Tthe global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths

i've always been convinced that advancement into the corporate, financial elite is a matter of being rewarded for how viciously you can pursue your self interest and how badly you can damage your competitors... i think there's a fine line between some of these top guys and serial killers... it's all about honing the predatory instinct... unfortunately, our society has enshrined that kind of behavior and told the rest of us that it's worthy of emulation... maybe we should take another look...

spiegel...

What makes individual stockbrokers blow billions in financial markets with criminal trading schemes? According to a new study conducted at a Swiss university, it may be because share traders behave more recklessly and are more manipulative than psychopaths.

david sirota...

Now comes a new study from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen showing that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.

As the website Newser reported, the researchers “pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative.” Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive “to damage their opponents.”

The findings build on similar research in the recent past. In 1996, investigators at Glasgow Caledonian University discovered connections between psychopathy and successful financial speculation, concluding that “with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers.” Likewise, in 2004, researchers at the University of British Columbia reacted to similar findings and created a test to help firms detect “corporate psychopaths” within their ranks. That same year, the award-winning documentary “The Corporation” used World Health Organization metrics to show that if companies really are “people,” as our Supreme Court insists, then many of them are mentally ill.

this story deserves more visibility than it's getting... what it tells me and that i've been convinced of for quite some time is that psychopathy has become the accepted norm not only in our society but in many societies around the globe... moreover, psychopathy is being glorified as something to aspire to... maybe it's time we started seeing the reality of what we're doing to ourselves...

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