tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/psychopathy-10917/articlesPsychopathy – The Conversation2023-02-13T06:16:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1995342023-02-13T06:16:10Z2023-02-13T06:16:10ZPsychopaths: why they’ve thrived through evolutionary history – and how that may change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509215/original/file-20230209-28-3u3zrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C119%2C6079%2C3973&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/toy-teddy-bear-lying-on-wooden-1054632143">Petr Bonek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you start to notice them, psychopaths seem to be everywhere. This is especially true of people in powerful places. By one estimate, as many as 20% of business leaders <a href="https://psychology.org.au/news/media_releases/13september2016/brooks">have “clinically relevant levels” of psychopathic tendencies</a> – despite the fact <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20422644/">as little as 1% of the general population</a> are considered psychopaths. Psychopaths are characterised by shallow emotions, a lack of empathy, immorality, anti-social behaviour and, importantly, deceptiveness.</p>
<p>From an evolutionary point of view, psychopathy is puzzling. Given that psychopathic traits are so negative, why do they remain in successive generations? Psychopathy seems to be, in the words of biologists, “maladaptive”, or disadvantageous. Assuming there’s a genetic component to this family of disorders, we’d expect it to decrease over time. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/137926">that’s not what we see</a> — and there’s evidence that the tendencies are, at least in some contexts, an evolutionary benefit. According to my own <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr573779">research</a>, the reason for this may be down to the ability to fake desirable qualities through deception.</p>
<h2>The power of cheating</h2>
<p>Trust and trustworthiness are important elements in the story of human social evolution. The most successful people, evolutionarily speaking, are the ones regarded as trustworthy or reliable. </p>
<p>Trust further encourages cooperation, which has helped us to develop tools, build cities and spread across the world — even to the most inhospitable environments. No single other species has achieved this, making human cooperation <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178431/the-secret-of-our-success">a wonder of the natural world</a>.</p>
<p>Yet once our cultural groups became too large to know everyone individually, we needed to find ways to ensure the people we met were likely to be cooperative. It’s easier to trust a parent or sibling when hunting in the wild than to trust a stranger — the stranger might attack you or refuse to share any meat with you. </p>
<p>To cooperate with a stranger takes trust – they have to convince you they’ll do no harm. But they could, of course, cheat by pretending to be trustworthy and thereafter killing you or stealing your meat. </p>
<p>Cheaters who pull this off will be at an advantage: they’ll have more food and probably be thought of as good hunters by other, unsuspecting people. So cheating posed a problem for non-cheaters.</p>
<p>Therefore it is thought that cultural groups <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22289305/">developed powerful tools</a>, such as punishment, to dissuade cheating in cooperative partnerships. Evolutionary psychologists also argue that people evolved what’s called a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-98504-003">cheater detection ability</a> to tell when someone is likely to be a cheater. This <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022519300921118">put cheaters at a disadvantage</a>, especially in groups where punishment was strict. </p>
<p>This approach relied on the ability to trust others when it is safe to do so. Some people argue that trust is just <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11338">a kind of cognitive shortcut</a>: rather than making slow and deliberative decisions about whether someone is trustworthy, we look for a few signals, probably subconsciously, and decide. </p>
<p>We do this every day. When we walk by a restaurant and decide whether to stop in for lunch, we choose whether to trust that the people running it are selling what they advertise, whether their business is hygienic and whether the cost of a meal is fair. Trust is a part of daily life, at every level.</p>
<p>Yet this presents us with a problem. As I suggest in my research, the more complex society is, the easier it is for people to <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr573779">fake a proclivity for cooperation</a> — whether that’s charging too much at a store or running a multi-national social media company ethically. And cheating while avoiding punishment is, evolutionarily speaking, still the best strategy a person can have. </p>
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<img alt="Obscure Freaky Psycho Man Closeup of the Eyes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509216/original/file-20230209-24-vew1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘No really, you can trust me.’</span>
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</figure>
<p>So, within this framework, what could be better than being a psychopath? It’s effective, to misuse a popular modern phrase, to “fake it till you make it”. You garner trust from others only insofar as that trust is useful to you and then betray trust when you no longer need those people. </p>
<p>Viewed in this way, it’s surprising there aren’t more psychopaths. They occupy a disproportionate number of powerful positions. They don’t tend to feel the burden of remorse when they misuse others. They even appear to have more relationships — suggesting that they face no barriers to successful reproduction, the defining criterion of evolutionary success.</p>
<h2>Why not more psychopaths?</h2>
<p>There are a few convincing theories about why these disorders aren’t more common. Clearly, if everyone were a psychopath, we’d be betrayed constantly and probably completely lose our ability to trust others. </p>
<p>What’s more, psychopathy is almost undoubtedly only partly genetic and has a lot to do with what’s called “human phenotypic plasticity” — the innate ability for our genes to express differently under different circumstances. </p>
<p>Some people think, for example, that the callous and unemotional traits associated with psychopathy <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/abs/child-maltreatment-callousunemotional-traits-and-defensive-responding-in-highrisk-children-an-investigation-of-emotionmodulated-startle-response/9BDAAF0C354CED3C40DFFF0C7A56E726">are consequences of a difficult upbringing</a>. Insofar as very young children do not receive care or love, they are likely to turn off emotionally — a kind of evolutionary fail-safe to prevent catastrophic trauma. </p>
<p>That said, people from different countries don’t associate the same traits with psychopathy. For example, a cross-cultural <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20958175/">study</a> showed that Iranian participants did not, in contrast to Americans, rate deceitfulness and superficiality as indicative of psychopathy. But the general idea is that while some people have a genetic predisposition to such traits, the tendencies develop mainly in tragic family circumstances. </p>
