This would be a great step, even if it just causes public discussion about the prevalence of psychopathy in the powerful levels of society and government. Of course, they will try and find ways to cheat the test, but at least it will be in the public mind.

Good points. Thing is though that positions of power can literally change the brain and corrupt otherwise normal people over time.

http://michaelinzlicht.com/publications/articles-chapters/power-changes-how-the-brain-responds-to-others-pdf

The big problem is power creep over time. You have to keep tight checks and balances to make sure that even if someone is a psycho they are not able to use their position to harm others. But the sociopathic people may try to push the limits of what they are able to get away with slowly over time. Especially when it comes to high-level government positions where there are a lot of tough decisions that need to be made. They may not think what they are doing is wrong, they may just think it is what needs to be done, but still others suffer from their actions. And it can be hard to determine what intentions the person had when they made their choice.

But we can see that slowly the system has become much more corrupted, one brick at a time. And then it can foster an environment where that kind of behavior becomes more and more acceptable, and even necessary in certain cases (for example how even if a politician is opposed to overreaching lobbyist influence, lobbyist money can become necessary for politicians to compete with their peers who have no problems taking what is essentially bribe money). We have to pay attention to who takes benefit from questionable actions and cut it off before it can spread.

I think you greatly underestimate the innate sociopath in everyone of us. Once you're in the game on those kinds of levels and you want to keep on playing (for financial reasons or other incentives), then a lot, if not most of us, would go to extreme lenghts to keep their positions or advance them.

It's like the Milgram experiment in which ordinary volunteers got offered a lot of money for and commands by authority figures to supposedly torture people they couldn't see with increasing levels of electric shocks.

What makes a psychopath a psychopath?

The inability and /or unwillingness to give any fucks at all about the impact ones actions may or may not have and deriving pleasure from others pain and suffering. So craving power over others .

Well it looks like The World is full of psychopaths at this point.

Yepperdoodle. I am getting really sick of em too. How bout you?

I am not worried about them. It is the sadists that do not sit well with me. They ruin everything. Plus most of my friends are psychopaths. They make life fun.

Trust me -- you're not friends with psychopaths. Psychopaths use and abuse you until you're all out of energy or resources to give, and which point they discard you like a dirty rag. If you're friends with someone by definition, they are not a psychopath. Psychopaths are incapable of giving back in that sense. You may be friends with some people who are a little sick in the head, in which case, so am I! Psychopath simply means someone who is incapable of empathy, that feeling you get when you lie that hurts inside because you know it is wrong to do so, they do not feel that feeling. That voice telling you what is right and what is wrong on an emotional level. They know what is wrong, but they do not feel it is wrong.

I hang out with a pack psychopaths.

Been doing it all wrong...I thot the psychopaths were the bane of my existence and the sadists were there for fun. ;-) my bad.

Just an inability to sympathize, not deriving joy from suffering.

That's what I wanted to say as well.

You guys are both right, but experience shows that those unable to empathize properly ,usually do end up enjoying the mayhem their shit creates. Selffeeding circle of actions. Watch them. For some it is the only joy in life they have.

Psychopaths have uses such as being test pilots and any job that means taking risks. They are the best risk takers.

They don't belong in any job that holds power over others because they have no interest in directing others away from harm. They make decisions based on one single criteria, that's personal greed. Harm to others has no meaning to them and they find no reason to avoid it. The greater problem for us all now is that all power positions are currently controlled by sociopaths and psychopaths. More normal people are being influenced and co-opted by them because everyone has to at least somewhat echo the characteristics of their boss. There are ever greater numbers of sociopaths and psychopaths for this reason.

We have to get out of a capitalist society before such an option like this would even be considered. As is, psychopathy is a skill in this capitalist society.

Psychopaths on the left, humans on the right. https://imgur.com/gallery/y2RdV

Adam Ruins Everything: Polygraph

http://time.com/32647/which-professions-have-the-most-psychopaths-the-fewest/

"Psychopathy personalities are described and characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial character, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality."

Notice how the thread about research and numbers is auto-collapsed behind an antagonistic -7 comment? That is weird. Most of the thread activity is going on behind a closed blind.

Psychopaths are usually too fucked up to get a job at the grocery, let alone rise in a organization.

If you're good at negotiations there's a chance you could go unchecked. Probably not a statistically significant amount of people though.

Probably just a different class of people. Some people dumpster dive for shit, some buy at goodwill, some won't go to Walmart but will to target, some people have maids, some have a staff of workers for help.

Then why are almost all positions of power inhabited by clearly psychopathic people?

