Power = respect

I sometimes see people asking in emails to me or in the comments section -- how do I get a sociopath to fear and/or respect me. The answer, I think, is that sociopaths aren't really such a different audience from normal people. Sociopaths will fear or respect you if you have power. Some people might disagree with this with arguments maybe about how sociopaths don't respect positions of authority. Yeah, not fake power. And maybe they don't cow before the powerful as much as your typical sheep will. But I think they do recognize power and take it into consideration.

It reminds me of my recent trip to the bush. We frequently stayed in tents in the middle of animal preserves. The guide told us to not be afraid of the animals, that the animals for the most part see the tents as a solid object and won't mess with them. I think that's basically how sociopaths see power arrangements. If something looks solid and sort of immovable to us, we'll probably just leave it alone and move onto something more obviously vulnerable.

Here's a video on acquiring power from Stanford Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.