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Psychopathy

Is Homoeconomicus a Psychopath?

The Personality Traits and Attitudes of Rationally Selfish People

In what academics call neoclassical economics, human beings are largely rational, self-interested decision-makers. This stereotypical human, often referred to as Homo economicus, is a creature of coldly calculated selfishness, dispassionately maximizing its best interests even if that comes at the expense of others.

A study in Japan shows that Homo economicus makes up only a minority of the population, but a minority with a wide range of unusual personality traits, including a touch of psychopathy.

To identify people who qualify as Homo economicus (from now on, HE), the researchers asked people to play a series of games. In the dictator game, people were given money and told that their partner (an anonymous person they would never meet) had received none. They were asked how much of that money they would give their partner. Those acting like HE consistently gave their partners no money. Zilch. Their self-interest was maximized by keeping all the money, so that’s what they did.

In the prisoner’s dilemma game, the researchers once again gave people money and asked them how much they would give to an anonymous partner. But this time there were a few twists. First, they were told that any money they gave to the partners would be doubled. So if they received $10 and gave all $10 to the partner, the partner would receive $20. Second, the partner was posed with the exact same opportunity. That means if both people were generous and decided to give the other person all $10, each would actually walk away with $20, for a total of $40. Any selfish behavior would reduce the overall payout. On the other hand, purely selfish people would keep the money for themselves, pocketing the $10 and hoping that the other person was altruistic, therefore giving them a chance to walk away with $30.

There’s a third twist to this study. The researchers artificially controlled the behaviors of the partners in some rounds of the game, so that the research participant would find out that they received $10 from their partner and then be asked how much they would give in return. Those people acting like HE gave their partners no money, even after experiencing the generosity of the anonymous person they were paired with.

I know. Cold.

After playing these games numerous times, the researchers found out that about 7% of people were consistent HEs, never endowing their partners with any coin. They discovered that another 9% were quasi-HE (or qHE), giving their partners money a small proportion of the time. About a quarter of people consistently gave them a hefty chunk of change. These people were called Consistent Cooperators or CCs. And everyone else was in the middle, so the researchers called them Ordinary People (or ORDs).

First thing, then, is to recognize that the neoclassical view of human nature describes at most a small proportion of the population. Maximizing self-interest without regard for others – that’s not the norm. Thank God. Or Darwin. (Or Oprah?)

More importantly, the researchers asked these folks a slew of questions about their attitudes and personalities. They discovered a range of fascinating differences between HE, qHE, and the rest of us. For example, and not totally surprising, these folks believe that success in life requires manipulation of other people:

The researchers also discovered that HEs, but not qHEs, have higher IQs than other people:

HEs are also more likely to believe they are appreciated by other people:

So far then, we have learned that the small percent of people who qualify as Homo economic – who kept all the money for themselves in all these games – are smarty-pants who, feeling unappreciated, manipulate others to their own ends. That is already a scary prospect. But it gets worse. HEs and qHEs demonstrate psychopathic traits, caring little for the well-being of others:

To make matters even worse, as opposed to full on psychopaths, who tend to be a disorganized lot, HEs demonstrate above average self-discipline:

The researchers paint a powerful picture of Homo economicus: “We see a person who is intelligent, driven to excel and to dominate other people, and capable of impulse control and of working toward long-term goals. In other words, Homo economicus is the prototypical member of the social and economic elite.”

Altogether, a chilling portrait. Fortunately, at least in this sample of people from Tokyo, HE makes up only a small portion of the population. More importantly, those of us not so callously selfish are not too pleased when we encounter such selfish disregard in our social circles, and we have the ability to punish such behavior. That is probably the evolutionary explanation for why these selfish, manipulative, smart people are still such a small proportion of the population. Smart, non-manipulative people shun them, perhaps even refuse to mate with them.

The neoclassical economic view of human nature was always a caricature. Now we have a better sense not only of how poorly that view characterizes most humans, but also of how poorly behaved the people are who act according to this caricature.

*Previously Published in Forbes*

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