My theory is that the combination of a being gifted child, being an only child, and parenting that is not (for lack of a better word) "strong" enough, can result in a manipulative, arrogant, or even unethical teenager.
I'd say this is a possible explanation, but that there are other possible explanations as well. When I first started reading, the word "sociopath" popped into my head.
The next word that popped into my head was "teenager," because arrogant, self-centered, manipulative, and unethical describes an awful lot of teenagers.
The interesting thing about your two examples is that they both appear to:
- Be gifted teens
- KNOW they're gifted teens
- Have parents who lack confidence in their own intellectual skills, and the children know this, too
If there's nobody at home who the child feels worthy of their respect, then I suppose it would be easy to look upon others as lesser beings, which would lend credence to your theory.
I'm not really sure that the parents' ability to discuss ethics with them at their level is really necessary, because, "How would you like it?" is a pretty easy argument that anyone can make. I would also doubt that having siblings would help, unless the siblings were twins or older, because older siblings enjoy a power imbalance, and younger siblings are easy marks for manipulation. I think it would really have to come down to the parents establishing themselves as people worthy of respect.
It's interesting that both parents think they're intellectually inferior, because these things are usually genetic. It had to come from somewhere.
