By Joyce Alexander, RNP (retired)
The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia wrecked a few days ago and early reports said that it had hit some rocks. Quickly though, reports came out that the captain, Francesco Schettino, had driven the ship closer than normal to those rocks on the way out of port in order to show off the ship to the residents. An article from the New York Times gives more details.
More bodies found on ship, as transcripts reveal rebuke to captain
Interviews from some of the over 4,020 passengers of the liner stated in news reports that it was “like the Titanic.”
Only shortly after the shipwreck it was determined that the captain had left the ship early on, and also that he had been seen drinking on the bridge with a young, attractive woman at the time of the crash, and that he had been drinking at dinner before the crash. This indicates to me that the man may have been drunk at the time he made the decision to go closer than was safe to the reef.
Rescue crews had reportedly told the captain to “go back to the ship” and at that time they were in command with the authority to demand that he return. He didn’t return and was subsequently branded a “coward,” as well as taken into custody by authorities for not doing his duty in the time of the wreck. I have a feeling this man’s professional life as a sailor is over, and that he will become an international pariah.
Videos taken showed the passengers lined up, going down the side of the overturned boat on one rope, like a line of ants going to a food source.
The captain finally came up with a story that he somehow believed would show that he was not at fault for leaving the ship early (excuse me if I laugh). He said he had “accidentally fallen into a lifeboat while trying to help rescue efforts.” This single statement, to me, branded the man a psychopath. Dr. Robert Hare said in his book, Without Conscience, that the psychopath’s brain doesn’t work like other brains when it comes to lies. They will tell a lie when there is evidence to show it is a lie right in front of them, they will tell a lie that is so unbelievable that no one would believe it, but they do not “get it” that their lie is totally unbelievable.
Of course a psychopath would also put his own well-being above those of his responsibility, such as the passengers, and would desert a sinking boat on the first available lifeboat. Capt. Schettino leaving first, by itself, would not brand someone a psychopath, when maybe they would only be a coward, or so terrorized that he became unglued and deserted the sinking ship. But being told to “get back on the ship!” and refusing to do so does seem to indicate that he was either totally unglued or had no concern for the passengers.
The other things that the captain did that were irresponsible, like drinking at dinner, and drinking at the time of the crash with the rocks, and steering the boat close to the rocks so that he could show off, all of those things might have just been a day of poor judgment, and would not necessarily make me brand someone with the term psychopath. But those things, in concert with the unbelievable lie, make me think that this man has not only no conscience, but that his brain is unable to distinguish a believable lie from one that is so unbelievable that only a psychopath would tell it.
I’m not sure that there is a lie that would be believable or that would not damn any captain who deserted his ship like Capt. Schettino did. However, a man who was not a psychopath, who had simply panicked and deserted his ship, who otherwise had a moral compass, would show some remorse for what he had done. He would at least show some shame at having failed in a pivotal moment in his life, in which he should have showed some courage and concern for the more than 4,000 lives in his charge.
I think that anyone can “fail” in a moment of horrible terror, in combat or accident. The overwhelming terror of something like a ship capsizing, the panic of the passengers, and possibly also the man being drunk, could account for him deserting the ship early and refusing to do his duty, or letting go of his responsibility. But the unbelievable lie is the one thing, that taken with all the others, that makes me think this man is truly a psychopath.
Here’s another article about the captain by a former commander of the U.S. Coast Guard on CNN.com:
Ex-Coast Guard chief: Captain failed in every way
behind_blue_eyes
Back to usual reactions. This article is perhaps the best I have ever read regarding using the sociopath’s innate lack of self-control to unmask them.
http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/quadruple-search-today-how-to-cross-examine-a-sociopath/
Very interesting:
“Once I was called into HR (at Lehman Brothers) for handing out 8-10 pages (from Hare’s Without Conscience and Cleckley’s Mask of Sanity) to friends on recognizing sociopaths… When I told the SVP why, she suddenly started screaming at me, ’we have 15,000 employees, of course we have sociopaths working here’ and then she collected herself.”
Any time you come close to unmasking the sociopath, their fundamental lack of self-control causes an inappropriate response. We have all seen this. Those WTF? moments…
The author’s comments about sociopaths and arrested development is also very true. The “fratboy” culture of Wall Street and law firms is probably due to a large number of socioapths at high levels, whose emotional development stopped as college freshmen. Since these are the power people, underlings emulate them.
behind_blue_eyes
“Can you quote the link to the study itself, rather than the article about it, so that we can read the STUDY ITSELF rather than an article about it. Sometimes the news reporter’s articles about a study are not quite what the study says.”
Ox, you have taken the words out of my mouth. Let me give it a shot.
behind_blue_eyes
I found it:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/06/29/rspb.2011.1193.full
Interestingly, the effect is not seen in women.
Annie
Hello BBE,
My apologies if my post sounded like it was being oppositional or directed at you. It wasn’t meant that way. I admit it was flippant, so I apologize for that. I was originally a psych major in uni, but switched to math because I couldn’t handle the shoddy work that was passed off as science in that field (my apologies to ppl in the social services fields, but that’s the way I feel!). I looked over that study and have quite a number of criticisms, which I won’t go into here for fear of boring everyone to death!
My main concern is that we should be extremely careful with theories like those because they can be so very easily abused, and so many innocent people can be hurt – unnecessarily. In my opinion rigorous criticism for these kinds of studies should be an absolute requirement. I, personally, do not have a wide head, but my husband does. My husband who is a wonderful person and one of the most ethical people I’ve ever met. I could just imagine how anyone with a wide face would feel reading some of the posts on this subject, and just thought it important to put out a counterargument.