<p>People with a morbid fascination with psychopathy should be aware that the object of their interest often is a sad product of the failures of society to support people.</p>
<p>The cultural context of psychopathy may be a point of hope, however. Psychopathy, at least in part, is a set of characteristics that allows people to thrive — again, evolutionarily speaking — even when faced with terrible hardship. But we can, as a society, try to redefine what desirable qualities are. </p>
<p>Rather than focusing on being good or trustworthy only because of how it can help you get ahead, promoting these qualities for their own sake may help people with antisocial tendencies to treat others well without ulterior motives. </p>
<p>That’s probably a lesson we can all learn — but in a world where pathological fakers are the ones who tend to be celebrated and successful, redefining success in terms of ethics may be a way forward.</p>
<p>The amazing thing about evolution is that we can ultimately help shape it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan R Goodman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Psychopaths have thrived for so long because of their deceptive powers.Jonathan R Goodman, Researcher, Human Evolutionary Studies, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1923162023-02-08T13:42:40Z2023-02-08T13:42:40ZHere’s what to do when you encounter people with ‘dark personality traits’ at work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508142/original/file-20230203-14078-gedpau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1000%2C569%2C4133%2C2848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keeping your eyes and ears open can keep you from falling for the antics of a dark personality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-businesswoman-sitting-in-cubicle-high-section-royalty-free-image/200495922-001">Noel Hendrickson/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever suffered through tales of greatness from a self-absorbed “friend” who reminds you of Michael Scott from “The Office” – and not in a good way? Have you been betrayed by a colleague out of the blue, undermined on a project by the office mean girl, or had a work friendship dropped altogether without explanation?</p>
<p>If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you may have been dealing with someone who has what psychologists term a “dark personality.” These people score higher on three socially undesirable traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.</p>
<p>As an organizational scholar, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O6GMV30AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’ve spent years studying personality traits</a> in the context of the sales profession. In recent work, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fP64fToAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">my colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3JMMd3sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I focused</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-8Rz4qMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">on the ways</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221113254">people with these dark personalities succeed</a> in sales organizations and the social factors that allow them to extend their successful tenures. Based on our research, here’s a primer on these antagonistic personality types – and how you can unmask examples you encounter in your everyday life.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man stands soaking in applause from people around conference table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508143/original/file-20230203-12714-kjwewj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A narcissist is always first in line to compliment himself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multi-ethnic-businesspeople-having-meeting-royalty-free-image/79214499">Jon Feingersh Photography Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Defining the dark personalities</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016338">Narcissists</a> have the most familiar type of dark personality. They aren’t shy about letting you know exactly how highly they think of themselves. At work, you might find the narcissist bragging about their superior sales skills, even though their performance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221113254">isn’t much better than the average salesperson</a>. Conservative estimates of narcissism in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v69n0701">general population fall around 6.2%</a>. </p>
<p>While narcissistic behavior can be annoying, it’s usually more tolerable than what the other two dark traits tend to serve up. </p>
<p>Functional – meaning noncriminal – psychopaths are particularly disturbing. Psychologists estimate they <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/snakes-in-suits-paul-babiakrobert-d-hare?variant=39689396617250">comprise up to 4% of the general population</a>. Psychopaths have no qualms about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.02.005">exploiting others</a> for their own benefit. Stubbornly antisocial, functional psychopaths generally have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025679">little empathy for others</a>. They’re more concerned about “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-6566(02)00505-6">getting theirs” by any means necessary</a>. Psychopaths are quick to deflect blame and throw others under the bus, even if it means <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.038">telling lies</a>.</p>
<p>With their impulsive tendencies, psychopaths are prone to telling lies for no particular reason at all. If you find yourself in a group water-cooler conversation and hear someone telling lies that don’t seem to serve any purpose, you might have stumbled on a functional psychopath.</p>
<p>In the workplace, at first a psychopath may seem charming. But eventually you’ll likely find yourself either questioning their motivations, or becoming a victim of their destructive behavior. Though they can be harder to identify than narcissists with their nonstop bragging, psychopaths’ egregious behavior tends to unmask them in the end. </p>
<p>Machiavellians are the most prevalent of the dark personalities, estimated to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000784">about 16% of the population</a>. They get their name from Italian Renaissance statesman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-Machiavelli">Nicolo Macchiavelli</a>, who believed the ends could justify immoral means. Less annoying than narcissists, less abrasive than functional psychopaths, Machiavellians are more subtle in the pursuit of their agendas. They forge ahead regardless of ethical considerations. Like lions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6">Machiavellians seem benevolent</a>, watching their prey from afar – until they strike. They’re adept at playing the long game – it’s their stealth, patience and subtle manipulation that make them a particularly dangerous dark personality.</p>
<p>Compared with a psychopath’s unnecessary lies, you’re more likely to overhear the Machiavellian in the group <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.038">telling little white lies</a> that are strategically designed to further a future agenda. For example, you might hear them flattering the colleague you happen to know will be getting a big bonus in the near future – the Machiavellian may be strategically laying the groundwork for being invited to help them spend it. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two warehouse workers with a pallet truck" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508144/original/file-20230203-13410-mzpn5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Someone with a dark personality may be happy to take sole credit for work to which you contributed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-warehouse-workers-pulling-a-pallet-truck-with-royalty-free-image/993650090">Halfpoint Images/Moment</a></span>
