In this episode, Dr. Saad Gadzat and global ambassador at Northwood University, evolutionary behavioral scientist and best-selling author of The Parasitic Mind, Saad discusses the psychology behind why women are attracted to Daniel Penny.
00:00:00.120Visiting professor and global ambassador at Northwood University, evolutionary behavioral scientist and best-selling author of The Parasitic Mind, Gadzat is here.
00:00:10.260All right, Dr. Saad, let's start with the people who are attracted to this alleged murderer. What motivates that?
00:00:20.740So I think it's a misfiring of the attraction to the bad boy archetype.
00:00:25.920As you mentioned earlier, there are some women who will wait in line to get a shot at meeting Ted Bundy or Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, or Charles Manson.
00:00:35.720So it is evolutionarily appropriate for some women to be attracted to the bad boy type.
00:00:42.440But in this case, it's an exaggeration of that attraction.
00:00:47.060And so I think that's exactly what's happening here.
00:00:48.880He is the damaged guy, which through my guiding love, I could reform him, which is basically the narrative of every romance novel that's ever been written.
00:00:58.800Save the bad boy, right, and turn him into a good guy.
00:01:27.040But you are lionizing vigilante justice.
00:01:30.900A society that gets all of these factors confused is in a death spiral.
00:01:35.580So thank God that Donald Trump won, because hopefully he could fix some of these problems.
00:01:40.260So what sets that in motion, where you're trying to tear down masculinity and heroism, and you're trying to elevate vigilante justice?
00:01:49.660I mean, in this case, the calculus of being attracted to Luigi and prosecuting Daniel Penny is exactly the idea behind my next book, which is suicidal empathy.
00:02:02.020Empathy is a beautiful thing, and it makes evolutionary sense that we've evolved that emotion as a social species.
00:02:07.980But when it misfires, when it is misguided, when you care more about Guatemalan illegal immigrants than American vets, when you care more about a vigilante killer than a marine hero, then maybe you need to take some classes with Professor Saad to set you straight.
00:02:25.480Well, I'm titillated about this next book already.