Someone who sincerely believes is dangerous to himself and everyone around him, classic recent examples being Washington Mutual’s Kerry Killinger, and Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo. They conned everyone of gigantic amounts of money, but their biggest victims were themselves and their banks.

On the other hand, had they not sincerely believed, it is unlikely that they would have been helicoptered up to such wealth and power.

If their belief had been feigned and cynical, a lot more of the disappeared money would have stuck to them. But perhaps had their belief been feigned and cynical, they would not have been the beneficiaries of such great regulatory favor.

Note that Kerry Killinger and Angelo Mozilo did not come from elite universities, and by all indications, are not very bright. Goldman and Sach bailed out later than they should have, indicating some degree of unfeigned sincerity, but bailed out soon enough, indicating some degree of feigned sincerity and cynical pretense. This suggests that true believers are to be found in both elite and second ranking universities, but more easily found in second ranking universities.