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December 4, 2008 4:38:56 PM CST

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What Was Spitzer Thinking?

Posted Mar 11, 08 10:55 AM CDT in Science & Health,  Politics 

(Newser) – Eliot Spitzer's reported involvement with a pricey call-girl ring has left, well, everyone scratching their heads, the AP reports. What makes a public figure show such jaw-dropping disregard for the consequences of private actions? One analyst calls it "the psychology of the exception. People in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There's a sense, as with adolescents, that 'I won't get caught.'"

 Another notes this behavior can be a product of either compulsion or simple hubris. "It could be both—they're not mutually exclusive," he says. "Now that would be a really fatal cocktail." "Often the behavior in question is caused by intense anxiety, stress in the workplace or home," says another doc. "They compartmentalize to the extent that they don't feel any sense of shame or guilt—until they get caught."

Source Associated Press

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With his wife Silda Wall Spitzer holding the car door, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer arrives at his Fifth Avenue apartment, Monday, March 10, 2008, in New York. Spitzer, the crusading politician who built...   (Associated Press)
New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer makes a statement to reporters during a news conference Monday, March 10, 2008 in New York where he apologized to his family and the public after a report that he was...   (Associated Press)
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer enters a news conference where he apologized to his family following a report that he was involved in a prostitution ring in New York, Monday March 10, 2008. (AP Photos/Bebeto...   (Associated Press)
New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer makes a statement to reporters during a news conference Monday, March 10, 2008 in New York where he apologized to his family and the public after a report that he was...   (Associated Press)
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New York • scandals • Eliot Spitzer • sex scandal • prostitution • psychology • prostitution ring


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