowledge fear when they see it. The section of the brain called the amygdala is essential where detection of fear is concerned. Brain Scans using fMRI reveal little or no activity in the amygdala of psychopaths, and a heightened presence of activity is found in the amygdala of altruists.

Marsh recognizes that there are multiple levels of altruism ranging from opening a door for someone to donating a kidney. She opines that several factors bear on the magnitude of altruism. Wealthy (not super wealthy) people are more inclined to rank higher on the altruistic spectrum (People act better when they are themselves doing better.”) They tend to have a greater feeling of well-being. She describes them as individualists. Those with less financial security (collectivist cultures) tend to be altruistic primarily towards members of their own and closed community. (A collectivist assumes their closest “will remain their closest relationships for years or decades into the future.”) The point is, collectivists are less likely to extend their altruism beyond members of their own community. Individualists are much more likely to do so—even to strangers—and even when the cost and risks are great—such as donating a kidney anonymously to a stranger.

Marsh argues “ Growing abundance has gradually reduced the extent to which people must rely on strong, closed social groups for survival and permits a loosening of the severe distinction between social group members and outsiders.” To this end, she concludes that altruistic acts are on the rise.

At times, Marsh appears to confuse acts of altruism with everyday actions of a good Samaritan. Her classic example of an altruistic event is when she overly descriptively writes about Cory Booker’s rescue of a woman engulfed in a house fire. As a politician, Booker had much to gain from his actions. Her example does not appear to be a good description of a genuinely altruistic act (Marsh refers to Booker seven times in the book!! What's up!)

The book reads well and is informative. I find her analysis of fiction versus non-fiction particularly interesting. Marsh is compassionate about her work.

[Alex H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd like to start this review off with the most serious of inquiries: Dr. Marsh, if you read your Goodreads reviews PLEASE let me work in your research lab.

In all seriousness, this was a fantastic read. This is a book that I fully would have chosen to read in my free time, no prompting from my social psychology professor needed. Marsh's research is fascinating, and I think that's a statement that can be generalized beyond just psychology majors. The content of the book itself, namely altruism and psychopathy, deals with social constructs that most people are innately curious about. As a diehard true crime fan, I was drawn in by the title alone, especially given its seemingly counterintuitive nature. Altruism and psychopathy? How on Earth could those possibly relate? While chocked full of evidence and studies, The Fear Factor also heavily relied on anecdotal evidence, striking the perfect balance between academia and story-telling. The writing itself was wonderful and engaging as Dr. Marsh has a very strong, likable narrative voice.

I could not recommend this book more emphatically to those interested even the slightest in psychology. This book is a highly informative but also entertaining read. Truly, I think it has something for everyone.

[C.S. Doron · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the science and research that went into the making of this book, which explores extraordinary empathetic response on either side of the spectrum, provides immense value for anyone who wishes to better understand the connection between the anatomical and psychological realities of individuals.

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Marsh used brain imaging to research how fear is felt in both altruistics and in psychopaths.

She found that psychopaths do not register fear in either themselves or in others. They don't understand why other people would feel fear.

In altruistic people, she found that seeing fearful facial expressions caused the need to give more. By knowing how fear functions in different types of people, you can better guage solicitations for donations.

I found the information about fear (or lack of fear) with psychopaths very interesting. I thought that psychopaths sought to instill fear in others. It seems instead that it is not something that psychopaths have the ability to understand.

Although there is a lot of science covered in the book, it is presented in an accessible manner.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Fascinating, well-written, amazingly researched, and life-changing. That’s kind of a big claim, but knowing how and why we care about other people and how we can be better at it, is hugely important. Fear for someone’s well-being translates into care, and we can become our own altruistic heroes by working on that care and compassion for others. So, read this book. Tell your friends to read this book. Give it as a present. Basically the more we all understand how and why we care for people and how we can be better at it, the better and more kind and additionally compassionate our world will be.

