When authoritarians get loose

[andrewducker]

This is fascinating. A large, complex world-sim was played with a large group of people. Beforehand they were divided up according to their results on a personality test designed to find out how authoritarian they were. The authoritarians all played a game together, and then the wishy-washy liberal types played a game together. They weren't told what the test was about, or how they were being split up.

Can you guess which group managed the planet reasonably well and which one managed to have a nuclear war and over a billion people dead of starvation?

Comments

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Okay. Environmental crisis, nuclear threats, corruption, starvation... Guess we know who's running the world, eh? See, I'm going to be a benevolent Overlord and when I take over we'll have a proper space program and extra Science for all.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I was secretly hoping the wishy-washy liberals destroyed the planet?

[andrewducker]

In contrast - there was a thing I read about a couple of years ago where teams of people were given fake emergencies to deal with in a similar vein. And when it came to the plague victims attempting to leave the hospital the wishy-washy liberals couldn't bring themselves to have the police shoot them and we lost half the population of the country.

Which just goes to show :->

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

..shows what happens in an episode of 24...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I read the article and came to a different conclusion to the one being pushed by the writer.

In -both- groups, the problem wasn't one of their right wing authoritarian ideals. It was having all the money.

[andrewducker]

Can you expand on that?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

The game without the RWAs wasn't a success. It was only a success compared to other games which failed even more. The biggest richest country refused to help them and pretty much caused 400 million deaths or whatever it was. In contrast to the second game, it was a better result, but that doesn't make it a win.

In the second game, having ridiculous amounts of monies, as stated in the article, allowed them to escalate the situation to a point of inevitability.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, so increased wealth differentials encouraged protectionism and selfishness?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

People with lots of money generally feel they can push around those without, yes.

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

All sorts of fundamental flaws in that, but even so I think it does show a general trend of outcomes. The crunch of course is in a mixed game. How large a percentage of RWAs can the world survive having? Hopefully more than we currently have...

Oh and btw, I'm retarded and find your userpic association with being goth quite offensive.
:D

[andrewducker]

Serves you right for your love of wearing black and listening to bleeping/crunching sounds.

Oh, and I agree that we need people with all sorts of approaches. See my response to henrikdsal above...

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the last time I listened to bleep.

I'm not sure we need all the approaches - it's more that we've got them, like it or not. The question is how much of the bad we can cope with before it all goes pop...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I was wearing blue jeans and a white shirt last night.

[johanna-alice.livejournal.com]

I suspect the problem would come with having more than one authoritarian. Take good old Fidel for example... To be honest I'd be afraid of the liberals without some kind of check upon their wishy-washiness in a disaster situation.

Am on lunch ATM, but will read whole article later.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Kinda related video: http://infowars.com/articles/media/coulter_its_good_for_wallstreet_to_bomb_iran.htm

[andrewducker]

Aaagh!

Ann Coulter! It burns! It burns!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

What would be even more interesting would be to see the same study done with participants segregated on a libertarian/communitarian axis. My own gut feeling is that the libertarians would make an even worse mess than the authoriatarians, but it would be nice to see my preconceptions confirmed or refuted.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, that would be interesting. I suspect you're right - but I'd like to see something empirical to back me up :->