Why We Follow Orders: The Neuroscience of Compliance and Control

You're listening to the Michael Shermer Show. As most of you know that have been watching this show for a while, I have an intense interest in why people do bad things, that is, violence, aggression, war, genocide, you know, the evil side of good and evil. And uh and the immoral side of the moral arc. And so I have the perfect guest for us today.

She is Emily Caspar, who is a professor at Ghent University, Belgium, where she leads the Moral and Social Brain Lab. She specializes in social neuroscience, striving to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying moral and immoral decision making. Her main research interests focus on obedience and how restricting one's autonomy and choice options impacts the brain. She works with various populations worldwide, including former genocide perpetrators and genocide rescuers in Rwanda and Cambodia, as well as inmates and military personnel. She's received numerous awards for her research and collaborates with

several NGOs worldwide to provide science-based tools that could assist citizens in resisting undue inducement. She's got a new book out just about that. It's called Just Following Orders, Atrocity and the Brain Science of Obedience. Emily, nice to see you. I read your book while I listened to it on audio.

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