Does our society encourage sociopaths? [View all]

[white_wolf]

This thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=678643 got me interested in sociopaths and I've been reading Martha Stout's excellent book "The Sociopath Next Door" and in it she says something rather interesting. She says that the American culture of individualism can foster sociopathic behavior that isn't as tolerated in more group-oriented societies such as in Asia. She quotes for a study by psychologist Robert Hare who wrote that: "our society is moving in the direction of permitting, reinforcing, and in some instances actually valuing some of the traits listing in the Psychopathy Checklist- traits such as impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of remorse."

I'm now going to quote from another section of her book where she discusses cultures which place an emphasis on interrelatedness as opposed to individualism. " This value( interrelatedness) is also the basis for conscience, which is an intervening sense of obligation rotted in a sense of connectedness. If an individual does not, or if neurologically he cannot, experience his connection to others in an emotional way, perhaps a culture that insists on connectedness as a matter of belief can instill a strictly cognitive understanding of interpersonal obligation."

She does stress that this intellectual grasp of a person's duty to others is not the same or as powerful as the emotion that we call conscience, but that it might be able to draw out some prosocial behavior from at least some individuals who would not display such traits if they lived in a society that stressed individualism.

So what do you all think, does our society encourage some sociopathic behavior?