Robert Hare

This is a shortened import from the Wikipedia article as it appeared 13 April 2021.

Robert Hare        (academic, author, psychologist)
Nationality	Canada
Alma mater	University of British Columbia
Interests	• psychopathy • sociopathy

Robert D. Hare is a Canadian psychologist, known for his research in the field of criminal psychology. He is a professor emeritus of the University of British Columbia, where his studies center on psychopathology and psychophysiology. In the 1970s he published: Psychopathy: Theory and Research, summarizing the state of the field, and became internationally influential in shaping the concept.

Hare developed the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which is used to assess cases of psychopathy. He advised the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC) and consulted for various British and North American prison services.

Research

Causes of psychopathy

Hare examined linguistic processing and inter hemispheric blood flow in comparison to normal controls. He found differences and speculated that these differences are "probably constitutional or 'hard wired'" His findings in similar studies point to poor integration of affective components of language. He called these efforts "exploration in search of a theory" (ebd.) open to multiple contributing factors including complex interactions. As Hare has put it, "that their biological endowment — the raw materials that environmental, social, and learning experiences fashion into a unique individual — provides a poor basis for socialization and conscience formation." (Without Conscience, p.173)

Popular science

Hare wrote a popular science bestseller published in 1993 titled Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (reissued 1999). He describes psychopaths as 'social predators', while pointing out that most don't commit murder.

Hare also co-authored the bestselling Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (2006) with organizational psychologist and human resources consultant Paul Babiak, a portrayal of the disruptions caused when psychopaths enter the workplace. The book focuses on what Hare refers to as the "successful psychopath", who can be charming and socially skilled and therefore able to get by in the workplace. This is by contrast with the type of psychopath whose lack of social skills or self-control would cause them to rely on threats and coercion and who would probably not be able to hold down a job for long.

Hare appeared in the 2003/4 award-winning documentary film The Corporation, discussing whether his criteria for psychopathy could be said to apply to modern business as a legal personality, appearing to conclude that many of them would apply by definition. However, in a 2007 edition of Snakes in Suits, Hare contends that the filmmakers took his remarks out of context and that he does not believe most corporations would meet all the necessary criteria in practice.

Hare served as a consultant for Jacob M. Appel's Mask of Sanity (2017), a novel about a high-functioning sociopath.

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 13 April 2021.
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Quotes by Robert Hare

Page	Quote
Psychopathy	“Even in the face of contrary evidence, the psychopath can lie so well that listeners doubt themselves first, rather than question the psychopath.”
Psychopathy	“(Psychopaths are) people who I think, at the core, lack a real concern and emotional connection with people. They don't seem to understand that other people have rights. I think this is partly because of a stunning incapacity - a lack of capacity - for empathy. I think if you wanted a shorthand term, it would be people who lack a conscience.”
Psychopathy/Psychopathy and staged events	“It is only beneath the surface, well hidden from view, that darker tendencies lie.”

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