Haven Neal

Professor Campbell

UWRIT 1104

27 March 2018

When Psychopaths Wear Suits

Have you ever met a psychopath? You might think the answer is obvious. You would

know a psychopath if you saw one, right? You might think it would be easy to tell a psychopath

from a normal person. Hollywood would have you believe psychopaths are noticeable like the

unassuming Norman Bates or the flesh-hungry Hannibal Lecter. But would you be able to tell a

psychopath from a normal person if they wore a nice suit, sat in a big office and were in charge

of a successful business? Have you ever left your boss's office, muttering under your breath, "My

boss is nuts!" Well, several studies suggest you may have hit the nail on the head. Studies have

shown that one in five CEOs are psychopaths. In fact, it is a lot more likely you are going to find

a CEO who is a psychopath than it is that you would find none (Hare). Chances are, if you work

in the business industry, you have met a psychopath.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by pronounced emotional deficits,

marked by reduction in guilt and empathy, and involves increased risk for displaying antisocial

behavior (Hare). The disorder is developmental. Psychopathic traits, particularly the emotional

component, are relatively stable from childhood into adulthood (Munoz LC). The signs and

symptoms of psychopathy are identified most commonly in scientific studies by Hare’s 20-item

psychopathy checklist. Some of the symptoms the checklist identifies includes lack of remorse or

guilt, lying pathologically, inflated sense of self-worth, having several marital relationships and a

lack of realistic, long term goals. Many people believe psychopathy is a mental illness, but that is
not true. Psychopaths are fully aware of what is right and wrong and realize the consequences of

their actions if they are caught (Hare). Psychopathy is viewed as being on a spectrum, and we all

fall on it somewhere. The spectrum of psychopaths includes CEOs, surgeons, lawyers, police

officers and journalists (Dutton). What separates us from psychopaths is the ability to feel

empathy. It is among the most difficult disorders to identify. A psychopath can appear normal,

even charming. However, underneath the charm they can be manipulative, volatile and often, but

not always, criminal. Although psychopathy is a risk factor for physical aggression, it is by no

means synonymous with it.

In contrast to individuals with psychotic disorders, psychopaths are in touch with reality

and seemingly rational. Psychopathic individuals are found at elevated rates in prisons and jails,

but can be found in community settings as well (SSSP). What makes some psychopaths

successful and others turn to a life of crime is determined by a number of things, including IQ

and education. People who go down the dark road are less likely to have received a good

education, and may have had traumatic family experiences. According to Dr. Swart, the

spectrum of psychopathic traits is like knobs you can turn up and down. What tends to happen in

lawyers and surgeons is they’ve turned up the ones that are really vital to being a good lawyer or

surgeon and turned down the ones that aren’t as helpful. The brain of a psychopath is very

immature. Their brains function similarly to a very immature, adolescent one. The limbic system,

the part of the brain associated with bonding, emotion, and memory, is damaged and not at the

stage it should be in most psychopaths.

Not all psychopaths are in jail, some are in the boardroom. Psychopathic behavior in the

general population is about one in one hundred. Studies have shown that 21 percent of corporate

executives are psychopathic, which is the same percentage of prison inmates. The kind of career
that can lead to being a CEO is attractive to a psychopath (Hare). Psychopaths are so prevalent as

CEOs because it is an irrational act to start a company. They have to be uncompromising in their

vision, which requires a lot of ego and persistence. They have to be willing to sacrifice almost

everything for success. Fear stops people from taking even logical risks, meaning those who

have suffered damage to areas of the brain affecting emotions and can suppress feeling and make

better decisions, according to the findings from a study carried out by Stanford, Carnegie Mellon

University and University of Iowa. The ability to control emotion helps performance in business

and the financial markets, the researchers found.

Data suggests that the same traits that lead some people to kill without remorse are the

same traits that lead others to win without remorse. In a corporation, one’s ability to advance is

determined in large measure by a person’s ability to favorably impress his or her direct manager.

Many of these psychopathic traits could be very useful to an executive. Some helpful

characteristics include charm, a strong sense of self-worth, an ongoing need for stimulation and

even somewhat negative traits like lack of remorse, impulsivity and lack of empathy can help a

psychopath forge a successful career. Psychopaths have a resilience to chaos. They thrive on

chaos and they know that other people find it stressful. A psychopath will purposefully create

chaos just because they find it easier to cope than other people. It is easy to mistake classic

psychopathic traits for admirable leadership qualities. The psychopath’s ability to manipulate can

look like good influence and persuasion skills, the mark of an effective leader. It is beneficial to

be a little charming, tough-minded, impulsive, risk-taking, courageous and even a bit socially

manipulative. We have the makings of a dangerous psychopath only when that little bit of charm

becomes devious manipulation; when self-confidence escalates to grandiosity; when occasional

exaggeration morphs into pathological lying; when tough-mindedness devolves into cruelty; and

when courageous risk-taking slides into foolish impulsiveness (Dutton).

