kerkko.fi

Peter Jonason of New Mexico University believes that narcissism and callousness may have an innate, genetic component. Speaking in New Scientist, Dr Jonason describes the "Dark Triad" of traits: the self-obsession of narcissism, the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths, and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. "We have evidence that these traits may represent a successful evolutionary strategy," he says.

While acknowledging that clinical levels of the Dark Triad traits are certainly socially undesirable, Dr Jonason and his colleagues argue that the traits that underlie the Dark Triad, which are partially independent but moderately related to one another, are best viewed as one particular social orientation towards others and may facilitate people's goals, especially when those goals involve an exploitative social strategy and a short-term mating strategy.

Those scoring high on the Dark Triad tended to be more extraverted, open to experience, and have higher self-esteem. They also tended to be less agreeable, neurotic, and conscientious. "The traits reflect a highly selfish social strategy. High level of self-esteem, extraversion, and openness, along with low levels of conscientiousness and anxiety, may be instrumental in enabling an exploiter to persist in the face of potential social rejection and retaliation."

"In a world where individuals want to avoid being taken advantage of, those high on the Dark Triad, like James Bond, who tend to be more agentic than others, have a particularly difficult task at hand. How to get what they want without rousing the suspicions or retaliations of others? The answer is to be extraverted, open, high on self-esteem, and low on conscientiousness and anxiety while being individualistic and competitive," Dr Jonason argues.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201007/james-bonds-psyche

College students today are 40% less empathetic than those of 30 years ago, with the numbers plunging primarily after 2000, according to a paper by Sara Konrath, researcher at the University of Michigan. The paper, "Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis," was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Boston.

Dr Konrath measured four aspects of "interpersonal sensitivity": empathic concern, or sympathy, over the misfortunes of others; perspective taking, an intellectual capacity to imagine other people’s points of view; fantasy or people's tendency to identify imaginatively with fictional characters in books or movies; and personal distress, which refers to the anguish one feels during others' misfortunes.

Today’s students scored significantly (48%) lower in empathic concern and perspective taking (34%). They are less likely to agree with statements like "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me" and "I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective." These are considered shared social ideals: people are more likely to say they agree than they really do.

"We don't know what the causes are," Dr Konrath said. A mixture of video games, social media, reality TV, and hyper-competition may have left young people self-involved, shallow, and unfettered in their individualism and ambition. The implications are hardly superficial. Low empathy is associated with criminal behavior, violence, sexual offenses, aggression when drunk, and other antisocial behaviors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/fashion/27StudiedEmpathy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

A funny thing happened to us on the way to the future. The internet went from being something exotic to being boring utility, like mains electricity or running water -- and we never really noticed. We wound up being totally dependent on a system about which we are terminally incurious. The internet has quietly infiltrated our lives, and yet we seem to be remarkably unreflective about it. That is not because we are short of information about the network; on the contrary, we are awash with the stuff. It is just that we do not know what it all means. We are in the state of "informed bewilderment."

New Zealand is the most peaceful nation on Earth, according to the 2009 Global Peace Index released Tuesday by an Australian-based research group that counts former President Jimmy Carter, Ted Turner and the Dalai Lama among its endorsers.

After New Zealand, next on the list are Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Finland and Slovenia. In the bottom ten are Zimbabwe, Russia, Pakistan, Chad, Congo, Sudan, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan and, in last place, Iraq.

The US is 83rd on the list, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace that rated the relative tranquility of 144 nations according to 23 indicators, including gun sales, the number of homicides, the size of the military, terrorism, and the number of people in jail.

Germany is at 16 on the list, Australia at 19, Spain (28), South Korea (33), Britain (35) and Italy (36). Libya, Nicaragua, Jordan, Cuba, China, Peru, and Ukraine all are rated more peaceful than the US. Rwanda is rated 86, Syria 92, Iran 99, and Mexico 108.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/03/new-zealand-rated-most-peaceful-us-83rd/

Few disorders are as misunderstood as is psychopathic personality. Superficially charming, psychopaths tend to make a good first impression on others and often strike observers as remarkably normal. Yet they are self-centered, dishonest and undependable, and at times they engage in irresponsible behavior for no apparent reason other than the sheer fun of it.

Largely devoid of guilt, empathy and love, they have casual and callous interpersonal and romantic relationships. Psychopaths routinely offer excuses for their reckless and often outrageous actions, placing blame on others instead. They rarely learn from their mistakes or benefit from negative feedback, and they have difficulty inhibiting their impulses.

Research suggests that there are numerous psychopaths amongst us in everyday life. Some have speculated that "successful psychopaths" -- those who attain prominent positions in society -- may be overrepresented in certain occupations, such as politics, business and entertainment. Yet the scientific evidence for this conjecture is preliminary.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopath-means

Проблема взаимоотношения москвичей и приезжих с Кавказа и Средней Азии -- не только (а может быть и не столько) национальная. Она социальная. Или даже социокультурная. Это столкновение двух культур, но не русской и чеченской, русской и кавказской, русской и среднеазиатской, православной и исламской. А городской и деревенской.

http://funt.livejournal.com/132598.html