The Scorpion and the Frog

The Scorpion and the Frog is an animal fable which teaches that vicious people cannot resist hurting others even when it is not in their own interests.

[9][12] However, there are a number of ancient fables traditionally attributed to Aesop which teach a similar moral, the closest parallels being The Farmer and the Viper and The Frog and the Mouse.

[12] To a social psychologist, the fable may present a dispositionist view of human nature because it seems to reject the idea that people behave rationally according to circumstances.

[14] The French sociologist Jean-Claude Passeron saw the scorpion as a metaphor for Machiavellian politicians who delude themselves by their unconscious tendency to rationalize their ill-conceived plans, and thereby lead themselves and their followers to ruin.

[15] The psychologist Kevin Dutton saw the scorpion as a metaphor for psychopaths, whose impulsive and vicious personalities frequently get them into unnecessary trouble, often hurting the people they depend on such as their own families.

[17] Since the fable's narration in Mr. Arkadin,[4][5] it has been recounted in other films, such as Skin Deep (1989),[18] The Crying Game (1992),[19] Drive (2011),[20] and The Devil's Carnival (2012).

[21] In addition, references to the fable have appeared in comics,[22] in television shows, as the title of episodes,[23] as well as in newspaper articles,[24] some of which have applied it to the relationship between big business and government[25] and to politics,[26] especially the bitter nature of Middle Eastern politics, such as the Arab–Israeli conflict,[27][28] or in Iran.

The frog carrying the scorpion across the river.
An illustration of "The Scorpion and the Turtle" from a 19th-century edition of the Anvaar Soheili , a Persian collection of fables.