And if so, why do they often still seek dominance/prestige?
My current take is that prestige-seeking comes mainly from Approval Reward, and is very weak in (a certain central type of) sociopath, whereas dominance-seeking comes mainly from a different social drive that I discussed in Neuroscience of human social instincts: a sketch §7.1, but mostly haven’t thought about too much, and which may be strong in some sociopathic people (and weak in others).
I guess it’s also possible to prestige-seek not because prestige seems intrinsically desirable, but rather as a means to an end.
My default mental model of an intelligent sociopath includes something like this:
You find yourself wandering around in a universe where there’s a bunch of stuff to do. There’s no intrinsic meaning, and you don’t care whether you help or hurt other people or society; you’re just out to get some kicks and have a good time, preferably on your own terms. A lot of neat stuff has already been built, which, hey, saves you a ton of effort! But it’s got other people and society in front of it. Well, that could get annoying. What do you do?
Well, if you learn which levers to pull, sometimes you can get the people to let you in ‘naturally’. Bonus if you don’t have to worry as much about them coming back to inconvenience you later. And depending on what you were after, that can turn out as prestige—‘legitimately’ earned or not, whatever was easier or more fun. (Or dominance; I feel like prestige is more likely here, but that might be dependent on what kind of society you’re in and what your relative strengths are. Also, sometimes it’s much more invisible! There’s selection effects in which sociopaths become well-known versus quietly preying somewhere they won’t get caught.)
Beyond that, a lot of times the people are the good stuff. They’re some of the most complicated and interesting toys in the world to play with! And dominance and prestige both look like shiny score levers from a distance and can cause all sorts of fun ripply effects when you jangle them the right way. So even if you’re not drawn to them for intrinsic, content-specific reasons, you can get drawn in by the game, just like how people who play video games have their motivations shaped by contextual learning toward whatever the gameplay loop focuses on.
Basically yes (+ also sympathy reward); see Approval Reward post §4.1, including the footnote.
My current take is that prestige-seeking comes mainly from Approval Reward, and is very weak in (a certain central type of) sociopath, whereas dominance-seeking comes mainly from a different social drive that I discussed in Neuroscience of human social instincts: a sketch §7.1, but mostly haven’t thought about too much, and which may be strong in some sociopathic people (and weak in others).
I guess it’s also possible to prestige-seek not because prestige seems intrinsically desirable, but rather as a means to an end.
My default mental model of an intelligent sociopath includes something like this:
You find yourself wandering around in a universe where there’s a bunch of stuff to do. There’s no intrinsic meaning, and you don’t care whether you help or hurt other people or society; you’re just out to get some kicks and have a good time, preferably on your own terms. A lot of neat stuff has already been built, which, hey, saves you a ton of effort! But it’s got other people and society in front of it. Well, that could get annoying. What do you do?
Well, if you learn which levers to pull, sometimes you can get the people to let you in ‘naturally’. Bonus if you don’t have to worry as much about them coming back to inconvenience you later. And depending on what you were after, that can turn out as prestige—‘legitimately’ earned or not, whatever was easier or more fun. (Or dominance; I feel like prestige is more likely here, but that might be dependent on what kind of society you’re in and what your relative strengths are. Also, sometimes it’s much more invisible! There’s selection effects in which sociopaths become well-known versus quietly preying somewhere they won’t get caught.)
Beyond that, a lot of times the people are the good stuff. They’re some of the most complicated and interesting toys in the world to play with! And dominance and prestige both look like shiny score levers from a distance and can cause all sorts of fun ripply effects when you jangle them the right way. So even if you’re not drawn to them for intrinsic, content-specific reasons, you can get drawn in by the game, just like how people who play video games have their motivations shaped by contextual learning toward whatever the gameplay loop focuses on.