Annie
Hi Strongawoman and woundlicker:
The dolphin article can be found here:
http://www.lovefraud.com/blog/2009/01/04/sociopath-proof-in-2009/
And here are two of the articles on Victim Selection that really helped me shift my perspective:
http://www.protectivestrategies.com/victim-selection.html
http://www.protectivestrategies.com/awareness.html
There are quite a few more from the last author that were very helpful (I believe he is a retired SWAT officer who trained police, and has a self-defence training school).
Does anyone happen to know the max. # of links allowed before the website filters block the post?
strongawoman
Annie thanks for posting the links.
I especially liked the self defence class advertised. “Reach out and punch someone”
Now then I wonder who might be deserving of that! Maybe in the next life(lol) I’ll come back as a sumo wrestler and he’ll come back as the puny guy an I’ll kick his arse!!
I can dream
Ox Drover
THANKS BBE: Here is a couple of clips from this VERY INTERESTING study….sort of summing it up! WHR (is width to height ratio)
Quote: Specifically, we identify a key physical attribute, the facial width-to-height ratio, which predicts unethical behaviour in men. Across two studies, we demonstrate that men with wider faces (relative to facial height) are more likely to explicitly deceive their counterparts in a negotiation, and are more willing to cheat in order to increase their financial gain. Importantly, we provide evidence that the link between facial metrics and unethical behaviour is mediated by a psychological sense of power. Our results demonstrate that static physical attributes can indeed serve as reliable cues of immoral action, and provide additional support for the view that evolutionary forces shape ethical judgement and behaviour…….
More concretely, we posit that aggression, a trait that is positively associated with mate preference [10], will also be correlated with unethical behaviour. Thus, physical traits that have been selected as reliable signals of male dominance and aggression may also serve as reliable predictors of morally questionable actions. …..
We propose that one reason for the aggression and self-interest demonstrated by men with higher facial WHRs [10,13] is that they feel more powerful. Individuals who feel powerful think and behave egocentrically (e.g. [14]), and power is often associated with aggressive behaviour (e.g. [15]). …
Across two studies, we demonstrated that men’s facial structure predicts unethical behaviour. For the first time, the current research shows that a persistent physical trait, the facial WHR, reliably predicts deception (study 1) and cheating (study 2). In addition, we identify the psychological underpinnings of the relationship between facial metrics and unethical action: the psychological experience of power. Men with greater facial WHRs felt more powerful, and this sense of power directly affected their ethical behaviour.
Two interesting sex differences emerged in our studies. First, men’s facial WHR predicted unethical actions while women’s facial WHR did not.
Thanks for finding this BBE—-it is amazing all the interesting studies that are being done and knocking down some old “truths.”
I can say that we have known for a long time that there are some facial shapes etc that show various genetic problems, and may seem rather benign until you realize that that “shape” means X problem. So maybe there are more things that are less obvious and much more subtle. Interesting….verrrrry interesting! Thanks!
woundlicker
Annie,
Thank you for the links. I love reading and learning as much as I can about the subject of sociopath’s and their victims. I get so much out of it, and not just in the form of healing through knowledge, but real growth. I see now that this can help me in so many more areas of my life than just recovery from the sociopath. Thank you!
behind_blue_eyes
Annie and Ox;
Let me reiterate that I am very sensitive to anything that seems even remotely Eugenic. Also, we are not talking about a 100%, or even 90% correlation. There are other personality traits having correlations to physical manifestations, for example homosexuality has several, including left-handness and hypothalamus size.
What particularly interests me regarding the face width correlation to honesty, is that the underlying genetic/fetal development factors overlap some of those believe to cause sociopathy, i.e. womb testosterone levels.
Ox Drover
BBE, oh, absolutely fetal testosterone levels and even adult levels do correlate somewhat with psychopathy, and when the hormones hit in puberty the psychopathic behavior increases along with the sexuality for sure.
Also in some groups of people I think the percentage of psychopaths might increase due to certain selections….say in a group where the biggest baddest P on the block or in the tribe has the most women/children.
Look at that Jeffs character who was put in prison for child molestation., he had 70+ wives and god knows how many children. If he is not a P I don’t know who is one….and Liane Leedom said that a study in England that 25% of the children born in the “projects” were sired by psychopaths.
I know one woman with a P son who by the time he was 30 had 9 kids by 4-5 women….this poor woman married 2 psychopaths and had two sons,. both psychopaths, but she has escaped the last I heard and I hope she is safe.
In several different genetic defects there will be a certain facial shape like Down’s Syndrome is easily seen though they dont all look identical, there is a common facial expression that is easily detectable by even most non medical people. My son Patrick was born with a genetic defect concerning the shape of his skull and had surgery to correct this at a very young age, It is quite rare and is generally X linked, but I have seen a few people with this same defect who have not had surgery and they had a very “odd” shaped skull from the cheek bones up. This kind of thing did not effect the brain adversely so they may not have even known they had a genetic “defect.”
I’m with you, BBE, I am not into Eugenics either, but this was an INTERESTING STUDY. Frankly I think the psychopaths have out bred the rest of us for a long time in many cultures and are still doing it in some areas as “responsible” people generally limit the number of children to what they can feed and care for, the psychopath, especially the male, goes out cheerfully spreading his seed to every woman who will open her legs or become involved with him. I even know of one psychopathic woman who had 5 kids of which she is raising NONE and the last born in prison. Thank God she finally got her tubes tied!@