Not all powerful/rich people are psychopaths. Some are just sociopaths, have a strong personality, are hard working, or are just assholes.. To label them all (of anything) is intellectually and factually dishonest.

He said "almost all", not "all".

My point was mainly that saying someone is a psychopath is not always correct, and it would take an actual diagnosis. Someone may be perceived as a psychopath, but maybe they are just an anti-social asshole. Probably should've worded it better in my original comment.

Look into the ultimate scientific audience research that Timothy Leary produced for the G-men before they dosed him and his wife suicided, etc. Circa 1957, on the traits of Army Colonels on the Interpersonal Behavior Cirumplex. Leary reported 90% personality disorder in 600 Army Colonels. "Psychopath" is a term that captures a narrow scientific definition of post-analysis Skinnerism. Autocratic personality in extremis should be compared with the modern definition.

Comparing Leary with more modern sources, the measurements using the model of high-functioning psychopath, reality would be:

• 1% of general population are usually diagnosable psychopaths
• Some percentage of psychopaths are "high-functioning" and not usually diagnosed as psychopaths.
• High-functioning psychopaths seek political positions from which they can maximize their psychopathy more often than altruistic people seek political positions from which they can maximize their altruism, and more often ideological people seek political positions from which they can maximize their ideology, or the psychopaths try harder or cheat better, but somehow the psychopaths out-compete the altruists and the idealogs.
• Psychopathic parents raise psychopathic kids more often than the general population, so psychopathic dynasties really do exist.

And you end up with something like 50-90% psychopaths in power, depending on how you define "power." The people in charge of killing seem, no surprise, heavy on the psychopaths. Maybe other organizations are less attractive to psychopaths, or maybe some organizations employ dangerous training or activities which create psychopathy in the general population.

If there's one thing I've seen about The Way it Works, it's that the psychopaths cheat the system as a matter of course, receiving degrees, certifications, and even elections that honest people would still be working on, or would have missed out on entirely. This may be part of the reason the psychos out-compete on the way to Who's Who.

It's because these people deliberately seek out positions of power to abuse.

You've stated an opnion, not fact.

You've stated an opinion, not fact.

Just as you did with your statement: "Psychopaths are usually too fucked up to get a job at the grocery, let alone rise in a organization."

It;s okay for you to state your opinion but as soon as someone else does they have to back it up with facts?

A 2008 study using the PCL:SV found that 1.2% of a US sample scored 13 or more out of 24, indicating "potential psychopathy". The scores correlated significantly with violence, alcohol use, and lower intelligence.[26] A 2009 British study by Coid et al., also using the PCL:SV, reported a community prevalence of 0.6% scoring 13 or more. The scores correlated with younger age, male gender, suicide attempts, violence, imprisonment, homelessness, drug dependence, personality disorders (histrionic, borderline and antisocial), and panic and obsessive–compulsive disorders.[166]

Psychopathy has a much higher prevalence in the convicted and incarcerated population, where it is thought that an estimated 15–25% of prisoners qualify for the diagnosis.[58] A study on a sample of inmates in the UK found that 7.7% of the inmates interviewed met the PCL-R cut-off of 30 for a diagnosis of psychopathy.[24] A study on a sample of inmates in Iran using the PCL:SV found a prevalence of 23% scoring 18 or more.[167]

Considering you like Wikipedia: Careers with highest proportion of psychopaths

CEO
Lawyer
Media (TV/radio)
Salesperson
Surgeon
Journalist
Police officer
Clergy
Chef
Civil servant

Also note the "Behavioural patterns" paragraph just below my link. The perfect description of career politicians. Keep reading the paragraphs after that too, "Why psychopaths readily get hired" and "Why psychopaths readily get promoted".

Rather arbitrary. Dentists are the profession with the highest number of people with albinism.

We're talking about psychopaths, not dentists. What psychology can measure is not psychopathy, they measure a disorder called anti-social personality disorder. They are categorically different; one is based on anti-social behavior and the other is something only in the mind. Based on the nature of psychopathy, the very essence of being a "together" psychopath means that they would not get wound up in the system. That is why the science you alluded to says most are low level. Because the high level ones aren't caught. The high level ones do not get processed by the system, and they don't end up in jail. They own the jails. How do you think people like Hillary sleep at night? You think she goes to bed worried about the people? Does she worry about the men in the military she is sending, does she regret her tie-breaking vote as secretary of state to send men into Libya, thereby destabilizing an entire nation? I don't think so, I don't think a human who feels remorse and shame could possibly deem themselves viable for president after having done what she has done. That alone should tell you something about those in Washington.

Making difficult decisions in business does not require a lack of remorse, nor does committing terrible acts.

