IMO there seem to be many psychopaths running the corporations and country. What do you think?

Your Boss Might Be a Psychopath

Most psychopaths don't eat the livers of census-takers with fava beans or stitch together dresses made of human skin, as did Hannibal Lecter and Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in the 1988 novel and 1991 film �The Silence of the Lambs.� Most simply use charm, cunning and deceit to get what they want, without regard for the feelings and well-being of others. Chances are, you know one personally.

That was the message of two books published in recent years: �The Sociopath Next Door,� (2005) by Martha Stout, and "Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work,� (2006) by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare. According to Stout, as many as one in 25 people are conscienceless sociopaths, and the only difference between the convenience store thief and the robber baron is one of social status and opportunity. Babiak and Hare write that psychopaths thrive in corporations, because they excel in making good impressions, latching on to patrons in high positions and manipulating co-workers without remorse.

It stands to reason that if psychopaths excel in corporations, then they should exist in greater percentages in senior management positions. A new study published in the August issue of the Journal of Public Affairs finds just that.


Note that there's some debate over terminology. The American Psychiatric Association, whose views are expressed in the widely used DSM-IV, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, considers "psychopathy" an obsolete term for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), defined as "a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others." Hare is the creator of the Psychopathy Checklist, a popular diagnostic tool that scores subjects on a variety of factors related to aggressive narcissism and socially deviant behavior. He contends that psychopathy is a subset of ASPD. For example, although four-fifths of prison inmates meet the definition of ASPD, only one-fifth are likely psychopaths. For the broader population, the figure is closer to 1%.

Business headlines from recent years seem to point to a rise in unscrupulous management, from Ponzi-scheming hedge fund bosses to bank executives who amassed boom-year bonuses only to leave taxpayers with the bust-year bill. Hence, corporate psychopaths are something of a hot topic. In 2008, a trio of professors from the University of Lincoln and Middlesex University in the U.K. and Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia theorized that if psychopaths make up 1% of the overall population, they likely make up 2% to 3% of middle managers and 3.5% of senior ones. To test their theory, they surveyed 346 white-collar managers and professionals using a version of Hare's checklist adapted for the workplace. Workers were asked about their experience with current or former colleagues, not about themselves. (Psychopaths are often cunning enough to ace personality-disorder tests when questioned directly.)

Among junior workers, about 15% indicated they had had contact with a corporate psychopath, as defined by the researchers. Among senior-level managers, the rate was over 27%. "The finding implies that Corporate Psychopaths, people without conscience, are in charge of huge corporate resources and that they will not necessarily use those resources for the good of anyone but themselves," the authors conclude in their paper. Routine testing is one possible solution, they write, but a good first step is "creating an awareness among organizational managers that psychopaths exist."

Psychologists stress that the diagnosis of psychopaths is best left to professionals, so those who try to assess their bosses should be careful about sharing their theories with friends and colleagues. That noted, the latest version of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist judges subjects based on the following 20 traits:

• Glibness and superficial charm
• Grandiose self-worth
• Needs stimulation/prone to boredom
• Pathological
• Manipulative
• No guilt/remorse
• Limited emotions
• Lacks empathy
• Parasitic lifestyle
• Poor behavioral controls
• Promiscuity
• No realistic long-term goals
• Impulsiveness
• Irresponsible
• Fails to accept responsibility for own behavior
• Many short-term marital relationships
• Early behavior problems
• Juvenile delinquency
• Probation violation
• Diversity of criminal offenses

Published July 16, 2010

Jack Hough is an associate editor at SmartMoney.com and author of "Your Next Great Stock."


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