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<p>In short, targets of dark personalities likely find narcissists to be conspicuously and irritatingly self-centered, but generally innocuous. Psychopaths are less obvious in their bad behavior, but their transgressions can be quite severe. Machiavellians are less in-your-face than narcissists, and their nefarious actions are likely to be less severe than those of psychopaths. In the long run, though, a Machiavellian can leave you reeling from an unexpected betrayal to benefit their personal agenda.</p>
<p>As you consider these dark traits and how they show up in interpersonal relationships, you might sense a spark of recognition. Here are five tips for avoiding dark personalities in your own life or minimizing the harm they cause.</p>
<h2>1. Don’t fall for first impressions</h2>
<p>Dark personalities are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612461284">experts at making great first impressions</a>, drawing you in with humor and charisma. So, when you meet someone new, be wary of superficial appeal. Narcissists, with their tendency to talk themselves up, are the easiest to spot.</p>
<p>To identify the others, ask questions about past relationships and listen carefully for clues about who this person really is. Because dark personalities are almost always unmasked in the end, they’re less likely to have long-standing friendships – an absence they may explain away by faulting others.</p>
<p>Just be mindful not to overcorrect and ditch a potential new work friend based only on first impressions, either.</p>
<h2>2. Share your own (bad) experiences</h2>
<p>When you encounter a dark personality and the outcome is unpleasant, you might feel embarrassed for allowing yourself to be fooled or manipulated, or you might feel guilt or shame when you observe someone treating someone else badly. As a result, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21395">you might not want to talk about it</a>. Dark personalities exploit that reluctance because your silence helps keep hidden their “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1893">core of darkness</a>” – the antagonistic traits that define them. </p>
<p>So to help unmask the dark personality and keep others from meeting the same fate, sharing your experience, with discretion, is critical.</p>
<h2>3. Manage up to clue bosses in</h2>
<p>Those with dark personalities are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025679">good at carefully managing the impressions</a> they make on people in positions of power. So, at work, you can practice managing up to help your boss see the dark personality more clearly.</p>
<p>Share your experiences in a nongossipy way, such as expressing concern about incidents of incivility that you witnessed or requesting advice or guidance in dealing with a very boastful colleague who may be alienating prospects or customers. It may help your boss see through the facade and help you deal with the issue.</p>
<h2>4. Plug into your networks</h2>
<p>On the flip side, remember to also listen to others. To avoid falling into a manipulator’s web, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221113254">tap into the network of those around you</a> who share a link to the person in question. See if you can gather references regarding their behavior over the long term. Ideally, you can benefit from others’ knowledge, without having to learn the hard way. </p>
<h2>5. Be aware of your own biases</h2>
<p>Don’t underestimate the strength of a dark personality’s machinations. When someone shares a personal story of betrayal, be wary of thinking, “that would never happen to me!” Dark personalities are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1177/147470491201000303">experts in manipulating situations to serve their interests</a>, and you may never notice you’re ensnared until it’s too late. Considering yourself too smart or savvy to ever find yourself in the same predicament is misguided.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two women talk at a conference table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508145/original/file-20230203-3129-mix7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Keep discussions professional and focused on what’s making it hard for you to do your job.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/businesswomen-having-meeting-with-laptops-in-royalty-free-image/1128219622">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision</a></span>
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<p>As you apply these tips in your life, you want to be wary of becoming an <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/blog/armchair-psychology-at-work/">armchair pscyhologist</a>. Anyone can have a bad day – and everyone has. Instead of diagnosing friends, partners and colleagues based on what you think might be their underlying personality traits, focus on any bad behaviors you personally witness, and respond to the actions – not what you think underlies them. Best leave that to the professionals.</p>
<p>If you are in charge of organizations or teams, consider having clear guidance and pathways of communication for individuals to report any concerning behavior they witness. By working together and sharing collective experiences, the rest of us can shine light on the workplace misdeeds of those with antagonistic personalities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I began this work while on faculty at Northeastern University, continued it while on faculty at the University of Connecticut, and completed the work at the University of New Hampshire. Research funding was provided as part of my employment contract at all entities, but not specifically for this work. Additionally, I currently serve as the Research Director for the UNH Sales Center at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.</span></em></p>Narcissists, psychopaths and Machiavellians, oh my. These antagonistic personality types can make life hard for the people around them. Here are five tips for how to deal with them at work.Cinthia Beccacece Satornino, Research Director at the UNH Sales Center and Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of New HampshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1807822022-04-11T19:57:25Z2022-04-11T19:57:25Z‘Impulsive psychopaths like crypto’: research shows how ‘dark’ personality traits affect Bitcoin enthusiasm<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457288/original/file-20220411-19-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4077%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-view-asian-man-has-stock-2124669554">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the invention of Bitcoin in 2009 the global cryptocurrency market has grown from nothing to a value of <a href="https://money.com/crypto-market-doubled-value-whats-next/">around US$2 trillion</a>. From a price of US$1 in 2011, Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of more than US$63,000 in April 2021, and now hovers <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/price/bitcoin">around the US$42,000 mark</a>. </p>
