Cambridge Skeptics

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Dr Clive Boddy has been researching the effects of having psychopaths in the workplace since 2005. His ground-breaking work on corporate psychopaths was initially subject to ridicule and rejection, as it went against the prevailing paradigmatic view that all psychopaths end up in jail and not in the boardroom, but the idea of the corporate psychopath is now firmly established and accepted.

He will discuss who corporate psychopaths are, why they are obsessed with career advancement, what they do to their colleagues and organizations, the effects of their actions, and why they ultimately harm society and should be controlled.

Dr Clive Boddy is currently the Deputy Head of the School of Management at Anglia Ruskin University and was previously Professor of Management at the University of Tasmania, and before that Professor of Leadership in London.

He has also held visiting Professorships at Lincoln and Middlesex Universities. His research interests include qualitative research techniques, toxic leadership and particularly in researching the effects of corporate psychopaths on employees, the organisation and society.

His publications on corporate psychopaths include over 50 papers, several chapters, two doctorates and two books: ‘Corporate Psychopaths: Organizational Destroyers’ and, most recently, ‘A Climate Of Fear: Stone Cold Psychopaths at Work’. He has published more on corporate psychopaths than any other academic globally.

Please note, due to venue regulations, events are open to over 18s only.

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Disinformation is the scourge of the information age, causing both science denial (climate denial, anti-vaxx, etc.) as well as the more recent 'reality' denial (Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen, Q-Anon conspiracies, etc.). People do not wake up one day wondering whether there are tracking microchips in the Covid vaccines or a Jewish space laser causing the California wildfires. They are led to those ridiculous, false beliefs through strategic lies, told by those who created them, in service of their own economic, ideological, or political interests. The problem, however, is that once disinformation is in the information stream, it does not just tempt someone to believe a falsehood, but also polarizes them around a factual issue, which undermines trust and poisons the path by which they might revise past beliefs and embrace future true ones.

How to address this? Engaging with deniers is one path. In a recent study in Nature Human Behavior Cornelia Betsch and Phillip Schmid provide the first empirical evidence that science deniers can sometimes be led to give up their false beliefs. Most intriguing, one of the methods for doing this has nothing to do with the content of the belief itself, but focuses instead on the path of reasoning that led them to it. 'Technique rebuttal' thus provides a ray of hope for philosophers and other non-scientists to address science (and reality) denial, even if they are not content experts on the topic of denial. But there is a hitch. This method doesn't always work... and it is slow.

What might work better? In his talk Dr Lee McIntyre will explore a few ideas from his most recent book On Disinformation (MIT Press, 2023), in which he claims that the pinch point on the disinformation highway from creation to amplification to belief is to clamp down on the spread of disinformation.

Dr Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Formerly Executive Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, he previously taught philosophy at Colgate University, Boston University, Simmons College, Tufts Experimental College, and Harvard Extension School.

He is the author of On Disinformation (MIT Press, 2023), How to Talk to a Science Denier (MIT Press, 2021), The Art of Good and Evil (Braveship Books, 2021), Philosophy of Science (Routledge, 2019), The Sin Eater (Braveship Books, 2019), The Scientific Attitude (MIT Press, 2019), Post-Truth (MIT Press, 2018), Respecting Truth (Routledge, 2015), Dark Ages (MIT Press, 2006), and Laws and Explanation in the Social Sciences (Westview Press, 1996). He is the co-editor of five anthologies: Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science (MIT Press, 1994), two volumes in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science series: Philosophy of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline (Springer, 2006) and Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a New Discipline (Springer 2014), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Social Science (Routledge, 2017), and A Companion to Public Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022). McIntyre is also the author of Explaining Explanation: Essays in the Philosophy of the Special Sciences (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012), which is a collection of twenty years’ worth of his philosophical essays.

His popular essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Nature, Scientific American, Newsweek, The New Statesman, and numerous other venues. He has appeared on CNN International on Amanpour and Company — and several other programs on PBS, NPR and the BBC — and has spoken at the United Nations, NASA, and the Vatican.

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The topic of psychological harm has come into sharp focus in the advent of several disruptive technologies that we simply cannot avoid engaging with. Social media, smart home devices, chatbots, virtual reality simulators, and ever advancing generative AI involve artificial systems that support and assist our professional and personal activities. At what point do our interactions with artificial systems cross over from making our lives easier, to structurally changing us emotionally and behaviorally in irrecoverable ways? In fact, when it comes to designing laws, policy, regulations and guidance, the challenge to introducing protections against psychological harm requires identifying who or what is liable for the psychological harm that could be experienced, and what a proportional punitive response looks like? But, we can't address any of these questions without first operationally defining psychological harm and measuring it.

Prof. Magda Osman is Head of Research and Analysis Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge, as well as Principal Researcher Associate of basic and applied decision-making at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She also holds a position (Prof) at Leeds Business School, University of Leeds, supporting policy impact. She is a psychologist by training, with a specific interest in decision-making under risk and uncertainty, risk analysis and causal analysis, folk beliefs in the manipulation of the unconscious, as well as an interest in examining effectiveness of methods of behavioural change. She works closely with others in disciplines including: cognitive science, machine learning, management, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, behavioural economics, and medical sciences.Also interested in science communication, and understanding effective ways of engaging the public on matters related to social policy.

Please note, due to venue regulations, events are open to over 18s only.

This page is for information only, to confirm your attendance please book your tickets through our box office.

As business leaders solemnly profess dedication to principles of environmental and social justice, their actions often betray an enduring commitment to the neoliberal idea of maximizing profit. Hiding behind the mirage of ESG, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, traditional corporations continue to exploit the very resources and communities essential to their success. In his recent book, The Profiteers, Cambridge professor Christopher Marquis shows it’s not enough to blame and shame—or even to reform the worst corporate actors. We must rethink and transform the entire system, leaving behind the current model of shareholder primacy to create a new, regenerative paradigm. He will also discuss a new generation of leaders doing just that - by taking actions to minimize their negative impacts and create new ways to properly absorb their hidden costs, they are providing blueprints to move the needle on vexing social and environmental issues.

Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs. His research examines business sustainability and social entrepreneurship, and he has written two prior award-winning books, including Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism and Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise, the latter was a Financial Times Best Book of 2022. Marquis is passionate about how academic research can help people around the world address some of the biggest crises of our day — including climate change, inequality, and discrimination. Before Cambridge Marquis worked at Cornell for 6 years, and Harvard for 11 years. He has a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan and previously worked for six years in the financial services industry, most recently as a Vice President at JP Morgan Chase.