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NancyLebovitz comments on Crime and punishment - Less Wrong
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I have a notion that any project attempting to "identify psychopaths" would soon enough be taken over by psychopaths.
Why? What's in it for them, as individuals when taking over such a project? Doesn't sound like it would be particularly well paying in terms of money, status or sexual gratification.
It pays off in safety-- they could probably control things well enough not to be personally targeted. The money and status shouldn't be bad if it's a big enough project to have influence. The opportunities for extortion could be interesting.
Maybe I've just got a suspense novel plot, of course.
Huh? I would think P(brain scanned|work on a brain scanning research project) >> P(brain scanned|~work on a brain scanning research project).
I don't understand your notation.
Even so, I suggest that there will probably be enough wiggle room in either the record-keeping and/or the rules for identifying psychopaths from brain scans that the system will be gameable by sufficiently intelligent, dedicated people.
He's suggesting that working someplace where part of the job description is scanning people's brains would be likely to increase your chances of being scanned yourself, since it would probably be required as part of a job interview. Of course, if the people operating the scanning machine were already psychopaths...
On another note, do psychopaths know that they're psychopaths? My (admittedly very limited) understanding is that they tend to believe that they are normal, and that everyone else is simply pretending to be good, the same way they are. There are some obvious flaws with this reasoning, but the vast majority of psychopaths probably don't have much training in rationality.
I think I've fallen in love with my scenario, but I'm going to run with it anyway.
People in charge typically aren't tested. CEOs can do much more damage than bus drivers, but it's the latter who get drug-tested.
I was thinking of psychopaths targeting being in charge of the project from the beginning, but you're probably right that most of them aren't that self-aware.
On the other hand, you only need one. In fact, that would work better for that psychopath's self-interest than if a number of them were competing for the spot.
Obvious bias: I read Slan at an impressionable age.
Do you think non-psychopaths would do better at it?
I assume that psychopaths would change the project into something non-psychopaths wouldn't want.
Might this be a useful way to identify psychopaths?
It would be an extremely dangerous way of identifying psychopaths.