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Modern WisdomUnderstanding The Wisdom Of Psychopaths - Dr Kevin Dutton
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EPISODE INFO
- Released
- November 14, 2022
- Duration
- 1h 12m
- Channel
- Modern Wisdom
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Dr Kevin Dutton is a psychologist, author, and elite performance consultant whose research focuses on persuasion and social influence, psychopathic personality and elite cognition. Psychopaths get a bad rap. Perhaps understandably. They have a branding problem to say the least. But there are some personality traits like emotional control, focus, drive and single-mindedness that elite performers can model off of psychopaths to improve their effectiveness. Expect to learn how psychopathy exists at all, why teams kicking second in a penalty shootout have a 30% greater chance of missing, why psychopath pilots in world war 2 didn't make it home even though they won their fights, how different accents can be more prejudiced against than different races, why splitting the world into categories creates a foundation for huge biases to occur and much more... Sponsors: Get 7 days free access and 25% discount from Blinkist at https://blinkist.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 20% discount on House Of Macadamias’ nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom (use code MW20) Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Buy Kevin's Book - https://amzn.to/3fmAm9A Check out Kevin's website - https://www.drkevindutton.com/ Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #psychopath #psychology #mindset - 00:00 Intro 03:13 Why Does Psychopathy Exist? 10:05 Psychology of Penalty Shootouts 18:01 The Human Ability to Categorise 28:13 Lessons on Narrow Focus from Hoarders 38:55 Kevin’s Studies of Conmen 47:30 The Evolution of Super-Categories 55:49 Why a Different Accent Evokes Prejudice 1:02:13 How Brains Conflate Simplicity with Truth 1:11:33 Where to Find Dr Dutton - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/
SPEAKERS
Dr Kevin Dutton
guestChris Williamson
host
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Dr Kevin Dutton and Chris Williamson, Understanding The Wisdom Of Psychopaths - Dr Kevin Dutton explores Psychopathy, Persuasion, And Categories: How Minds Shape Modern Reality Dr. Kevin Dutton explains psychopathy as a spectrum of traits—ruthlessness, fearlessness, emotional detachment, charm—that can be highly adaptive in certain roles like surgery, business, law, and special forces when dialed to the right level and context. He broadens the conversation into how our brains evolved to categorize a continuous world into sharp boxes, how that underpins tribalism, extremism, hoarding, and social media dynamics, and why simplicity and fluency feel like truth to us. Dutton then unpacks the psychology of persuasion, drawing on con men, sales tactics, and political campaigns to show how liking, self‑interest framing, and “super‑categories” like us/them and right/wrong power influence. Throughout, he and Chris Williamson connect these ideas to everyday examples—from football penalty shootouts and restaurant menus to online culture wars and accent prejudice.
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