Thanks for this. Yes I am well aware that everything humans do is first imagined in their brains before physical action is taken. But trying to understand or justify the Jan 6th mob actions as a fight or flight situation doesn't really fit. They walked into this knowing full well there would be a riot, and if the majority of did not know this then they were blindly following the directions of the real instigators, which were those involved in a seditious conspiracy crime. Their 'primitive' brain did not lead them to plan and initiate and attack on the government, their 'advanced' brain created the planning and logistics for the attack. I seriously doubt that many of these criminals have larger amygdalas as a defense to their actions. The 'primtive' brain can account for violence in the moments during the riot, (fight or flight) but not the planning.Very little is written about this. There is a book called: "The Biology of Violence". By Debra Niehoff PhD.
Adrian Raine, criminologist and author of "The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime," talks about how biology - in addition to social factors - affect whether or not someone will become a violent criminal, and why men are more likely commit homicidal crimes than women.
The nature vs. nurture debate centers on the contributions of genetics and environmental factors to human development.
The Roots of Human Aggression
Experiments in humans and animals have started to identify how violent behaviors begin in the brainwww.scientificamerican.com
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