Do you believe in “pure evil”, that is that there are individuals inherently predisposed to intentionally harming others? If you do, your belief can change how you see the world. A belief in pure evil, for example, has been linked to increased support for the death penalty and racial prejudice.

A new study, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, has looked at the link between belief in pure evil and the attributes we ascribe to perpetrators of violence. Focusing on mass shootings in the US, the team once again finds a relationship between belief in pure evil and harsher approaches to punishment.

The team notes that the direction of causality between belief in pure evil and retribution is unclear — that is, we may have developed and bought into the idea of pure evil to justify our inherently retributive instincts rather than the other way around.

It would also be interesting to explore narratives about pure evil in the realms of media and politics. Cultural differences could change the relationship between beliefs and punishment: in countries where politicians frequently invoke severe punishments or tend to ignore environmental factors in crime, for example, is there a generally higher level of belief in pure evil than in those areas where this isn’t the case? Future research could probe this further.