[YHC · Rating 4 out of 5]

冷血精神病患者的杏仁体缺陷不但会影响他们对通过面部表情传达的恐惧情绪的反 应，也会影响他们对其他途径传达的恐惧情绪的反应。如果受影响的只是表情识别 的话，那么恐惧表情识别困难就只是个知觉问题，我们可以通过恐惧识别训练来解 决冷血精神病的问题，比如可以教他们寻找圆睁的双目或者挑起并皱着的眉头等特 征。要是真的这么简单就好了！事实上，人们对他人恐惧的认知是个复杂的综合性 过程，而杏仁体似乎是生成这种本能认识的终极公共通道，无论这个认知是看来 的、听来的、嗅到的还是想象出来的。更重要的是，有冷血精神病倾向的个体无法 通过这些渠道来理解他人的恐惧，这就证实了恐惧共情和关心以及同情的体验之间 的联系，冷血精神病患者是完全体会不到关心和同情这样的情感的。


假设理解他人的恐惧和悲痛是对这种情绪产生关爱和同情的必要条件，那么我 们就可以猜到对非凡利他主义者大脑的研究会让我们发现些什么了。这些人对待他 人福祉的方式和态度与冷血精神病患者截然不同。在实验环境下，他们的表现应该 跟我们在冷血精神病人身上发现的反应也截然相反才对。他们应该对他人的恐惧更 加敏感，而且他人的恐惧表情会激发其杏仁体更强烈的反应，他们的杏仁体甚至应 该比正常人的杏仁体大一些才对。
简而言之，非凡利他主义者的大脑应该是逆冷血精神病大脑才对

看到愤怒表情时， 利他主义者的杏仁体不如控制组受试者的杏仁体活跃。这一现象说明，利他主义者 的杏仁体并不仅仅是通过表情发现危险的“威胁探测器”。我们还可以比较一下焦 虑型心理疾病，比如说焦虑症或者社交恐惧症患者的情况。这些人在扫描舱内看到 恐惧表情、愤怒表情还有鄙视等其他表情后，杏仁体都会被激活。[27]焦虑人群对 可能的威胁和危险都过度警惕，所以他们的杏仁体会频繁处于高度兴奋状态。各种 迹象都表明，他们的杏仁体活动很可能就是某种形式的威胁探测。但是，利他主义 者的杏仁体只是对恐惧敏感，这意味着有其他可能性的存在。
“其他可能性”到底是什么呢？我们在所有人的脑扫描结束之后获得的另外一 些信息也许能够帮助我们找到答案。在稍事休息并吃过午餐之后，我们邀请所有人 回到实验室填写调查问卷，并执行一些电脑操作任务。其中一项任务就是识别面部 表情，其中包括愤怒和恐惧的面部表情。之后，我们对两组受试者表情识别的准确 度进行分析。分析结果同脑部成像数据以及10年前我写博士论文时候采集到的情绪 识别数据完全吻合。同控制组相比，利他主义者对恐惧表情识别的准确率较高，但 是对愤怒表情的识别度较低。而且，他们只有对恐惧的共情能力比普通人强。这个 发现进一步证明了共情有许多种形式，而每种共情形式都由大脑不同加工过程支 配。这意味着，一个人对恐惧的共情能力完全有可能比他对愤怒的共情能力强。而 各种迹象表明，利他主义者对恐惧的共情能力之所以比较强，杏仁体功不可没。在 所有受试者身上，我们都发现了杏仁体对恐惧表情的反应与其对这种表情识辨度有 关。
至此，我们完美证实了利他主义者就是“逆冷血变态”。相比控制组，他们有 更强的恐惧表情识别能力，而且看起来这种能力与其杏仁体右侧对这类表情更强的 反应有关。那么，我们考虑的冷血精神病的最后一个特征——杏仁体体积的结果又 如何呢？我的学生保罗·罗宾逊负责输入数据，模拟所有受试者杏仁体平均形状和大 小，尽管对于结果我并没有十足的把握。但是结果清楚表明，这的确是个区别性特 征，利他主义者的情况又与冷血精神病患者截然相反。他们的右杏仁体确实比控制 组成员大约大8%。即使重新考虑了之前没有考虑到的情况（利他主义者的大脑比控 制组成员要大）后，杏仁体的体积差别仍然很明显。


