5 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2023
    1. when you see that the rates of domestic abuse among police officers in the United States is higher than the general average in the public. So, you know, when you think about why that's happening, perhaps it's that the job is making them a bit more on edge or causing them to behave in certain ways. I think what's more likely is that people who are abusive 01:32:41 are disproportionately likely to seek out a job in which you can abuse people. Now, this is not to say that police officers are bad people, but it is to say that, for the slice of the population that is abusive, especially the people who like to wield power and carry a gun and terrorize people, for them, as one of the police officers in London told me who's in charge of recruitment for the Metropolitan Police, she said to me, "Look, if you're an abusive bigot, 01:33:06 policing is an attractive career choice. It doesn't mean that police officers are generally abusive bigots. It means that for that slice of the population, they like the idea of being able to professionally abuse people."
      • self-selection effect
        • example
          • police
            • it is likely that abusive, controlling people are on average, more attracted to being police officers because they can control and abuse others in that position
    2. Doraville, Georgia.
      • Example
        • self-selection effect
          • Doraville police department created a video of hyper-masculine SWAT team to attract new officers
          • they attracted hyper-masculine males
          • New Zealand took the opposite approach
          • We absolutely have to have oversight and very close scrutiny of police officers who abuse their authority.
          • But at the same time, we have to think more carefully about who ends up in the uniform to begin with.
    3. The same is true for power. People who are power-hungry, people who are psychopaths tend to self-select into positions of power more than the rest of us. And as a result, we have this skew, this bias in positions of power where certain types of people, often the wrong kinds of people, 00:14:51 are more likely to put themselves forward to rule over the rest of us
      • key observation
        • People who are power-hungry, people who are psychopaths
          • tend to self-select into positions of power more than the rest of us.
        • And as a result, we have this skew, this bias in positions of power
          • where certain types of people, often the wrong kinds of people,
          • are more likely to put themselves forward to rule over the rest of us
    4. self-selection effect
      • definition
        • self-selection effect
          • those people who are power-hungry and seek control are far more likely to seek positions of power in the first place, and are focused and develop skills to get it.
  2. Jun 2021