Left-Wing Environmental Activism - the case for Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy

A study was published that investigated the correlation between Left-Wing Environmental Activism and mental health. In the fall of 2018, a 16-year-old Swedish girl sat down outside the Swedish Parliament with a sign - school strike for the climate. The girl's actions coincided with the Swedish parliamentary elections. In parallel to that, I was recruited to become a research leader at the University of Helsingfors. The assignment was to explore Finnish agriculture from the perspective of entrepreneurial thinking. We were also asked to write blog articles about our research. In the spring of 2019, I wrote a longer article about the girl's climate actions and compared it to climate research. Four years later, a study was published in which the connection between left-wing environmental activism and various mental health conditions was investigated. The result showed a correlation between left-wing activism like climate activism, and Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy.

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A study was published that investigated the correlation between Left-Wing Environmental Activism and mental health (Zacher, 2024).

In the fall of 2018, a 16-year-old Swedish girl sat down outside the Swedish Parliament with a sign - school strike for the climate. The girl's actions coincided with the Swedish parliamentary election.

The girl's actions received a lot of international attention and soon everyone jumped on the climate crisis bandwagon.

Slogans like 'we must act now' were chanted.

The girl's mentor was a well-known weather presenter who became a politician for the leftist populist Green Party. He happened to be my former high school classmate. We met from time to time and on a few occasions we talked about the climate. He was convinced that we must stop flying and stop eating meat. The girl's outing had a similar content (Österberg, 2018). Therefore, I recognized the girl's ploy.

In parallel with the girls' school strike for the climate actions, I was recruited to become a research leader at the University of Helsingfors. The assignment was to explore Finnish agriculture from the perspective of entrepreneurial thinking. Climate activists claimed that agriculture accounts for a large part of the release of so-called greenhouse gases. Therefore, climate was included in my research (Österberg, 2021).

We were also asked to blog about our research, that is, the third mission - bringing the research to the people. In the spring of 2019, I wrote a longer popular science article about the girl's climate action and compared it to the climate science. It also turned out that the girl's mother, who is in the entertainment business, previously had spoken to the media to annouce that she suffered from mental challenges, and that that had affected the girl and her sister (Österberg, 2019).

Four years later, Zacher (2024) published the  study in which the connection between left-wing activism and various mental health conditions was investigated. The result showed a correlation between left-wing activism and (1) Machiavellianism - being manipulative and lacking morality and empathy as well as a calculated focus on one's own needs, (2) Narcissism - excessive self-assertion and lack of self-awareness and fragile self-esteem, (3) little psychopathy - disturbed empathy and willingness to conform to norms.

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