拟母亲习性是利他主义生理基础的直接证据，来自最近苏黎世大学的卡雷尔·范· 斯海克所主持的一项针对人类及其他灵长目动物的研究。[43]斯海克等人希望能够 找出利他主义的进化根源，或者说，被他们称为“主动亲社会性”的东西。也就是 说，个体会自发地在得不到任何回报的情况下帮助彼此。他们对24种不同的灵长目 物种发生此类行为的倾向进行了测试，其中包括狐猴、猕猴、猿猴和人类。他们在 实验中考察了一个很简单的行为，就是让一个个体在自身得不到任何好处的情况 下，喂另一个个体食物。研究人员随后还研究了其他一些影响各个物种帮助其他个 体意愿的因素。他们参考了脑容量（智商的指标之一）、整体社会宽容度、合作狩 猎的频率，以及该物种是否会形成稳固的伴侣关系等因素。他们还考察了拟母亲行 为的概率。研究人员发现，对于包括人类在内的所有灵长目动物物种，对利他行为 预测性最强的因素就是拟母亲习性。

人们对恐惧表情的反应跟他们对婴儿面孔的反应是一样的，仍然是同情
心最强（冷血特征最弱）的人靠近它的冲动最强。在研究中，我们发现人们对婴儿 面孔的回应跟人们对恐惧表情的回应非常相似，这是最惊人的发现。

恐惧面孔激发了仿真的恐 惧反应，然后，在大脑中的某个部位，很可能就是负责控制靠近和远离行为的杏仁 体内，轰隆隆的行为列车在繁忙的神经元铁路广场转换了车道。因为恐惧表情中包 含关键的婴儿刺激信号，所有列车被重新调度到一条完全不同的轨道，通向了关爱 和保护性行为。共情被转化成了关怀。

很难清楚描述到底第一个后叶催产素分子是何时以及如何产生的，但是，我们 几乎可以确定它最早出现在犬齿龙的大脑中，而且只有它的遗传后代的大脑能够产 生后叶催产素。后叶催产素以及其姊妹后叶加压素（vasopressin）可能是由一种 叫作催产加压素（Vasotocin）的激素进化而来的，时至今日，鱼类、爬行动物 （包括海龟）、两栖动物及鸟类还在分泌这种激素，它的分子结构与后叶催产素的 分子结构只有一个氨基酸不同。


人们不但更乐意帮助彼此，对他人的伤害也减少了。史蒂芬·平克在其杰作《人 性中的善良天使》（The Better Angels of Our Nature）中以令人信服的证据 证明，几个世纪以来，各种形式的残酷和暴力行为都稳步减少。[12]不管设定什么 样的时间区间，考察哪一种暴行：国际战争中的死亡人数、内战中的死亡人数、谋 杀、依法处决、虐童、虐待动物、家庭暴力等，得出的结论都是一样的。所有这些 数字都是减少、减少、再减少，虽然并非直线下降，但是，在全世界范围内下降的 趋势非常明显。在欧洲，今天的凶杀案发生率只是中世纪时的1/50。[13]蓄奴以及 严刑拷打等酷刑几千年里一直是全球范围内非常普遍的行为，现在这样的行为几乎 绝迹了。1980年，毛里塔尼亚伊斯兰共和国废除了奴隶制[14]，至此，奴隶制在全 球范围内不再是合法行为了。如今，即使是对最邪恶的罪犯，严刑拷打也是会受到 广泛谴责的行为，过去它曾经是全世界惩戒犯罪的通用做法，而今天这只是一种辅 助手段了。最近我才了解到，直至20世纪30年代，在美国对嫌犯进行刑讯逼供还是 被警察广泛接受的做法，这让我非常震惊。此外，支持死刑的人也越来越少。2015
年，50年来第一次，美国支持死刑的人比不支持的人少了。[15]这一年也是欧洲有 史以来第一次没有执行一例死刑。2016年，这个纪录再次被打破（白俄罗斯执行死 刑的数量最少）。这一年，随着哥伦比亚人公投通过了与反政府武装“哥伦比亚革 命武装力量”（FARC）的最终和平协议，西半球实现了有史以来第一次全面无战 事。[16]

