Psychopathic serial killers traits = Politician traits

[TechMan]

Read it for yourself.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopaths-teach-us-about-how-to-succeed

Traits that are common among psychopathic serial killers—a grandiose sense of self-worth, persuasiveness, superficial charm, ruthlessness, lack of remorse and the manipulation of others—are also shared by politicians and world leaders. Individuals, in other words, running not from the police. But for office. Such a profile allows those who present with these traits to do what they like when they like, completely unfazed by the social, moral or legal consequences of their actions.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i expect there to be law suits on behalf of the serial killers besmirched by this

[Tallpine]

This is a surprise   

I expect that everybody that ever got a statue made of him was some kind of sumbitch or another.

Dumb crooks go to prison.
Smart crooks go into politics.

[longeyes]

Who knew so many academics were glued to Dexter?

[TommyGunn]

This is a surprise   

I expect that everybody that ever got a statue made of him was some kind of sumbitch or another.

Dumb crooks go to prison.
Smart crooks go into politics.

+1

[longeyes]

I think the comparisons are facile.  A lot of multiple killers are anything but charming.  This is a Hollywood fantasy.  Monomaniacal and amoral, not "charming."

[Tallpine]

I think the comparisons are facile.  A lot of multiple killers are anything but charming.  This is a Hollywood fantasy.  Monomaniacal and amoral, not "charming."

And politicians - um, your point is 

 

[lee n. field]

Read it for yourself.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopaths-teach-us-about-how-to-succeed

I thought we all knew this.

[vaskidmark]

I score in the top 1/2of 1% on the psychopathy scale.

I've never murdered anybody, I don't pull the wings off flys, and I know what the definition of "is" is.

If anything, having those traits has allowed me to be able to work with, and provide some meaningful intervention to change the behavior to some very sick people - and some of them were convicted and confined in prison, or heading that way very quickly.  Two of them were administrators and I consider my success with them a greater achievement than anything I achieved with anybody else.

If I were a real psychopath I would be either a used car salesman or an Amway representative.

As adlively said - I thought we all already knew this.  I just want to know why it's just dawning on academics (and have a possible answer that will move this into Politics and then shut down in a heartbeat).

stay safe.

[drewtam]

It is not just politicians. It is well documented that the hookup scene is most "successful" for those with dark triad traits, and for those who emulate those traits. Just start searching for male oriented sites about "game", and it will be clearly and clinically described what works and what doesn't for female attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad

The dark triad traits and other game techniques work. I've made it work on my own wife (triggering attraction, and other attraction based behavior response) and neither of us have been anywhere near nor interested in the casual sex / hookup scene, ever. Due to that trial run success, it has become a set of techniques I've been slowly implementing for over a year now to improve our marriage.


So the real point is, we are all attracted to these dark triad traits. Politicians are successful in implementing it in a non-overtly sexual way.

There are several conclusions that I have come to with this experience...
Ideologically, this shows that power should never be concentrated, but rather it is important that the system is designed to suppress these behaviors. Since this attraction are innate in all humans, therefore it can't be avoided by direct democracy. Democracy will in fact, select for it. Only strict constitutional limits can prevent or slow the behavior selection.
Or as Hayek describes pragmatically, concentrated power attracts the wrong kind of people. So even if gov't power starts with good people, the wrong people will supplant the ones with good intentions. The good intentioned naturally lack the desire to RULE and will be supplanted by those who do desire it.

Similarly, the old rules of marriage & sexuality were designed to have the same effect on controlling the self destructive behavior of animalist female and male tendencies. This control has been destroyed by modern culture, yielding 40-50% divorce rates, and >50% new births out of wedlock. This in turn yields more of the same feral behavior, while causing lasting damage to children, adults, and society.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I score in the top 1/2of 1% on the psychopathy scale.


i never saw you at the meetings?  what you sit in the back?

[Scout26]

I think the comparisons are facile.  A lot of multiple killers are anything but charming.  This is a Hollywood fantasy.  Monomaniacal and amoral, not "charming."

Ted Bundy. 

[vaskidmark]

Ted was charming.  He was also an anomaly.

I guess you threw him in to show that the exception proves the rule?

stay safe.

[MicroBalrog]

So wait.

Science tells us that amoral individuals with a heightened sense of self-worth and a knack towards manipulating others are good at manipulating others?

Really? Did we need science for that?

[Tallpine]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-tunes-in-to-see-which-sociopath-more-likabl,29946/

According to polls, viewer consensus following the first debate suggested Mitt Romney had performed a far more convincing impersonation of someone with real feelings and a capacity for human compassion. Voters praised the former governor’s ability to conceal his complete social disconnection and underlying hostility behind a wall of colloquial rhetoric and an approximation of warmth they described as “much more realistic” than Obama’s.

 

[gunsmith]

the last time I bought a copy of S.A I thought I had picked up a glossy copy of the Nation.
IDK if it was so left leaning in the old days and I didn't notice- but you can get the same schlock from daily kos...
I gave up on even reading scientific American a couple yrs ago.

[lee n. field]

the last time I bought a copy of S.A I thought I had picked up a glossy copy of the Nation.
IDK if it was so left leaning in the old days and I didn't notice- but you can get the same schlock from daily kos...
I gave up on even reading scientific American a couple yrs ago.

It's changed, you've changed.

(Speaking of changed, I just saw that Newsweak is going web only, sometime soon.)

[MicroBalrog]

It's changed, you've changed.

(Speaking of changed, I just saw that Newspeak is going web only, sometime soon.)

Fixed.