GirlChat #599746
This paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027711001351 finds that people endorsing utilitarianism in real life, score higher in sociopathic traits than those who don't. Caveats: as all aggregate results, it doesn't say anything about specific individuals; and the sample is WEIRD. But it is still definitely intriguing. Of course, if utilitarians believe in their own beliefs, they shouldn't bother with the results, either. The paper was probably made famous for its review on The Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/09/candidates-and-utilitarianism [The same week's print edition has another article about the paper, but it is behind paywall for me. However, Economist blogs are not behind paywall usually, unlike print edition articles. Click the link on there to see if you can access it.] For more information, The Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/08/12/utilitarians-are-logical%E2%80%94and-sociopathic/ and Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/maybe-its-just-me/201109/utilitarians-arent-psychopaths-are-they also have something to say about the same paper and, if you would call it so, problem. But Dante's characterization of utilitarians as psychopaths is definitely neither about you nor original of his. |