<p>Large fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are common, which makes them a highly speculative investment. What kind of people are willing to take the risk, and what motivates them? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886921008321">We conducted a survey</a> to find out. In particular, we wanted to know about the relationship between the so-called “dark tetrad” personality traits and attitudes towards cryptocurrency. </p>
<h2>The dark tetrad</h2>
<p>In psychology, the “<a href="https://psychcentral.com/pro/exhausted-woman/2015/11/the-dark-tetrad-possibly-the-scariest-boss#1">dark tetrad</a>” refers to a group of four personality traits. These are Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (together known as the “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656602005056">dark triad</a>”), plus sadism. </p>
<p>They are called “dark” because of their “evil” qualities: extreme selfishness and taking advantage of others without empathy. The dark tetrad are also often related to risk-taking behaviours. </p>
<h2>The appeal of cryptocurrency</h2>
<p>We identified two main areas of appeal. First, the high risks and high potential returns of crypto trading make it attractive to the kind of people who like gambling. </p>
<p><iframe id="2PIjE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2PIjE/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Second, cryptocurrencies are not issued or backed by governments like traditional or “fiat” currencies. This makes them attractive to people who distrust government.</p>
<h2>What are the personalities of crypto buyers?</h2>
<p>We asked 566 people to complete online personality surveys as well as answer questions about their attitudes to crypto and whether or not they planned to invest in it. Of our participants, 26% reported they own crypto and 64% showed interest in crypto investing. </p>
<p>We measured their dark tetrad traits using standard psychological tests. We also measured traits that might connect the dark tetrad to judgements about crypto: <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-cope-with-fomo-4174664">fear of missing out</a> (FOMO; the feeling that others are experiencing better things than you are), <a href="https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/positivity.html#:%7E:text=Positivity%20is%20the%20practice%20or,behaviors%20like%20kindness%20and%20generosity.">positivity</a> (the tendency to be positive or optimistic in life), and <a href="https://www.psypost.org/2021/06/new-psychology-research-uncovers-why-people-with-dark-tetrad-personality-traits-are-more-likely-to-believe-conspiracy-theories-61088">belief in conspiracy theories</a>. </p>
<h2>Why do people want to buy crypto? It’s not just about making money</h2>
<p>A common reason to invest in crypto is the hope of earning high returns. Beyond the desire to build wealth, our research shows dark personality traits also drive crypto buying. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism_(psychology)">Machiavellianism</a> is named after the Italian political philosophy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli">Niccolò Machiavelli</a>. People who rate highly on this trait are good at deception and interpersonal manipulation. </p>
<p>Machiavellians take a calculated approach to achieving goals, and avoid impulsive decisions. They are less likely to engage in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_gambling#:%7E:text=Problem%20gambling%20or%20ludomania%20is,both%20social%20and%20family%20costs.">problem gambling</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-crypto-hype-is-an-ideology-of-social-change-177981">Behind the crypto hype is an ideology of social change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Machiavellians also tend to believe strongly in government conspiracies. For example, they often believe politicians usually do not reveal their true motives, and that government agencies closely monitor all citizens. </p>
<p>We found Machiavellians like crypto primarily because they distrust politicians and government agencies. Many crypto supporters believe governments are corrupt, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-crypto-hype-is-an-ideology-of-social-change-177981">crypto avoids government corruption</a>.</p>
<h2>Overconfidence and positivity</h2>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism">Narcissism</a> is a self-centred personality trait, characterised by feelings of privilege and predominance over others. Narcissists are overconfident and are more willing to do things like <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886911000055?casa_token=cFSsgSVVHyAAAAAA:mDeBqzKw0a7eaTCq8JCLHPeVGkiTCc3x_ZIpjtqtl-pmFMEwLVtQ9UUiIRlDtj0HV6VWuyLLl6g">make risky investments in the stock market</a> and gamble. </p>
<p>Narcissists tend to focus on the positive side of life. We found narcissists like crypto because of their great faith in the future, and because of their confidence their own lives will improve. </p>
<h2>Impulsive psychopaths like crypto</h2>
<p>Psychopathy is a callous, impulsive antisocial personality trait. Psychopathic people often find it difficult to perceive, understand, or address emotions due to a lack of emotional intelligence and empathy.</p>
<p>The reckless nature of psychopaths makes them more resistant to stress and anxiety. As a result, psychopaths like <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00662/full">stimulation-seeking</a> and risk-taking. They are prone to gambling and gambling addiction.</p>
<p>We found that impulsive psychopaths like crypto, because they fear missing out on investing rewards that others are experiencing. </p>
<h2>How is sadism involved?</h2>
<p>Everyday <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadistic_personality_disorder">sadism</a> relates to a personality enjoying another’s suffering. Sadists often display aggression and cruel behaviours. For example, sadists troll others on the Internet for enjoyment. </p>
<p>At first glance, buying crypto is unlikely to harm others. However, we found sadists like crypto because they do not want to miss out on investment rewards either. To them, perhaps both the pleasure from seeing another’s pain and the fear of missing out are related to selfishness. </p>
<p>Unlike narcissists, we found both psychopaths and sadists lack positivity about their prospects, which cancels out their liking of crypto.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457315/original/file-20220411-20-vx33pq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dark tetrad personality traits influence positivity, conspiracy beliefs, and fear of missing out, which in turn influence attitudes to cryptocurrency.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A psychological lens</h2>
<p>Studying cryptocurrency through the psychological lens of the dark tetrad offers insight into why people want to buy crypto. We are not suggesting that everyone interested in crypto displays dark tetrad traits.</p>
<p>We studied only a subset of people interested in crypto who do have these traits. If you happen to be a Bitcoin or other crypto holder, you may or may not exhibit them. </p>
