Emotional inteligence
216/661been torturers for terrorist states, for example, describehow they learned to dissociate from the feelings of theirvictims in order to do their "job." There are many routesto manipulativeness.One of the more ominous ways this absence of empathymay display itself was discovered by accident in astudy of the most vicious of wife batterers. The researchrevealed a physiological anomaly among many of themost violent husbands, who regularly beat up theirwives or threaten them with knives or guns: the husbandsdo so in a cold, calculating state rather than whilebeing carried away by the heat of fury. 20 As their angermounts, the anomaly emerges: their heart rate drops,instead of climbing higher, as is ordinarily the case withmounting fury. This means they are growing physiologicallycalmer, even as they get more belligerent and abusive.Their violence appears to be a calculated act ofterrorism, a method for controlling their wives by instillingfear.These coolly brutal husbands are a breed apart frommost other men who batter their wives. For one, theyare far more likely to be violent outside the marriage aswell, getting into bar fights and battling with coworkersand other family members. And while most men whobecome violent with their wives do so impulsively, out ofrage after feeling rejected or jealous, or out of fear of
217/661abandonment, these calculating batterers will strike outat their wives seemingly for no reason at all—and oncethey start, nothing she does, including trying to leave,seems to restrain their violence.Some researchers who study criminal psychopathssuspect their cold manipulativeness, such absence ofempathy or caring, can sometimes stem from a neuraldefect.* A possible physiological basis of heartless psychopathyhas been shown in two ways, both of whichsuggest the involvement of neural pathways to thelimbic brain. In one, people's brain waves are measuredas they try to decipher words that have been scrambled.The words are flashed very quickly, for just a tenth of asecond or so. Most people react differently to emotionalwords such as kill than to neutral words such as chair:they can decide more quickly if the emotional word wasscrambled, and their brains show a distinctive wave patternin response to the emotional words, but not theneutral ones. But psychopaths have neither of these responses:their brains do not show the distinctive patternin response to the emotional words, and they do not respondmore quickly to them, suggesting a disruption incircuits between the verbal cortex, which recognizes theword, and the limbic brain, which attaches feeling to it.Robert Hare, the University of British Columbia psychologistwho has done this research, interprets these
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- Page 176 and 177: 176/661Seligman defines optimism in
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abandonment, these calculating batterers will strike out
at their wives seemingly for no reason at all—and once
they start, nothing she does, including trying to leave,
seems to restrain their violence.
Some researchers who study criminal psychopaths
suspect their cold manipulativeness, such absence of
empathy or caring, can sometimes stem from a neural
defect.* A possible physiological basis of heartless psychopathy
has been shown in two ways, both of which
suggest the involvement of neural pathways to the
limbic brain. In one, people's brain waves are measured
as they try to decipher words that have been scrambled.
The words are flashed very quickly, for just a tenth of a
second or so. Most people react differently to emotional
words such as kill than to neutral words such as chair:
they can decide more quickly if the emotional word was
scrambled, and their brains show a distinctive wave pattern
in response to the emotional words, but not the
neutral ones. But psychopaths have neither of these responses:
their brains do not show the distinctive pattern
in response to the emotional words, and they do not respond
more quickly to them, suggesting a disruption in
circuits between the verbal cortex, which recognizes the
word, and the limbic brain, which attaches feeling to it.
Robert Hare, the University of British Columbia psychologist
who has done this research, interprets these