Not bad

Find it off putting when the author doesn’t know how to pronounce basic words like chasm and albeit. Undermines the work as you wonder about her level of education, though she reads well.

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1 person found this helpful

Fascinating!

Such an interesting and well researched book. Very well delivered and a must listen for fans of Bad People.

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Wide range of topics, but sometimes desperate

While having many different and nkvel perspectives, sometimes too desperate to try to convince. When bringing some critical points just 1 or 2 statistic based papers are cited. It is necessary to disregard outdated beliefs but its equally important to not accept new theories without clarification. Also a bit ambiguous on some social aspects of how people behave.

The neutrality is lost when discussing about issues with groups the author belongs to.

Great for the first half, decreasing as the topic gets closer to where the author has strong personal opinions.

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This is good!

Great narration and very interesting.
Do I agree with everything Julia Shaw says? I'm not sure I do but that's good too.
Recommended listening.

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Insightful, intelligent & extremely well presented

Julia Shaw presents an insightful and intelligent look at the concept of Evil. Thoroughly recommend.

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2 people found this helpful

a very thought provoking listen

You may never use the word evil again after listening to this, are you willing to have your options changed?

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Excellent introduction to the psychology of evil

I really enjoyed this book!
Julia Shaw's premise is that evil is essentially a gross oversimplification/ dismissive term and that instead we should 'pick apart' and scrutinise the behaviours and their underlying motives, and she illustrates this across a wide range of topics.
As the author says herself in the introduction - this book is not intended as an exhaustive compendium on the psychology of morality (arguably no such title exists, but more lengthy analyses have been done by psychologists like Steven Pinker [the Better Angels of Our Nature is 37 hours long!]), but this works wonderfully as a shorter text that is enjoyable and can be read in a few days (probably a single day if you had a full day free!). I also like how Julia is not afraid to include her own views and some details from her own life, it adds a great deal of humanity and character to the book.
If you come from a psychology/psychiatry background (I am a psychiatrist myself), you will be familiar with many of the studies (e.g. Stanford prison experiments, Milgram experments etc.) but she offers a fresh take/ modern update on many of the earlier conclusions of such studies, and it never feels boring.
Additionally, I think this book is a perfect example of where it works really well for the author to be narrating her own work. It would be really great if she has opportunity to go back and narrate The Memory Illusion (her previous book) as well.

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16 people found this helpful

Incredible!

The narration was completely engaging and Dr Julia Shaw explored controversial and fascinating areas of what makes a person 'evil' in a way that is understandable to anyone with or without experience in psychology.

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4 people found this helpful

Thought-provoking but not well read

Full of interesting and thought-provoking ideas, mostly based on studies and other research.
It's a shame the author mispronounces some words, "albeit" and "chasm" for example. The one that really got me was "women" pronounced as "woman". Very distracting and annoying as the word comes up so many times, especially in the later chapters about sex and gender.

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mostly interesting

An interesting premise but the book feels very surface-level at times. I don't regret purchasing it as it offered food for thought. However, it doesn't offer much of a deep-dive into the subject.

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