#1066 - Dr Kathryn Paige Harden - The Genetics of Evil: Are People Born Bad?

2026-03-02

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Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an author. Are people born evil, or does evil emerge from circumstance? While we tend to blame genetics for humanity’s darkest behaviors, science and psychology suggest a far more complicated picture. If biology, environment, and experience all shape behavior, how should society judge, or punish, those who may never have had full control over who they became? Expect to learn what Kathryn learned f...

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an author.

Are people born evil, or does evil emerge from circumstance? While we tend to blame genetics for humanity’s darkest behaviors, science and psychology suggest a far more complicated picture. If biology, environment, and experience all shape behavior, how should society judge, or punish, those who may never have had full control over who they became?

Expect to learn what Kathryn learned from her first 4 million-person study, what the evolutionary roots of aggression, dominance, and impulsivity are, if there is a heritability of antisocial behaviour, why punishment is a useful tool for responding to harm, what Kathryn makes of the looksmaxxing movement, and much more…

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