<p>If you want to know how you score for dark tetrad traits, you can do the <a href="https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/SD3/">Dark Triad Personality Test</a> and <a href="https://www.psychmechanics.com/sadism-test/">Sadism Test</a> online.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Narcissism and belief in conspiracy theories may be among the factors that motivate people to buy cryptocurrencies.Di Wang, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyBrett Martin, Professor of Marketing, Queensland University of TechnologyJun Yao, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787152022-03-16T12:07:24Z2022-03-16T12:07:24Z‘Dark empaths’: how dangerous are psychopaths and narcissists with empathy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451885/original/file-20220314-17-ivtayz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=147%2C38%2C5013%2C3135&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You may have psychopathic traits, too.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-hair-covered-face-portrait-studio-1016735176">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People with “dark personality traits”, such as psychopathy or narcissism, are more likely to be callous, disagreeable and antagonistic in their nature. Such traits exist on a continuum – we all have more or less of them, and this does not necessarily equate to being clinically diagnosed with a personality disorder. </p>
<p>Traditionally, people who are high in dark traits are considered to have <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00095/full">empathy deficits</a>, potentially making them more dangerous and aggressive than the rest of us. But we recently discovered something that challenges this idea. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920303615?via%3Dihub">Our study</a>, published in Personality and Individual Differences, identified a group of individuals with dark traits who report above-average empathic capacities – we call them “dark empaths”. </p>
<p>Since this study, the dark empath <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl20Ke2Y58g">has earned a reputation</a> as the most dangerous personality profile. But is this really the case?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tl20Ke2Y58g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Dark personality traits include psychopathy, machiavellianism and narcissism, collectively called the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467/full">“dark triad”</a>. More recently, it has been suggested that sadism be added, culminating in a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284274893_The_Dark_Tetrad">“dark tetrad”</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-psychopath-125660">Psychopathy</a> is characterised by a superficial charm and callousness. People high in such traits often show an erratic lifestyle and antisocial behaviour. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00454/full">Machiavellianism</a> derives from the writings of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/">Niccolò Machiavelli</a>, a Renaissance author, historian and philosopher. He described power games involving deception, treachery and crime. Thus, machiavellianism refers to an exploitative, cynical and manipulative nature. <a href="https://theconversation.com/narcissists-theres-more-than-one-type-and-our-research-reveals-what-makes-each-tick-165636">Narcissism</a> is characterised by an exaggerated sense of entitlement, superiority and grandiose thinking, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-psychopaths-to-everyday-sadists-why-do-humans-harm-the-harmless-144017">sadism</a> denotes a drive to inflict and enjoy pain in others.</p>
<p>The dark traits, particularly psychopathy and machiavellianism, have been consistently associated with aggressive and anti-social behaviour.</p>
<h2>The empathy puzzle</h2>
<p>Empathy can refer to the capacity to share feelings, namely “affective empathy” (if you are sad, I also feel sad). But it can also be the ability to understand other people’s minds, dubbed “cognitive empathy” (I know what you think and why you are feeling sad). </p>
<p>For example, the lack of (specifically affective) empathy is a well documented hallmark in clinical psychopathy used to explain their often persistent, instrumental violent behaviour. Our own work supports the notion that one of the reasons people with dark traits hurt other people or have difficulties in relationships is an underpinning lack of empathy. </p>
<p>Paradoxically, however, some researchers have previously reported <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01316/full">average or even higher levels of some aspects of empathy</a> in some people with dark traits.</p>
<p>This makes sense in a way, as to manipulate others for your own gain – or indeed enjoy the pain of others – you must have at least some capacity to understand them. Thus, we questioned whether dark traits and empathy were indeed mutually exclusive phenomena. </p>
<h2>Dark empaths</h2>
<p>We asked almost 1,000 people to complete assessments, based on questionnaires, on the dark triad and empathy. We then used a method called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879120300701#:%7E:text=Latent%20profile%20analysis%20(LPA)%20is,a%20certain%20set%20of%20variables.">latent profile analysis</a> that allows you to establish clusters of people with different profiles of certain trait combinations.</p>
<p>As expected, we found a traditional dark triad group with low scores in empathy (about 13% of the sample). We also found a group with lower to average levels across all traits (about 34% were “typicals”) and a group with low dark traits and high levels of empathy (about 33% were “empaths”). However, the fourth group of people, the “dark empaths”, was evident. They had higher scores on both dark traits and empathy (about 20% of our sample). Interestingly, this latter group scored higher on both cognitive and affective empathy than the “dark triad” and “typical” groups. </p>
<p>We then characterised these groups based on measures of aggression, general personality, psychological vulnerability and wellbeing. The dark empaths were not as aggressive as the traditional dark triad group – suggesting the latter are likely more dangerous. Nevertheless, the dark empaths were more aggressive than typicals and empaths, at least on a measure of indirect aggression - that is, hurting or manipulating people through social exclusion, malicious humour and guilt-induction. Thus, although the presence of empathy was limiting their level of aggression, it was not eliminating it completely.</p>
<p>In line with this notion, empaths were the most “agreeable” (a personality trait showing how nice or friendly you are), followed by typicals, then dark empaths, and last dark triads. Interestingly, dark empaths were more extroverted than the rest, a trait reflecting the tendency to be sociable, lively and active. Thus, the presence of empathy appears to encourage an enjoyment of being or interacting with people. But it may potentially also be motivated by a desire to dominate them. </p>
<p>Moreover, dark empaths were a little higher in neuroticism, a type of negative thinking, but did not score higher on depression, anxiety or stress. Instead, their neuroticism may reflect sub-traits such as anger, hostility or self-doubt. Indeed, the dark empaths reported judging themselves more harshly than those with dark triad personalities. So it seems they may have a conscience, perhaps even disliking their dark side. Alternatively, their negative emotions may be a response to their self-loathing. </p>
<h2>Hidden dangers</h2>
<p>Though the aggression reported by the dark empaths was not as high as the traditional dark triad group, the danger of this personality profile is that their empathy, and likely resulting social skills, make their darkness harder to spot. We believe that dark empaths have the capacity to be callous and ruthless, but are able to limit such aggression. </p>
