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?

[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.

[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

[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

[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.