史蒂芬·平克曾经提出一个非常有力的论点，认为读写能力的普及对于暴力的历 史性消退发挥了重要的作用，很可能是因为读写直接促进了人们关心陌生人的能力 的提升。多项实验研究能够支持这一论点，这些研究发现，接触书面文字能够增强 人们对陌生人的共情和恻隐之心。丹尼尔·巴特森进行的一项研究中，有一部分受试 者读到了一个描写某个虚构的陌��人的简短字条[79]，而他从来都没有亲自见过或 结识过这个人，字条上写的是她因为最近跟爱人分手而难过的事情。“我有点难 过。我总是在想这件事。我的朋友们都告诉我我应该去认识其他人，我需要做的就 是让一些好的事情发生，让自己高兴起来。我想他们是对的，但是，目前还没有什 么好事情发生。”那些读到了这个字条的受试者接着要做的就是与纸条上的这个陌 生人一起来玩一轮囚徒困境游戏，在游戏过程中，他们对待这位女士的态度明显要 慷慨、宽容了许多，即使她刚刚选择背叛他们！读过纸条的受试者中有28%选择合 作，尽管在这种情况下客观上最优的选择是背叛。而没有读过纸条的人选择与她合 作的人的比例是零。寥寥数语就让一个陌生人变成了一个有血有肉的人，一个正遭 遇情伤的脆弱女子。
更近的研究也发现，阅读文本引起的共情，效果甚至要比文本描述的那个人的 具体行为更好。读了更多虚构作品（而不是纪实文学）的人更擅长发现人面部表露 出来的复杂和细微情绪。[80]在一项研究中，受试者被要求阅读一本小说，在他们 读完这本书很久之后，他们对他人的共情能力仍比读之前要强。
因此，看起来，正是过去几百年人类社会文化变迁的强大历史合力，推动了今 天暴行的减少和对陌生人更多的无私奉献。国家的兴起抑制了暴力并促进了贸易发 展，带来生活水平的提高和资源的极大丰富。越来越富庶的生活使得人们不再必须 依赖紧密而强大的社会群体才能够生存下去，不同社会群体不再泾渭分明。生活富 足同样促进了教育发展，特别是提升了大众的读写能力，而这反过来鼓励人们在更 广阔而不是更狭隘的范围内分享繁荣发展的果实，社会折扣高山的坡变缓了。

。一项最近进行的奇妙研究表明，如果让人们在虚 拟现实中获得超人一样强大的帮助别人的力量，他们回到现实世界之后（或者至少 是在实验室里），亲社会行为就会增加。[10]玛丽·戈登发起的“同理心之 根”（Roots of Empathy）项目[11]至今已经进行了20年了，该项目成功地激发 出了小学生的同情心，强化了其关爱他人的行为。该项目为孩子们提供了照顾婴儿 的实践机会，每个班会在一个学年的期限内“收养”一名婴儿，这个设定的目的是 最大程度激发孩子们的拟母亲能力。在这一年里，孩子们参与了各种照顾婴儿的活 动，其中包括为婴儿录制催眠曲和诗歌，还有写下他们对孩子未来生活的期许等。 完整参与了这个项目的孩子，能够更深切地理解宝宝哭是因为不高兴了，其暴力行 为也会减少，在日常生活中也能够更多地相互帮助。
不过，增强利他心的一种最有效的办法应该是两种相互关联的正念禅修，一为 悲心禅（compassion mediation），一为慈心禅（loving-making meditation），这些都是最基本的怜悯之心训练方式。禅修让我们将原本只给予关 系亲密的人的同情、爱和慷慨大方推及更多关系较为疏远的人，包括陌生人、不好 相处的人，并最终实现众生平等。对一个全然陌生的人产生真诚的爱与同情，听起
来似乎不可思议。然而，事实上，这种爱对于地球上的所有哺乳动物，包括人在 内，都是再正常不过的感情。我们会自然而然地对自己新生的宝宝产生这样的感 情，而他们之前根本就不存在，是彻头彻尾的陌生人。不过，几乎每个人都天生就 有对陌生人产生真挚感情的能力。即使时间很短的悲心禅和慈心禅训练也能够带来 很好的效果，增进我们对陌生人的亲近感和愿意不计个人利益得失为他们做些什么 的愿望。[12]在世界上对他人最慷慨大方的国度，大部分人都信仰佛教，看来这并 非偶然现象。第一个将肾脏捐给陌生人的人森亚纳·格雷夫也在十几岁的时候开始信 仰佛教，现在还做了尼姑。尽管主流宗教中几乎没有哪一个不宣扬爱一切生灵的教 义，佛教却是其中唯一发展出了完整技巧体系以真正实现这个目标的宗教。