<p>It is worth noting, however, that those clinically diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder (often showing excessive levels of dark traits), most certainly lack empathy and are dangerous predators – <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059069/#:%7E:text=The%20psychopath%20has%20had%20and,in%20North%20American%20prison%20systems.">and many of them are in prison</a>. Our research is looking at people in the general population who have elevated levels of dark personality traits, rather than personality disorders.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a psychological support group." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451888/original/file-20220314-3190-hi5run.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Empathy may protect against aggression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-view-upset-man-feel-pain-1477336778">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are continuing our quest to find out more about the characteristics of the dark empaths in relation to other psychological outcomes. For example, we are interested in their risk taking, impulsivity or physically aggressive behaviour. We also want to understand how they process emotions or facial expressions, or how they perceive and react to threats. </p>
<p>We are currently replicating and extending some of our findings using the dark tetrad instead. Our results are yet to be published, but indicate there are two further profiles in addition to the four groups we’ve already identified. One is an “emotionally internalised group”, with high levels of affective empathy and average cognitive empathy, without elevated dark traits. The other shows a pattern similar to autistic traits – particularly, low cognitive empathy and average affective empathy in the absence of elevated dark traits. </p>
<p>We are hoping this research may be able to shift our understanding of empathy in the context of the dark traits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers used to believe people with ‘dark personalities’ had empathy deficits, but new research is challenging that.Nadja Heym, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityAlexander Sumich, Associate Professor of Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1491522021-03-15T18:56:25Z2021-03-15T18:56:25ZBullies, thieves and chiefs: the hidden cost of psychopaths at work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388984/original/file-20210311-20-y29712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=351%2C455%2C2752%2C1815&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From psychological thrillers to true crime stories, people who depart from social norms can be deeply fascinating. Psychopaths most of all. </p>
<p>Working with or for a psychopath, however, is less fun. </p>
<p>The research generally agrees about 1% of the population is psychopathic. This means they fail to develop the normal range of emotions, lack empathy for others and are more disposed to antisocial and uninhibited behaviour. </p>
<p>Among prisoners, the percentage with psychopathic traits has been estimated at <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160252717300523">15%</a> to 20%. But psychopaths are also disproportionately represented in corporate culture. Among the higher echelons of large organisations, the psychopathy rate is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20422644/">an estimated 3.5%</a>. Some estimates for chief executives go way higher.</p>
<p>Only in recent decades has the research on psychopathy started reflecting the enormity of the social and economic cost of non-criminal corporate psychopaths. My research (with <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668064">Clive Boddy and Brendon Murphy</a>) suggests corporate psychopaths cost the economy billions of dollars not only through fraud and other crimes but through the personal and organisational damage they leave behind as they climb the corporate ladder. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-psychopath-125660">What is a psychopath?</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Worming their way in</h2>
<p>Psychopaths typically lack empathy and remorse. They are self-centred, manipulative, unemotional, deceitful, insincere and self-aggrandising. </p>
<p>But they are also fearless and confident, which helps them present as potentially resourceful employees and gain employment. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pathological-power-the-danger-of-governments-led-by-narcissists-and-psychopaths-123118">Pathological power: the danger of governments led by narcissists and psychopaths</a>
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<p>A classic example is “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, who in the early 1990s was celebrated as a hard-nosed but effective corporate “streamliner”, turning around company fortunes by retrenching staff. Dunlap has been identified as holding <a href="https://eprints.utas.edu.au/29130/">strong psychopathic traits</a>. It turned out, though, that his success had more to do with his willingness to commit fraud than his lack of compassion. </p>
<p>In reality, it’s hard to conceive of any situation where an organisation would benefit from recruiting someone with psychopathic tendencies. Once in position, their combination of traits will often lead them to engage in unethical and exploitative behaviour, disregarding the norms that allow people to work together harmoniously. </p>
<p>In his 2017 book <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_Climate_of_Fear_Stone_Cold_Psychopaths.html?id=2w2lswEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">A Climate of Fear: Stone Cold Psychopaths at Work</a>, Clive Boddy describes how corporate psychopaths:</p>
<ul>
<li>use organisational restructures to weaken potential threats </li>
<li>bully colleagues into obedience </li>
<li>spread rumours to undermine competitors </li>
<li>deploy “upward impression management techniques” to project competence </li>
<li>justify poor behaviour as “hard decisions that had to be made”.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="text" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4840%2C3264&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388739/original/file-20210310-23-ap3prf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The corporate psychopath damages the organisation through actions designed to promote their own psychological needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-preferred-jobs-of-serial-killers-and-psychopaths-96173">The preferred jobs of serial killers and psychopaths</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What the law says</h2>
<p>Being a psychopath isn’t illegal. The only area where the law intervenes on the basis of a psychological diagnosis is when mental illness is seen to endanger the safety of the subject or others. Psychopathy is a personality disorder, not a mental illness. There’s no legal remedy for psychopathic behaviours that don’t rise to the level of a firing offence – such as fraud, theft or sexual harassment. </p>
<p>In some cases, it may be possible to minimise the damage a psychopath can do through taking a harder line on behavioural standards. Bullying and harassment are overt warning signs of other behaviour toxic to the work culture. A record of such behaviour should be a strike against having power over other employees. </p>
<h2>Truth is the best defence</h2>
