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from the the-second-mouse-gets-the-cheese dept.
Empirical evidence that nice people don't always finish last:
Think your boss is a jerk? Wonder why the management of your organization consists of sociopaths? Some academic researchers suspect you're not alone, and they start their new paper with the statement, "We suffer no shortage of jerks in power." And they go on to ask the obvious question raised by this fact: "Does being a jerk help people attain power?"
To find out, the researchers set up a very long-term experiment. After administering personality surveys to undergrad and MBA students, they waited over a decade to follow up and find out which personality types had accrued power in the world of employment. The results suggest that jerks don't necessarily get ahead at work; instead, some of the consequences of being unpleasant offset the benefits that it might otherwise provide.
[...] The good news here is that, as the researchers put it, "individuals who were more selfish, combative, and deceitful did not, subsequently, attain higher power." So, nice people do not necessarily finish last. But, at the same time, nobody seems to be held back by displaying that list of behaviors on the job.
Journal Reference:
Cameron Anderson, Daron L. Sharps, Christopher J. Soto, et al. People with disagreeable personalities (selfish, combative, and manipulative) do not have an advantage in pursuing power at work [$], Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2005088117)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 02 2020, @11:18AM (18 children)
Enlightened self-interest is the *only* type of altriusm that exists. At rock bottom, all moral decisions come to "satisfaction/least dissatisfaction of the moral agent." Given that morality is older than humans, as any primatologist can tell you, this should not be surprising.
More germane to the article's contents: there is an artificial selection pressure for assholery. The more power they get, the more they shape society around themselves such that their always-defect (in game theory/Prinsoner's Dilemma terms) strategy is preferred for getting ahead, at least short-term. Institutions and flows of money and power become more and more focused around this zeitgeist, to the detriment of things like infrastructure or, y'know, ordinary non-asshole people without a lot of money. It's a positive feedback loop, i.e., it reinforces and accelerates itself, but it's also inherently unstable and sows the seeds of its own destruction. This right here is a description of the US's social, economic, and political problems in a nutshell.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @11:42AM
Very well put.. An easy way to visualize it, for me, is to look at the history of kings. Royalty was always completely fucked up. They would kill their own family members to get ahead, and the people usually, always suffered when the most merciless of these types came to power. Only every 10 generations or, some one would come along to clear the air, and there would be a short time of peace and prosperity, followed again, by conniving royalty...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday September 02 2020, @12:30PM (6 children)
>Enlightened self-interest is the *only* type of altriusm that exists
A philosopher should know assertions like these can be countered by just one counter example. I have been meeting several people whose behavior is dictated by "whatever is fair" criteria who don't give a flying fuck about the consequences.
I know that for every case I'd get a rationalization out of you that would box them as getting some kind of self interest (feeling good) but that is what it is, a rationalization.
It's simple. There is the light and the obscurity. The light is recognizing that life is multiform and you are just one expression of it. Which does not detract from your freedom like evil people want you to believe by trying to get a drone out of your children. The obscurity is being unable or unwilling to acknowledge that.
But I don't want to further interrupt your altruistic deeds, have a nice day.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @04:27PM
Shut up dumdum.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 02 2020, @08:29PM (4 children)
That's no rationalization. At base, somewhere, even if they can't find the words, that *is* "satisfaction of the moral agent."
I challenge you to find me one example of something that isn't. And note, it can satisfy a moral agent to follow the light, as it does for me. You have no such light however; your words and deeds prove your inner darkness. If you were truly a possessor of the light you would not hold the political and religious views you do.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)
Jesus said to help the poor, turn the other cheek, forgiveness for those who have done wrong.
Basically the complete opposite of Republican ideology.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 04 2020, @10:51AM
Jesus had quite a clear hierarchy of values.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you,[b] and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 04 2020, @10:27AM (1 child)
LOL, exactly as predicted. You give coins to the nigger standing out the mall, fully knowing that it is 99% a racket, and that any money given is 99% accelerating your own demise. Why do you do it? now make it 100%.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 07 2020, @12:14AM
Wow, you're an even worse Christian than I thought, and I already thought you were a pretty goddamn (heh) terrible one.
What happened to Jesus' kingdom being not of this world, huh? What happened to "fear not him who can destroy the body alone" etc etc? You don't even take your own God seriously. He's gonna chuck you headfirst into Hell according to your own beliefs.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @03:42AM (9 children)
The editors really need to explain why a bad faith user like you has privileges to see hashed IPs of posters. Do the editors not respect the privacy of everyone else on this site? Your bad behavior shouldn't be rewarded with admin privileges.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 03 2020, @04:56PM
"Bad faith?" You have some balls to accuse me of that, especially compared to people like Runaway and Entropy. Screw you sideways; I am one of the few posters who is only and always just herself and doesn't spam AC bullshit like a few people I could name.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Friday September 04 2020, @10:43AM (6 children)
AFAIK she is an editor. Lefties always trying to infiltrate orgs you know :D
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 05 2020, @05:23PM (5 children)
She's in training to be an editor but without any special powers at all on the production servers at this point. We don't care who pushes stories as long as they can keep their biases out of their work and don't bring unnecessary drama into the team. Which is to say, the staff are extremely varied in our views but we're adult enough to work together just fine. If you're the only one who can't, the problem is you not whoever you're complaining about.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday September 05 2020, @10:39PM (4 children)
wew! some usual picking on Azuma, ending with a :D no less, and poof TMB appears in a cloud of dusty wrath!
I guess a love story is in the making ;D <---- this is called an emoticon [wikipedia.org] <---- click on the underlined stuff
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 06 2020, @12:45AM (1 child)
Wrath? Dude. That was just me stating facts. I don't have any particular feelings about them one way or the other.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday September 07 2020, @08:31AM
Meatbags are so cute, they all deny having a crush.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 07 2020, @12:16AM (1 child)
Kiss the entire four-volume compendium of my ass, starting and ending with the appendix :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday September 07 2020, @08:32AM
Aha, so it's reciprocated. Can we have the wedding ceremony livestreamed in the first page? all you need is jitsi and a video tag, TMB.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 05 2020, @04:34PM
I'm pretty sure she's lying about being able to see it. She has editor seclev only on the dev server. I checked when I replied above.
Azuma: By all means though, correct me if I'm wrong and post the first five characters of the ipid for the posts in question.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.