Geckopaths

In the October 2011 (yep, Forhcoming) of Cognition comes:

The mismeasure of morals: Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas

Which

We report a study in which participants responded to a battery of personality assessments and a set of dilemmas that pit utilitarian and non-utilitarian options against each other. Participants who indicated greater endorsement of utilitarian solutions had higher scores on measures of Psychopathy, machiavellianism, and life meaninglessness. These results question the widely-used methods by which lay moral judgments are evaluated,

Since sometimes tags are useful, I offer that these people, rather than being called sociopaths, be tagged as Geckopaths. That way, they may wear the tag with pride. Maybe even tattoo themselves, thereby providing the rest of us with adequate notice.

Try This On

When someone says to you that not raising taxes is a great thing…

I don’t agree. Why should we allow the jet set to continue running up our debt? Why should we finance their third villa in Italy? Why should we give them tax credits to layoff our neighbors? Why should the jet clubbers clobber our nation? Why should we protect their resorts while they mortgage our houses?

This Time

This time the debt is theirs. They weren’t taxed, yet they did spend. Begin with a surplus, end with a depression. Thanks G & Friends.