A developmental perspective on authoritarian leadership and how we can build more resilient societies.

Introduction

Five years ago, David Althaus and Tobias Baumann published a delightful article “Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors.” It focuses on the risk factors that “malevolent actors” pose when it comes to long-term catastrophic effects on civilization.

Large parts of the article are devoted to the screening for 99th percentile “Dark Tetrad” traits – traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism. For comparison, I’m in the 7th percentile according to the “Dark Factor” scale.

I think there are many more places where we can intervene.

I propose a circular model where:

Wars and societal collapses cause widespread trauma,
Which causes widespread insecure attachment and personality disorders.
People with these mental health problems grow up, and because they’re desperate for power and admiration, they form a large pool from which new authoritarian leaders are [...]