Pinker Lectures on Violence

Psychology Professor Steven Pinker explored the history, psychology, and philosophy of violence in a lecture held last night at William James Hall.

The lecture, “A History of Violence,” presented the project he worked on during a sabbatical last semester—a new book asserting a decline in violence in recent human history.

In his discussion, Pinker said that we are actually living in a historically unprecedented time of peace—a fact he said most people overlook.

“Everyone is appalled by violence but few are aware whether [now] is more or less violent than other times,” he said.

Although Pinker said that it was unlikely that modern humans had lost their “vicarious” fascination with violence, he suggested that historical developments have led to reduced violence: for example, the rise of states led to the elimination of judicial torture during the Enlightenment, and in an age of globalized trade, countries are less likely to attack other nations with whom they have strong economic ties.

Finally, Pinker elaborated upon the “Expanding Circle,” the idea that humans have evolved to feel empathy and that the scope of this empathy has expanded due to globalization and progress in human reason.

The evening concluded with a roundtable discussion with Pinker over dinner.

Students engaged him further about his work, prompting discussion about the humanization of war, the role of gender in the psychological perception of violence, and the impact of frequent violence in mainstream entertainment and media.

Pinker’s lecture was part of an ongoing series of seminars, teas, and dinner discussions hosted by the Harvard Society for Mind, Brain, and Behavior.

Richard J. Sima ’12, academic event co-chair of HSMBB and organizer of the event, said that Pinker was a “logical choice” for furthering HSMBB’s goal of exposing as many students as possible to the diverse and cutting edge research occurring in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior field.

“He’s done great work on how language shapes us and started studying violence because it was a great way to study human nature,” Sima said. “Tonight made me an optimist. There’s other bad stuff, but this is promising!”

Joanna Y. Li ’12, a neurobiology concentrator, said that she attended not just because “He’s Steven Pinker!” but also due to her interest in the subject.

“It’s an interesting point to make that there’s a disjunct between how much violence people think there is and how much there actually is,” Li said.