You just don't care for those in power and want to demonize them as uncaring, mentally unstable villains. I'm sure a couple are, not all of them are.

Probably most of them are not terribly different than you or I. I know that makes you uncomfortable; to acknowledge that you may make the same decisions in the same position.

Keep telling yourself that.

I'm telling you that.

That would change if you actually tested all the people in power for psychopathy. You can't do that, though.

What are you arguing? That psychopaths aren't competent enough to join the government?

I'm saying: I feel you have based this hypothesis on conjecture, not data.

It seems you're not able to apply your own arguments to yourself, though. Like /u/tehgreatblade said, you can't test all the people in power for psychopathy. Not even a large margin of them. Your argument is based on your own naive assumption that all psychopaths stand out like a sore thumb and can't get into positions of power.

I just think the numbers don't support the arfuemebt: a large percentage of people in powerful positions are pahycopths. I do not belive there are enough stable psychopaths to fulfill that.

Though pahycopths may be able to gain powerful positions, powerful positions are not only obtained by pahycopths.

Is an elephant gray because it's an elephant, or is it an elephant because it's gray.

You've clearly never worked for a large corporation. At least have of the huge corporations I have worked for -- and maybe more -- were run by sociopaths or psychopaths.

What often happens, too, is a good smaller company is bought by a bigger corporation and the bigger corporation gradually squeezes the humanity out of the smaller acquisition as the psychopaths gradually take over.

You should check out the book "The Psychopath Next Door." Basically, it makes the point that we think of low-functioning psychopaths and overlook the high-functioning psychopaths, who blend in to our society.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that a small percentage of people in power are pahycopths. There simply aren't enough high functioning pahycopths, who happen to be born into extreme wealth, who happen to be well educated, who happen to rise to power.

The same could be said for physically attractive people in power. It might seem like those in power are generally attractive, but the vast majority are not.

There simply aren't enough high functioning pahycopths,

I don't think you have any basis for that statement beyond your own opinion. Research contradicts you. See Timothy Leary's 1957 graduate thesis, in which a study of 800 Army Colonels found that 90% had a disorder comparable to psychopathy.

Occurrence is around 1%

Yeah, and Yellow shirt is the most dangerous shirt to wear in the Star Trek universe, did you understand why it's more dangerous than red?

What percentage of the top 1% are drawn from the other 1%? Theory at hand considers that high-functioning psychopaths such as Hitler are drawn to the powerful positions. Observations indicate that incidence in setting are higher than incidence at random. Don't try to out smart. Keep your box of learning open.

EDIT: Wow, sorry for the repetitive re-posts. I kept seeing errors 500 and thought my post wasn't going through, kept trying to "re-post" it, and found 6 of them here. Whoops.

Yeah, and Yellow shirt is the most dangerous shirt to wear in the Star Trek universe, did you understand why it's more dangerous than red?

What percentage of the top 1% are drawn from the other 1%? Theory at hand considers that high-functioning psychopaths such as Hitler are drawn to the powerful positions. Observations indicate that incidence in setting are higher than incidence at random. Don't try to out smart.

Are you sure you know what a psychopath is?

Yes. I'm personally familiar.

I really think y'all are overestimating how many pahycopths exist in society, let alone rise to power. I know it's easy to demonize and blame mental illness, but this is not all that likely.

I actually took a college course specifically on psychopathy. See, I'm not overestimating because positions of high power actually attract psychopathy, so if anything we'd see a higher density of people with this mental illness exactly where we would expect them, in politics, CEO's of fortune 500 companies, and other positions where they wield ungodly amounts of power.

Ceos of fortune 500 companies share many things in common, mostly based on their socioeconomic status during their upbringing. Take all those factors they have in common, figure out how many people share those characteristics, take 0.75% and that is the potential number of pahycopths you have.

That's quite mistaken. You're an interesting character. Have you ever heard of Thomas Bayes? He would rob you at any gambling table.

Psychopathy occurs at a rate of around 1% or less according to what study/demographic you look at.

Then why are almost all positions of power inhabited by clearly psychopathic people?

You've clearly never worked for a large corporation. At least have of the huge corporations I have worked for -- and maybe more -- were run by sociopaths or psychopaths.

What often happens, too, is a good smaller company is bought by a bigger corporation and the bigger corporation gradually squeezes the humanity out of the smaller acquisition as the psychopaths gradually take over.

You should check out the book "The Psychopath Next Door." Basically, it makes the point that we think of low-functioning psychopaths and overlook the high-functioning psychopaths, who blend in to our society.

Are you sure you know what a psychopath is?

That's what I wanted to say as well.