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https://theconversation.com/why-a-psychopath-wouldnt-hesitate-to-cause-another-global-financial-crisis-if-there-was-something-in-it-for-them-252788>
"Would you want a psychopath looking after your pension? Or what about your
shares? In a recent talk at the Cambridge Festival of Science, I spoke about
the latest research relating to a psychopath’s love of money, greed for power,
and willingness to harm other people financially for personal gain.
Since I began researching corporate psychopaths and the global financial
crisis, the idea of the financial psychopath, an employee in the financial
sector acting ruthlessly, recklessly, greedily and selfishly with other
people’s money, has gained traction.
The theory won support because psychopaths are more commonly found in financial
services than in other sectors. It has even been argued that up to 10% of
employees in financial services could be psychopathic. That is to say they have
no empathy, care for other people, conscience or regrets for any damage they
do.
These traits make them ruthless in pursuit of their own agendas and entirely
focused on self-promotion and self-advancement.
But my ongoing research goes even further. It has found that psychopaths are
willing to knowingly cause financial harm to the entire global community, in
order to receive a financial bonus for themselves. Personal greed outweighs the
immense social and community costs of implementing that greed.
This aligns with earlier perceptions of some captains of finance or leading
politicians as psychopaths. Previous research found they are freed by their
selfish philosophy of life and their trivialising of other people from the
restraints of being evenhanded, truthful or generous.
This new research also shows that a majority of psychopaths would even be
willing to cause a global financial crisis – if they personally would profit
from, for example, falling stock prices. This willingness holds true even when
they could be personally identified as being the source of the crisis. Only a
tiny minority of non-psychopaths would be willing to do this."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