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found the first part about psychopathy to be really fascinating. Also enjoyed the information about the super-altruists, the living organ donors. I was excited to read about the heroic act of Senator Corey Booker (Booker for President!!); I had no idea.

The role of oxytocin and the concept of alloparenting ("other mothering") was incredibly fun. Retrieving pups between 247-684 times that weren't always their own pups was an interesting read on mothering in mice and how (page 172). K-selection (producing altricial offspring), mammalian milk, and altruism---who knew these things went together? Well, I'm grateful to Dr. Marsh for sharing her work with us in a way that most of us can understand.

I was also fond of the elevated vocabulary used in the writing. It was done in such a way as not to be too dry and dense, but we can still learn some new words and concepts.

Some of my favorite lines:

"Oblique (eye)brows were a more effective gerbil retention strategy that any attempts to use logic ("My turn! "I have to feed him!") or physical force. Just as is true for wolves, the best way to resists attacks by gerbil-crazed 6 yr olds is to use appeasement--to make them not want to attack." (Page 62) Oblique brows look like this: / \

"No other facial expression [except fear] that we know about gets passed along this same privileged, speedy route to the amygdala. Not resting faces, not happy faces, not angry faces. Just fear." (Page 132)

"...demonstrated this by flashing just the wide, white scelera of fearful facial expressions on a plain black background to brain imaging study participants for a mere *17 milliseconds*--far too quickly to be consciously detected. They found that the amygdala *still* burst into a furious volley of activity--much more than when only the sclelera of neutral expressions were presented. This remarkable degree of sensitivity shows that others' fear is unusually important information to the amygdala." (page 132)

[Giurgiu Florin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ideea că altruismul este un instinct matern generalizat duce către o imagine simpatică: altruiștii, fie bărbați, fie femei devin niște mame în secunda în care arată compasiune activă față de binele străinilor. Astfel, majoritate suntem niște mame.
Percepția cum că lumea e plină de oameni răi s-ar putea să fie una șifonată. Și este astfel. Să nu uităm că mass-media își are traiul în conținutul negativ, încât de aici se explică percepția denaturată (raportul evenimente negative-pozitive acoperite de media este de șaptesprezece la unu).
Mi-ar fi plăcută ca, referitor la psihopați, autoarea să puncteze mai direct faptul că, fără nicio intenție de încurajare a faptelor reprobabile, oamenii cu aceste boli să fie în mare măsură rezultatul unei disfuncții a amigdalei care îi face insensibili sau incapabili să perceapă frica celorlalți. Aici e o zonă largă cu multe nuanțe de gri. Personal, da, departe de mine gândul de a încuraja comportamentul psihopat, însă studiul și datele concludente ale acestuia mi-au conturat o viziune mai umană asupra psihopaților: oameni dezumanizați, victime ale dereglării neurale. Cu siguranță unele aspecte comportamentale negative pot fi dobândite, însă multe sunt congenitale.

[Manasvi Kulshrestha · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Myanmar is the most altruistic country in the world, why do we have thousands of Rohingya refugees finding themselves stateless? If I am not wrong, then it was the Buddhist nationalists who began the “ethnic cleansing”. What is the association between literacy rate of radical nationalists and their acts of violence? What is the relationship between empathy and individual’s own financial/personal situations?

