Re:U.S. Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from Operating La...
by scott_s on Friday July 08, 2016 @11:38AM
(#12056262)
I use the word because, based on his actions, I think he does not have empathy for other people. He knowingly defrauded thousands of people, often depleting all of their savings. The scale of his fraud, and the length of time he perpetuated it, is staggering.
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Re:U.S. Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from Operating La...
by Dylan16807 on Friday July 08, 2016 @01:39PM
(#12057274)
Brains don't handle scale well. Defrauding a thousand people can be easier empathy-wise than defrauding a single person, because it's a statistic rather than an individual. You cannot use the total scale in trying to judge whether someone has empathy.
The impulse to associate 'bad actions' with 'inherently bad people' can make it harder for people to realize when they are acting badly and to pull out.
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151764534/psychology-of-fraud-...
Re:U.S. Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from Operating La...
by wmil on Friday July 08, 2016 @04:13PM
(#12058317)
Madoff was quite unusual because he was very actively involved in the upperclass Jewish philanthropic community. It's also where most of his victims came from.
That's one of the reasons he was able to get away with it for so long. People assumed that he wouldn't steal from members of his own community like that. So most observers assumed he found a way to front run trades on his other funds without getting caught, and were looking for evidence of that.
Re:U.S. Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from Operating La...
by FireBeyond on Friday July 08, 2016 @12:02PM
(#12056461)
Right, empathy or sympathy would have meant that among other options, in his continued lies to investors, "We made a very bad trade, got into Company X, who went bankrupt / were delisted". He could have shut it down. He chose not to.