Inside twisted minds

For a person who engages in terrorist activity like that in Boston, the immediate victims are meaningless. They’re simply a means to an end, writes Stephanie Pappas

A video of the scene from the Boston Marathon bombing showed people running toward the wounded, trying to help. A flood of support and sympathy poured out all across the internet. And Bostonians rushed to donate blood and offer spare bedrooms to those displaced by the blast.

Even though a human or humans caused the carnage at the finish line, such acts of kindness, as well as a sense of empathy, are actually hard to overcome — even for the terrorists, psychologists say.