I do agree however, that conducting heroic acts and being fearful are not mutually exclusive.

[Talha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empathy and Fear Recognition: Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is deeply connected with recognizing fear. People who are adept at identifying fear in others also tend to be more altruistic. A study involving listeners of a woman's emotional story found that those focused on her feelings were more inclined to donate money to her.

Role of the Amygdala: The amygdala, a part of the brain, plays a significant role in stimulating fear. Psychopaths, who typically lack empathy, have an impaired amygdala and do not experience fear in a typical manner. However, in altruists, the amygdala exhibits heightened activity when they observe fearful expressions.

Altruists and Fear: While altruists are better at recognizing fear, they themselves are not devoid of it. They experience fear, but their empathetic nature often propels them to act heroically in situations, prioritizing the safety of others over their personal apprehensions.

Role of Oxytocin in Altruism: The hormone oxytocin is linked to nurturing behaviours. It plays a role in parental instincts and may also facilitate altruistic behaviours. Individuals exposed to oxytocin showed heightened responses to images of babies and were more attuned to the emotions conveyed in them.

Literacy and Empathy: Countries with higher literacy rates, like Myanmar, also exhibit higher levels of empathy and altruism. Reading literature allows individuals to immerse themselves in different perspectives and experiences, fostering empathy and reducing prejudices.

Cultivating Altruism through Meditation: Altruism can be nurtured over time. The Buddhist practice of compassion meditation, which focuses on extending love and care to all beings, can help in developing altruistic habits. Practitioners have reported increased compassion towards strangers and a greater inclination to help others.

[Vivi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so fascinating! Throughout the entire book, I was hooked and so intrigued by the work of Psychologist Abigail Marsh and her team. Prior to reading I would never have thought of fear as being such a social determinant/sorting/signaling mechanism but as I read I recognized so many of my own habits that she described which root back to the way in which seeing fear in ourselves or others immediately pushes a response that hinges on the size and strength of our amygdala. I was particularly interested in the case studies she discussed both when studying psychopathy and extreme altruism. Putting names and faces and families to these behaviors made each of her participants more human and showcased the thin line between what could be considered good vs. evil. Reading about extreme altruism like those who are anonymous living organ donors also was hugely inspirational and made me think about how lucky we are to have people who don't think twice about that degree of empathy and sacrifice for the good of others. I also was amazed by how brilliantly Marsh tracked the impact of fear and fearful expression onto the social strategies and instincts of not just humans but other mammals, a reminder that we are all animals and not too far apart in the way we love and care for our own (or fail to).

It was just fun to feel like I was learning things about the world and strangers and animals and friends and a field I'm interested in and myself all at the same time. I'm sure my roommate is glad that I've finished the book because it was all I could talk about as I was reading it. Such an interesting read!

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I respect that the author praises altruistic people such as kidney donors and those who'll risk their lives for a perfect stranger. Instead of celebrating these as sublime deeds she over analyzes and reduces them to a few neurotransmitters.

She discusses the problem of altruism - that scientifically speaking, it couldn't evolve because it has no survival value; an altruistic "organism" won't pass altruistic traits on to it's offspring because it is probably dead. Now, yes, you might say there is some survival value in altruism for those within your group or clan, but none for a perfect stranger - quite the contrary - this trait should have died out of the human race "when we were just worms." This ivy league trained prof so desires an darwinian answer, that she shows there is a similarity in the brains of those who are altruistic and those with parenting instincts - as if that connection settles the question. This conclusion suffers from the same issue - parenting may have survival value within a group or clan; but none toward a perfect stranger.

So here's my 2 cents - if you refuse to believe God did, at least admit there are serious problems with evolutionary theory.

