Summary

In this post, we explore different ways of understanding and measuring malevolence and explain why individuals with concerning levels of malevolence are common enough, and likely enough to become and remain powerful, that we expect them to influence the trajectory of the long-term future, including by increasing both x-risks and s-risks. For the purposes of this piece, we define malevolence as a tendency to disvalue (or to fail to value) others’ well-being (more). Such a tendency is concerning, especially when exhibited by powerful actors, because of its correlation with malevolent behaviors (i.e., behaviors that harm or fail to protect others’ well-being). But reducing the long-term societal risks posed by individuals with high levels of malevolence is not straightforward.

Individuals with high levels of malevolent traits can be difficult to recognize. Some people do not take into account the fact that malevolence exists on a continuum, or do not [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Summary

(04:17) Malevolent actors will make the long-term future worse if they significantly influence TAI development

(05:32) Important caveats when thinking about malevolence

(05:37) Dark traits exist on a continuum

(07:31) Dark traits are often hard to identify

(08:54) People with high levels of dark traits may not recognize them or may try to conceal them

(12:17) Dark traits are compatible with genuine moral convictions

(13:22) Malevolence and effective altruism

(15:22) Demonizing people with elevated malevolent traits is counterproductive

(20:16) Defining malevolence

(21:03) Defining and measuring specific malevolent traits

(21:34) The dark tetrad

(25:03) Other forms of malevolence

(25:07) Retributivism, vengefulness, and other suffering-conducive tendencies

(26:56) Spitefulness

(28:15) The Dark Factor (D)

(29:29) Methodological problems associated with measuring dark traits

(30:39) Social desirability and self-deception

(31:14) How common are malevolent humans (in positions of power)?

(33:02) Things may be very different outside of (Western) democracies

(33:31) Prevalence data for psychopathy and narcissistic personality disorder

(34:20) Psychopathy prevalence

(36:25) Narcissistic personality disorder prevalence

(40:38) The distribution of the dark factor + selected findings from thousands of responses to malevolence-related survey items

(42:13) Sadistic preferences: over 16% of people agree or strongly agree that they “would like to make some people suffer even if it meant that I would go to hell with them”

(43:42) Agreement with statements that reflect callousness: Over 10% of people disagree or strongly disagree that hurting others would make them very uncomfortable

(44:45) Endorsement of Machiavellian tactics: Almost 15% of people report a Machiavellian approach to using information against people

(45:20) Agreement with spiteful statements: Over 20% of people agree or strongly agree that they would take a punch to ensure someone they don’t like receives two punches

(45:57) A substantial minority report that they “take revenge” in response to a “serious wrong”

(46:44) The distribution of Dark Factor scores among 2M+ people

(49:17) Reasons to think that malevolence could correlate with attaining and retaining positions of power

(49:47) The role of environmental factors

(52:33) Motivation to attain power

(54:14) Ability to attain power

(59:39) Retention of power

(01:01:02) Potential research questions and how to help

(01:17:48) Other relevant research agendas

(01:18:33) Author contributions

(01:19:26) Acknowledgments