Are politicians and CEOs sociopaths?
I was reading something on Slashdot about HP dumping Board member George Keyworth for leaking things to the press. The issue wasn’t that he was dumped, it was that pretexting was used to get his phone records.
This being Slashdot, the idea that all CEOs and politicians are sociopaths quickly came up. This is how it supposedly works: no normal human being would be willing to cut jobs, sell out their colleagues, keep saying what people want to hear with no guilt from lying, and otherwise do the things that lands you on top of the corporate ladder or in Congress. In order to be successful at those things, you have to lack empathy with others – hence, you’re a sociopath. Very intelligent sociopaths can be surprisingly charismatic – they learn can learn, and exploit, social graces even if they don’t feel bound to them.
Is there any evidence to back this up? There’s a book called The Sociopath Next Door, written by a clinical psychologist, but I haven’t read it. A search of the literature doesn’t show much, although I have to admit I’m not familiar with the technical terms to use in searching academic journals.
I did find one piece of related evidence. A magazine was able to run a Voight-Kampff test on the candidates for mayor of San Franscisco. They determined that the majority were replicants, and not human beings at all.
What do you think? Are politicians and CEOs really amoral enough to be called sociopaths, or do these jobs select for sociopathic tendencies? Or is it just an intelligent way of saying their jerks and we’re jealous of them?
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I don’t think that they are complete sociiopaths, that would mean that they have no empathy to any fellow human beings or living things. I’m sure they care about their own families and friends, just not all those dirty poor people always asking for money. When in a public service role you have to have a certain level of detachment. If you cared about every family who could make that months rent and might go out on the streets you would go crazy. Dealing with large groups of people like that you need to view them as a gorup and not care about them as individuals.
September 8th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Wallz, I know a local CEO who is a sociopath. I think you are assuming that people care about their own families and friends. This CEO did not. He would work 75+ hours a week, and not really give a damn that he was not around for his kids. He used his wife as a babysitter and didn’t really give a damn about what was going on in her life, nor did he make any effort to get to know her family at all.
A lot of CEO’s sacrifice time with their families for work. I don’t think that they are giving up time with their families because they ‘care’ about them.. You are making an assumption that does not seemed to be based on any fact..
September 8th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I was watching a series on TV a few months ago. it delt with research on sociopaths.
In all,it was a fasinating series…Way too short though.
Anyway,in a nutshell,thei stated that one in a dozen people have some sociopathic
traits…I always thought being a sociopath was an all-or-nothing thing…But apparently there are degrees one can be aflicted..So yeah,I’d say it’s possible.
September 9th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
So, here’s what the DSMIV has to say about Antisocial Personality Disorder http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/antisocialpd.htm.
By this standard I would posit that many CEOs are sociopaths, or at least many of the CEOs we here about from the media. I think that the level of power they wield has a strong tendency to corrupt people who might otherwise seem more empathetic or “normal.” I didn’t see the TV series Don mentioned, but maybe sociopathy is a scale and things like exorbitant income and unchecked power tend to push people up towards the “total creepy sociopath” end.
On a related note, many of you have probably read The Coporation” or seen the move based on it that examines the pathological behavior of corporate entities. It’s pretty good, if you haven’t.
September 10th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
It is ridiculous to label corporate CEOs sociopaths and I wouldn’t expect anything less from Slashdot (where using the wrong flavor of Linux will get you labeled a sociopath). A corporate executive has a fiduciary duty to the corporation’s shareholders. That means they need to think about growing the company and creating a profit so that shareholders make money. It also means they have to exercise due care and diligence, amongst other things, in their handling of coporate affairs and not commit any legal or ethical violations. To condemn CEOs for doing their jobs, is to condemn the entire structure of our economy, which one is free to do of course.
Here are the factors (with brief commentary) according to petitbourg’s link above:
(1) failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
-maintaining their fiduciary duty is what they are lawfully required to do
(2) deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
-deceitfulness and lying for personal profit would be a violation of the fiduciary duty
(3) impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
-another violation of the duty for care and diligence
(4) irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults
-we don’t dee that often with CEOs
(5) reckless disregard for safety of self or others
-see 4
(6) consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations
-violation of the fiduciary duty again
(7) lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another
-this one is the only one that has legs
Ulrimately, only one factor would be met by the “ideal” CEO who obeys the laws governing his or her office, hardly enough to “posit that many CEOs are sociopaths.” In fact, the fiduciary duty, as old as the law of agency, directs CEOs to avoid the behavior listed above. The very nature of being a CEO is not sociopathic. If a CEO consistently violates that duty and his actions mesh with the factors above, then it may be appropriate to label him a sociopath, but that is not the question being asked.
September 11th, 2006 at 12:30 am
The problem with politicians is they are always campaigning trying to look good and have little time for managing the real issues. They are our most important fiduciaries yet they are not accountable like others in a fiduciary position. The ballot box is not working as we would like. The immunity rules that protect politicians need to be removed. Judges are the same. If we cannot hold judges accountable then we can never hold politicians accountable. The judicial oath is a fiduciary undertaking, yet after they sign it they are protected by judicial immunity which means you cannot hold them to account for the obligation they have promised. The entire system of state leadership accountability needs to be redrafted. If we don’t they will continue to cause us harm and god knows what they can and will lead us into. We all need to join any political party and vote from the local branches up for the removal of immunity laws that protect our incompetent, negligent and sometimes corrupt lying scumbag politicians and judges. Having a public jury into our highest courts will ensure deals behind closed doors will not work in the long played game of cover-up.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:34 pm