As you watch your six-year-old daughter having a tantrum because she lost her favourite hair slide, it's easy to wonder: where does that rage come from? And where might it lead? Equally, when you watch her blithely crush snails underfoot or deliberately pinch her little brother, you find yourself thinking: how come she is so apparently unfeeling? Is it something we, as parents, have done?
Rare is the parent with a child so saintly that she has never asked herself these questions. But there is little need to worry. Young children get angry. They jump on snails and squash flies. And at six, your daughter will still be developing a conscience - moral awareness coupled with what psychologists call "theory of mind": the ability to imagine what other people might be thinking and feeling. She's still finding her way socially and emotionally, and the fact that you're even reading an article like this means you care about how she turns out.
In this respect she is lucky. Less fortunate children, their development having been derailed at a crucial stage by abuse, neglect or the loss of a parent, can go on to have troubled lives marked by an inability ever to learn theory of mind. Such children may, in extreme cases, display the sort of behaviour we find it convenient to call "evil" when we witness it in obviously disturbed children such as the killers of the British toddler James Bulger. But as a remarkable new book shows, this word doesn't really tell us anything, let alone suggest ways in which these children can be (or could have been) helped.
Simon Baron-Cohen is an expert in autism and a professor of developmental psychopathology at Cambridge University. For him, the word "evil" is not just unhelpful but unscientific. As he puts it in his book Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty, "Evil is treated as incomprehensible, a topic that cannot be dealt with because the scale of the horror is so great that nothing can convey its enormity." He suggests we substitute "empathy erosion", which gives a more accurate picture of what is happening neuropsychologically when people behave cruelly.
As Baron-Cohen sees it, we all lie somewhere on the empathy spectrum, from six degrees at one end to zero at the other. At six degrees, people are highly empathetic - that is, they identify with what someone else is thinking or feeling to such a degree that their altruism borders on self-neglect. But at zero they are psychopathic. A "chip in their neural computer" is missing, which leaves them unable to socialise properly. Worse, they see other people simply as objects who can be manipulated. (An interesting hallmark of psychopaths is that they never learn to fear punishment.)
In some cases there might be positive aspects to having zero empathy. Baron-Cohen places in the "zero positive" category sufferers from autism who have special skills in the areas of music, art or memory. But most empathy-deficient people will be "zero negative": "borderline" (volatile and impulsive, switching from extreme love to extreme hate); narcissistic (believing they are special and have a right to be treated well no matter what); or psychopathic (prepared to do whatever it takes to advance themselves - a sub-group is the scheming, lying, every-office-has-one "high Machiavellian").
Empathy is generated when at least 10 interconnected regions of the brain click into action, among them the medial prefrontal cortex (a hub for social information processing) and the inferior frontal gyrus, which handles emotion recognition. Baron-Cohen calls this "the empathy circuit". The sobering revelation of Zero Degrees of Empathy is that, while there is a genetic component to zero negativity, nothing causes the empathy circuit to fail like bad parenting. The upside being, of course, the potential good you could do in the world by doing right by your children.
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
MATCH INFO
Kolkata Knight Riders 245/6 (20 ovs)
Kings XI Punjab 214/8 (20 ovs)
Kolkata won by 31 runs
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
The specs: 2018 Jaguar E-Pace First Edition
Price, base / as tested: Dh186,480 / Dh252,735
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 246hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 365Nm @ 1,200rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km
The specs: 2018 Renault Megane
Price, base / as tested Dh52,900 / Dh59,200
Engine 1.6L in-line four-cylinder
Transmission Continuously variable transmission
Power 115hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 156Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.6L / 100km
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Baby Driver
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Lily James
Three and a half stars
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Defending champions
World Series: South Africa
Women’s World Series: Australia
Gulf Men’s League: Dubai Exiles
Gulf Men’s Social: Mediclinic Barrelhouse Warriors
Gulf Vets: Jebel Ali Dragons Veterans
Gulf Women: Dubai Sports City Eagles
Gulf Under 19: British School Al Khubairat
Gulf Under 19 Girls: Dubai Exiles
UAE National Schools: Al Safa School
International Invitational: Speranza 22
International Vets: Joining Jack
Scoreline
Bournemouth 2
Wilson 70', Ibe 74'
Arsenal 1
Bellerin 52'
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Read more about the coronavirus
Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
Exams to test critical thinking and application of knowledge
A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development) will form the standard for schools
Schools to implement online system to encouraging transparency and accountability
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Company%C2%A0profile
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Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