Although psychopaths only represent a relatively small percentage of the staff, they can

do enormous damage when in senior management positions. Psychopaths are most common at

higher levels of corporate organizations and their actions can cause a ripple effect throughout an

organization. Corporate psychopaths care for themselves but not for the organization that

employs them. Examples of detrimental effects are increased bullying, conflict, stress, staff

turnover, absenteeism and reduction in production. Job satisfaction is a determining factor in the

commitment, efficiency and productivity of employees within an organization. Corporate

psychopaths seek only their own rewards which creates poor communication, inadequate

training, lack of information and lack of help in the workplace. Because of this, job satisfaction

tends to be lower in the presence of managers who are corporate psychopaths. Low job

satisfaction ultimately leads to turnover which directly affects the profitability of an

organization.

Psychopaths are cunning, untrustworthy, unethical, parasitic and utterly remorseless.

There is nothing they will not do and no one they will not exploit to get what they want. A

psychopathic manager with his eye on a colleague’s job, for instance, will doctor financial

results, plant rumors, turn coworkers against each other and shift his persona as needed to

destroy his target. He will do all of this, and his bosses will never know (Morse). That is what

makes them particularly dangerous to organizations. According to FBI research that found that

departments managed by psychopaths decreases productivity and morale in the team, eight to

fourteen people could be lost because of one psychopath. Psychopaths do well in certain risk-
taking professions; however on the whole, they tend to cause far more damage to colleagues and

other business associates than good.

Companies can do several things to contain psychopaths at work. One being, make it easy

for workers to express concerns about colleagues by having an anonymous tip line. Regular

employees are less useful to a psychopath than leaders so, the psychopath’s mask will often

come off in front of staff, and employees will pick up on the psychopath’s game before

management does. Second, they can cross-check their impressions of high-potentials with

colleagues who know them well. A psychopath will tell you everything you want to hear, and it

may be quite different from what he tells others. However, the best way to prevent psychopaths

from being in the workplace is not hiring them in the first place. The best way to do this is with

the B-Scan-360, an instrument for rating psychopathic-related features in corporate workplaces.

The B-Scan-360 is a rating scale in which various members of an organization rate their

coworkers, that is, their supervisors, peers, and subordinates using the same four-factor as the

PCL-R.

Businesses praise top executives who seem charismatic, visionary, and tough. As long as

they are increasing profits and stock prices, businesses are willing to overlook that white collar

psychopaths can also be callous, cunning, manipulative, deceitful, verbally and psychologically

abusive, remorseless, self-delusional and irresponsible. So, we support leaders who are sadly

insensitive to hurting others and society at large (Deutschman). Corporate scandals could be

prevented if CEOs were screened for psychopathic behavior. It is an extra step in high-level hires

and promotions, but it is a step worth taking when one considers the high human and financial

costs of psychopathic leadership. Psychopaths not only walk among us undetected, but they

wreak havoc in the workplace.

 Works Cited

Anonymous. “Psychopaths Wear Suits, Too.” National Post (Index-only) 10 May 2006 : WK6.

Shermer, M. (2012, Nov 07). When madness pays off. Wall Street Journal Retrieved

from https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/1139457397?accountid=14605

Deutschman, A. (2005, 07). IS YOUR BOSS A PSYCHOPATH? Fast Company, , 44-51.

Retrieved from https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/228831659?accountid=14605

Do functional psychopaths make best CEOs? (2005, Oct 03). The Globe and Mail Retrieved

from https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/383615312?accountid=14605

Kiaos, Theaanna. “Measuring for Psychopathy in the Workplace.” Linked In, 21 Dec. 2016,

www.linkedin.com/pulse/b-scan-360-measuring-psychopathy-workplace-theaanna-

kiaos.

Morse, Gardiner. “Executive Psychopaths.” Harvard Business Review, 1 Aug. 2014,

hbr.org/2004/10/executive-psychopaths.

“Welcome to the Psychopathy Society.” Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy,

psychopathysociety.org/en/.