Sometimes it seems like the bosses of the world share some personality traits that the rest of us find, well, undesirable. They might charm their peers and superiors yet treat their employees like dirt. They might be susceptible to bouts of rage, or they might seem completely oblivious to the personal wants and needs of the people around them. In clinical terms, they’re psychopaths.
The term “psychopath” is used fairly freely in our society (Hitchcock’s 1960 classic, anybody?), but psychopathy is an actual behavioral disorder with a specific suite of symptoms and underlying neurological causes. It’s estimated that about 1 percent of the general population classifies as a psychopath, or 1 in 100, while in prison and other criminal settings the rate can rise to 30, 50 or even 80 percent.
It’s much harder to measure psychopathy in a corporate setting, with estimates ranging from 3 percent to as much as 12 percent — the latter if you just look at CEOs. (By the way, if you’ve heard the stat that 1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths, that study has been retracted. It’s likely not quite that high.)
Regardless of their prevalence, these so-called “successful psychopaths” will find themselves benefitted by their psychopathic traits — they’re charming, charismatic, immune to stress and fear, and take risks. These are some of what are called the “factor 1” traits, which also include interpersonal behaviors like lying, manipulation, and a lack of empathy for other people. Whether these traits result in cruelty varies from person to person; just because someone is a psychopath doesn’t mean they’re mean.