[Mariana vj9 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally I’ve finished this book, it’s been mooonths! I hated so many things about it, I don’t even know where to start. First of all why did she have to tell us at least 10 times that she was petite? It literally sounds like something I just made up because of how weird it is. Because I started it so long ago, there are things I didn’t like that I just forgot about, so I’m gonna talk more about the second part of the book now. It’s so incredibly repetitive, I don’t know how it was approved really. It could have been a nice article or two, but as a book it’s not it and it’s just kind of a mess at the end. Also every time she would say something about her personal life, for example the vacation with her kids, I was like why would I care about that? I don’t even care if it was on topic or not, why would I care about her vacation with her kids, no matter the context? Maybe I’m just not very familiar with this genre of books, but it just seemed weird. I feel like throughout the book my hate for it grew bigger and bigger and in the end I just couldn’t stand it.

[Jeff Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really nice read that expounds upon much of the present science relating to neuropsychological study on brain function as it relates to psychopathy. The author's work in studying psychopathic personalities and those with extreme altruism and empathy is quite interesting. The book is written in a easily accessible fashion for nearly anyone -- thought it may be somewhat simplistic for a reader who has a strong neuroscience background -- and some of the conclusions that she draws upon are based on several empirical observation examples that are repeated again and again as the book progresses. What repetitive, I did not take this as a fatal flaw but rather a general statement on our present understanding of the amygdala and it's role in modulating behavior.

[Denise Sinco]

This book is filled with fascinating ideas about extreme altruism, psychopathy, and the physiology and sociology that may cause both. Of course it’s a complex intertwining of factors. It was fun to hear about how the amygdala and oxytocin are involved, and what the evolutionary purposes could have been. But the author also touches on what people surveyed BELIEVE: that the world is more cold, callous, and selfish than ever before-also more violent and dangerous and crime-ridden, when all evidence is to the contrary.

I’d love to read it again, but in a group setting where each chapter could be discussed. The implications of what altruism is and how it affects the altruist and society are compelling.

[Wing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comprehensively explains how genuine altruism arises from the activation of the alloparenting/oxytocin circuit which can interact with and modulate the violence inhibitory mechanism. This results in the flattening of social discounting. Pathways involved are predominantly subcortical. There is also evidence that objective well-being increases genuine altruist behaviour. So does individualism. Ample data and reasoning are provided to back up the claims. Decidedly written for the lay reader, the pace is slow but the train of arguments is very clear. Reading it reinforces one's hope in humanity. Four stars.

[Susan Waller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! The title is off-putting, but The Fear Factor is an engaging, and often funny scientific study of psychopathy and its opposite, extreme altruism. Turns out it's the amygdala! In psychopaths the amygdala is smaller and not active; in extreme altruists the amygdala is larger and more active. This is a simplification of course, but I was surprised to learn how much that ancient part of our brains affects our everyday lives. The author incorporates data from her own and other scientific studies, as well as anecdotes that make this book accessible to everyone. A fascinating read.

[Chrystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched, including original research, and well argued. Makes a compelling case that what is impaired in psychopaths is super-enhanced in extraordinary altruists or 'heroes'.

Love the message that true heroes loathe being called that. Such an appellation and all the attention that goes with it makes them tremendously uncomfortable, not least because they are among the most humble people on earth.

[Gabriella Aragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed this book a lot, the last few chapters i couldn't finish.


Marsh should know better than to say this country is safer than it's ever been.

As a woman, is she not aware that rape cases don't get reported because police essentially ignore them?
The same for crimes committed against people if color.

Those studies are inaccurate and it's a shame Marsh decided to use government funded/backed studies when it's obvious the government doesnt care about its people.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about the psychology behind altruism and psychopathy. Main findings of the book revolved around activity of the amygdala (more activity/ no activity in response to fearful faces) determining an individual's empathy and empathetic concern in response to another's fear / suffering. Has an optimistic conclusion about "humans being better than what we perceive" and the world improving overall.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This narrative through research of altruistic and psychopathic behaviors in humans contains a lot of statistical and evidence based information in an easily digestible language. I'm not a specialist in the author's field of study, but was interested in the topic, and this book felt like I was its target demographic.

[Sara Gallant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating book explains how extraordinary altruists and psychopaths represent opposing ends of a bell curve of human caring, distinguished by their sensitivity to recognizing others' fear. Marsh describes her own and others' research in an eloquent and accessible manner that kept me captivated throughout.