<p>The first and main line of defence against corporate psychopaths has to be prevention. </p>
<p>There’s no surefire way to avoid recruiting a psychopath but key to reducing the risk is “sceptical due diligence” – checking the claims a job applicant makes. </p>
<p>Psychopaths have a natural advantage in any superficial recruitment process due their lower inhibition against <a href="https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/22171/1/HRDirectorsExperienceOfCorporatePsychopaths_%28repository_version%29.pdf">claiming qualifications</a>, experience and competencies they don’t have, and for taking credit for work they didn’t do. </p>
<p>It therefore pays to verify a candidate’s claimed qualifications, to scrutinise all their verbal and written claims, and test them on their honesty, truthfulness and capacity to give credit where it is due. They might have a glowing reference from a past manager, but what about other colleagues? Someone in a junior role to the recruit under consideration is more likely than a past manager to have seen the person’s true character. </p>
<p>Asking the hard questions prior to hiring arguably becomes more important the more senior the role. In a range of contexts we are increasingly recognising the consequences of failing to take complaints seriously. Smoke doesn’t necessarily mean fire, but when an individual is found responsible for one fire, it is likely they have started others. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/narcissists-and-psychopaths-how-some-societies-ensure-these-dangerous-people-never-wield-power-118854">Narcissists and psychopaths: how some societies ensure these dangerous people never wield power</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The corporate psychopath is a fascinating but dangerous character. As we come to appreciate how much damage they can do, it’s not a character you should want to study close up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article was co-authored by Clive Boddy, who has recently retired as professor of management at the University of Tasmania.</span></em></p>Psychopaths are fearless and confident. They may seem potentially resourceful employees. It never works out.Benedict Sheehy, Associate professor, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1440172020-09-24T12:30:16Z2020-09-24T12:30:16ZFrom psychopaths to ‘everyday sadists’: why do humans harm the harmless?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359775/original/file-20200924-23-t6kffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C3060%2C1940&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some 6% of people are sadists.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surprised-blue-eye-looking-on-surprise-134112665">Brian Goff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Why are some humans cruel to people who don’t even pose a threat to them – sometimes even their own children? Where does this behaviour come from and what purpose does it serve?</em> Ruth, 45, London.</p>
<p>Humans are the glory and the scum of the universe, concluded the French philosopher, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/352/35258/pensees/9780140446456.html">Blaise Pascal</a>, in 1658. Little has changed. We love and we loathe; we help and we harm; we reach out a hand and we stick in the knife. </p>
<p>We understand if someone lashes out in retaliation or self-defence. But when someone harms the harmless, we ask: “How could you?” </p>
<p>Humans typically do things to get pleasure or avoid pain. For most of us, hurting others causes us to feel their pain. And we don’t like this feeling. This suggests two reasons people may harm the harmless - either they <em>don’t</em> feel the others’ pain or they <em>enjoy</em> feeling the others’ pain.</p>
<p>Another reason people harm the harmless is because they nonetheless see a threat. Someone who doesn’t imperil your body or wallet can still threaten your social status. This helps explain otherwise puzzling actions, such as when people harm others who help them financially.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313328/original/file-20200203-41485-1foofme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/lifes-big-questions-80040?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=LifesBigQuestionsUK">Life’s Big Questions</a></em></strong>
<br><em>The Conversation’s new series, co-published with BBC Future, seeks to answer our readers’ nagging questions about life, love, death and the universe. We work with professional researchers who have dedicated their lives to uncovering new perspectives on the questions that shape our lives.</em></p>
<p>Liberal societies assume causing others to suffer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jnietstud.48.3.0402">means we have harmed them</a>. Yet some philosophers <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/179/179417/on-the-genealogy-of-morals/9780141195377.html">reject this idea</a>. In the 21st century, can we still conceive of being cruel to be kind?</p>
<h2>Sadists and psychopaths</h2>
<p>Someone who gets pleasure from hurting or humiliating others is a sadist. Sadists <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1107454">feel other people’s pain more</a> than is normal. And <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1107454">they enjoy it</a>. At least, they do until it is over, when they may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218816327">feel bad</a>. </p>
<p>The popular imagination associates sadism with torturers and murderers. Yet there is also the less extreme, but more widespread, phenomenon of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613490749">everyday sadism</a>.</p>
<p>Everyday sadists get pleasure from hurting others or watching their suffering. They <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000602">are likely to</a> enjoy gory films, find fights exciting and torture interesting. They are rare, but not rare enough. Around <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0369056#downloadfiles">6% of undergraduate students</a> admit getting pleasure from hurting others.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Picture of a man from behind staring at a computer screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359562/original/file-20200923-14-zjlxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On-line trolls may be everyday sadists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hacker-doing-his-crime-on-desktop-1148369792">Sander van der Werf/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The everyday sadist may be an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016">internet troll</a> or a <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0369056#downloadfiles">school bully</a>. In online role-playing games, they are likely to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.062">the “griefer”</a> who spoils the game for others. Everyday sadists are drawn to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.08.021">violent computer games</a>. And the more they play, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.08.021">the more sadistic they become</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-use-of-humiliation-could-have-catastrophic-consequences-a-psychologist-explains-why-95690">Donald Trump's use of humiliation could have catastrophic consequences – a psychologist explains why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Unlike sadists, psychopaths don’t harm the harmless simply because they get pleasure from it (though <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-10991-002">they may</a>). Psychopaths want things. If harming others helps them get what they want, so be it.</p>
