Having power has been shown to reduce your brain’s capacity for empathy. Neurologically, the rich actually are more capable of evil than normal people.
And having no empathy makes it more enjoyable to fuck people over to become rich. Maybe not a consideration for royals who were born into wealth, but certainly a factor in the circles they move in.
I think you might have it backwards. An empathy deficit (sociopathy) is highly correlated with the C-suite. It’s not that sociopathy makes a person a better leader. It doesn’t. It’s more that a person with dark triad traits isn’t going to care who they step on or what lines they cross to get there.
So selection bias, basically. Leaders aren’t always sociopaths but sociopaths are more likely to be in leadership roles due to their lack of concern for the means that get them to their end.
Having power has been shown to reduce your brain’s capacity for empathy. Neurologically, the rich actually are more capable of evil than normal people.
And having no empathy makes it more enjoyable to fuck people over to become rich. Maybe not a consideration for royals who were born into wealth, but certainly a factor in the circles they move in.
I think you might have it backwards. An empathy deficit (sociopathy) is highly correlated with the C-suite. It’s not that sociopathy makes a person a better leader. It doesn’t. It’s more that a person with dark triad traits isn’t going to care who they step on or what lines they cross to get there.
In other words, they were already screwed up.
So selection bias, basically. Leaders aren’t always sociopaths but sociopaths are more likely to be in leadership roles due to their lack of concern for the means that get them to their end.