2 ms·
Williams is not just superficial charm, it is also, for example, trust. People with Williams often cannot manage the degree of skepticism needed to stay safe, c
by closeparen 7y ago
Williams is not just superficial charm, it is also, for example, trust. People with Williams often cannot manage the degree of skepticism needed to stay safe, children cannot wrap their minds around stranger danger, etc.
Sort of like not feeling pain, it sounds great until you realize you can get deep into horrifying situations with no idea that anything is wrong until too late.
- 0815test 7y agoYes, but the article talks a lot about the former, and things we would expect to cause the former (such as the reduced fear response, this does show up in psychopaths as well) and only briefly mentions the hyper-trusting attitude - as if one could conflate both or as if the hyper-trust was just a natural consequence of the superficial charm. Though it makes sense that reduced fear + superficial charm + normal social emotions and affective empathy would make for an extreme amount of trust, to the point of being entirely unable to detect and manage social threats. In a way, if you're going to be fearless and superficially-charming, it might then be in your best interest to also be callous and to lack a standard empathy response, since that attitude (though quite damaging in very real ways, especially to the prospects for cooperation) would at least protect you from other social predators!