The bright side of being 'dark'?

Would you vote for a psychopath? Chances are you have or you will.

Politicians would hate my timing (but am not sure how many of them read a science column). I did not seek out this study to synch with the start of the filing of candidacies for elected office although I wish I did. My only rule picking out a science topic for these weekly columns is I myself find the topic so interesting that I cannot get it out of my head. And this latest one on psychopathic traits just lodged itself in the neural desk located in my cortex and would not leave until I share its story with you.

How could you resist an article entitled “The Wisdom of Psychopaths?” Written by Kevin Dutton, research psychologist at the University of Oxford, it appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Scientific American. His revelation: the most defining traits of psychopaths — a generously inflated sense of self-worth, fearlessness, a strong power of persuasion, evident but depthless charm, viciousness, the manipulation of others and the absence of any regret for having done so — are ALSO the distinguishing traits of politicians, world leaders, business leaders and even those who are on top of their fields like in surgery.

According to Dutton, the traits mentioned above exist in many people who are successful and we never call them psychopaths because they have not (yet) crossed the line to being criminals. He cited a top surgeon in the UK who, unabashed, described his stance in the operating room as “a cold, heartless machine totally at one with scalpel, drill and saw.” Would you want him to be the one to touch and “fix” your heart if you needed major repair? If you knew what he thought of himself, you may look around for one with a “kinder” self-description. But remember, those words were uttered by a top surgeon in the UK and that comes with a sterling track record in his field. Clearly, there was a benefit from possessing these “dark” traits but where else could they be useful?

In an experiment he himself conducted, Dutton found that the majority (70 percent) who scored high on the Self-Report Psychopathy scale are able to catch the planted “guilty” one in a flow of people going through doors. Dutton thinks that this makes psychopathic traits promising in terms of the ability to zero in on a target. Before you think that your ability to zero in on a target as previously described could land you in jail, read on. What Dutton is saying is that inside the minds of psychopathic criminals are many dials each turned to their extreme configurations, spelling the darkest minds and make for the most cold-blooded criminals. Dutton is also saying that many successful leaders in their fields possess these same dials that are each tuned in different levels to achieve an overall state that spells success. No one knows the exact configuration on what spells success in “normal” life or in criminality. What scientists have seen so far is that psychopaths do not distinguish between dilemmas that are personal and impersonal while normal people do. These have been seen in their neural patterns when their brains were viewed in motion.

Another interesting study Dutton cited was done in 2005 by Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon who compared the traits of business leaders, psychiatric patients and hospitalized criminals. They found out that identified “psychopathic traits” namely “superficial charm, egocentricity, persuasiveness, lack of empathy, independence and focus” were more common in business leaders than in the two latter groups. The major difference between the groups was the criminals’ tendency to break the law, to show aggression and to act on impulse were all turned to the max. The scientists again think this is proof that what we have commonly perceived as exclusive to a criminal psychopath are actually present in those who hold sway and make things happen as they are leaders in their field, with the “criminal” aspects turned off or at least, very low.

While these findings tried with consistency to present psychopathic traits as not necessarily destructive, I still find it difficult to admire or root for leaders who are “superficially charming, egocentric, ruthless and apathetic” despite what the studies say about how much they spell success. Maybe this kind of success is overrated or ill-defined. But then again, you have to be in a coma not to notice that most of our politicians are indeed superficially charming, egocentric, ruthless, and lacks any remorse for anything they have done.

Nelson Mandela is one of the icons of genuine political success of this century and none of those “psychopathic” adjectives apply to him. I also realize he is only one example of a number I am not certain of. But maybe that should be the next study to further our understanding of the “benefits” of psychopathy. Among leaders in all fields who positively changed their domain, what is the proportion of those who possessed psychopathic traits compared with those who did not possess them in conspicuous extent but still changed the world for the better? I think until we have an idea of what that proportion is, I will personally hold off banking on psychopathic traits to root for any leader. How about you? Would you vote for psychopaths?

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