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I watched this show on Discovery Times tonight called Most Evil and it was probably the most interesting show I’ve ever watched, but it makes me want to know more.

The premise of the show is based on a Columbia University professor, Dr. Stone, who has a 22-point scale on how evil a person is based on the act they committed (in most cases murder).

He goes around the world interviewing those currently incarcerated or previously incarcerated and asks them questions to try to determine why they committed the crime they did and what motivates a person to commit a crime, particularly if the person has no record of criminal history or actions.

A portion of the episode centered around Archie McCafferty and how love turned around his life, essentially. A professor in Virginia (I believe it was there — can’t remember the University) did a study where a participant was put in an FMRI machine and subjected to two images: a blue circle meaning everything was good, or a red X meaning that they could be subject to a small electrical impulse, I assume somewhat in a roundabout way related to the Milgram experiment. The red X didn’t mean that the subject was going to be shocked by rather it was probable, not guaranteed.

The subject was place in the FMRI machine alone and brain activity was measured. It was basically a stress test. Then, an unknown male subject walked into the room in part 2 of the test and held the participant’s hand. This showed no brain activity in regards to comfort, as is kind of expected. A stranger cannot provide that much comfort in a stressful situation and this test proved it. But then the subject’s husband came in and held her hand and sure enough the comfort level went up and the stress level down. So it does show that having someone you love in your life makes a difference.

This all relates back to Archie McCafferty who met a woman named Mandy while he was incarcerated in Australia and how when he met her, his rage and “desire”, so to speak, to kill subsided (his background information isn’t important but if you care to know, you can Google his name and read this article). Nonetheless, I think it’s really interesting that one special person is all it can take for some people to completely reverse their actions and thoughts or rage, jealousy, or hate.

At the same time, I guess it’s the empty hole that needs to be filled in a person’s life that once filled, there’s no reason to hold onto that rage and jealousy. In the end, it all makes sense and is a really interesting topic to study. The very few psychology courses I enrolled in while I was in college were interesting, but they were just high level stuff that pretty much anyone could infer from just watching humans and studying them (granted it was still interesting). As stated, the whole topic is definitely interesting and makes you want to know more…

Check out Most Evil on Discovery when it comes on again: see schedule of future airings.