<p>They can act this way because they are less likely to feel <a href="https://www.guilford.com/books/Psychopathy/Millon-Simonsen-Davis-Birket-Smith/9781572308640/contents">pity</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000137">remorse</a> or <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02353.x?casa_token=PDPA2slOJv4AAAAA:UQoJZAXcyVCc5O8UybP56HCBxfTy3J460Cd2odO3h6pj1TdWbQdWeAlUSrWoisfXuyuagnkoCvEnK0Or">fear</a>. They can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.01.008">work out what others are feeling</a> but not get infected by such feelings themselves.</p>
<p>This is a seriously dangerous set of skills. Over millennia, humanity has <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530240/the-goodness-paradox-by-richard-wrangham/">domesticated itself</a>. This has made it difficult for many of us to harm others. Many who harm, torture or kill will be <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/111/2/73/4793224">haunted by the experience</a>. Yet psychopathy is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20238">powerful predictor</a> of someone inflicting unprovoked violence.</p>
<p>We need to know if we encounter a psychopath. We can make a good guess from simply looking at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.09.002">someone’s face</a> or <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0369056#downloadfiles">briefly interacting with them</a>. Unfortunately, psychopaths know we know this. They fight back by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612461284">working hard</a> on their clothing and grooming to try and make a good first impression.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Picture of a man in handcuffs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359636/original/file-20200923-20-mus1kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not all psychopaths are criminals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handcuffs-376645498">Billion Photos/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thankfully, most people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.01.002">have no psychopathic traits</a>. Only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.01.002">0.5% of people</a> could be deemed psychopaths. Yet <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.02.008">around 8% of male and 2% of female prisoners</a> are psychopaths.</p>
<p>But not all psychopaths are dangerous. Anti-social psychopaths may seek thrills from drugs or dangerous activities. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.03.005">prosocial psychopaths</a> seek their thrills in the fearless pursuit of novel ideas. As innovations <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tech-billionaires-visions-of-human-nature-shape-our-world-144016">shape our societies</a>, prosocial psychopaths can change the world for all of us. Yet this still can be for both good and for ill.</p>
<h2>Where do these traits come from?</h2>
<p>No one really knows why some people are sadistic. Some speculate sadism is an adaptation that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17214016/">helped us slaughter animals when hunting</a>. Others <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160401-how-did-evil-evolve-and-why-did-it-persist">propose</a> it helped people gain power.</p>
<p>Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/320841/the-portable-machiavelli-by-niccolo-machiavelli/">once suggested that</a> “the times, not men, create disorder”. Consistent with this, neuroscience suggests sadism could be a survival tactic triggered by times becoming tough. When certain foods become scarce, our levels of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5884/1739.full">fall</a>. This fall makes us <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009396107">more willing to harm others</a> because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2761-12.2013">harming becomes more pleasurable</a>. </p>
<p>Psychopathy <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00223980.2014.925845?casa_token=NRV1Px3QS0AAAAAA:HJJ4yG88C10Kpm9gUnXI3FUvFYSN4j5N2yAdUkB3yjz1g23eZYwNhGIcU4-APC0zPsI3cmFsdGMM6g">may also be an adaptation</a>. Some studies have linked higher levels of psychopathy to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2038">greater fertility</a>. Yet others have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.017">found the opposite</a>. The reason for this may be that psychopaths have a reproductive advantage specifically in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0097-5">harsh environments</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, psychopathy can thrive in unstable, competitive worlds. Psychopaths’ abilities make them master manipulators. Their impulsivity and lack of fear help them take risks and grab short-term gains. In the film Wall Street, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12359">the psychopathic Gordon Gekko makes millions</a>. Yet although psychopathy may be an advantage <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.925">in the corporate world</a>, it only offers men <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000357">a slim leadership edge</a>.</p>
<p>Psychopathy’s link to creativity may also explain its survival. The mathematician <a href="https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/eric-weinstein-intellectual-dark-web">Eric Weinstein</a> argues, more generally, that disagreeable people drive innovation. Yet, if your environment supports creative thinking, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10869-014-9386-1">disagreeableness is less strongly linked to creativity</a>. The nice can be novel.</p>
<p>Sadism and psychopathy are associated with other traits, such as narcissism and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/machiavellians-gulling-the-rubes/201509/meet-the-machiavellians">machiavellianism</a>. Such traits, taken together, are called the “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-32574-001">dark factor of personality</a>” or D-factor for short. </p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.09.007">moderate to large hereditary component</a> to these traits. So some people may just be born this way. Alternatively, high D-factor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991279">parents could pass these traits</a> onto their children by behaving abusively towards them. Similarly, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1976-25817-001">seeing others behave in high D-factor ways</a> may teach us to act this way. We all have a role to play in reducing cruelty.</p>
<h2>Fear and dehumanisation</h2>
<p>Sadism involves enjoying another <em>person’s</em> humiliation and hurt. Yet it is often said that <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250003836">dehumanising people</a> is what allows us to be cruel. Potential victims are labelled as dogs, lice or cockroaches, allegedly making it easier for others to hurt them.</p>
<p>There is something to this. Research shows that if someone breaks a social norm, our brains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000132">treat their faces as less human</a>. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000132">makes it easier</a> for us to punish people who violate norms of behaviour.</p>
<p>It is a sweet sentiment to think that if we see someone as human then we won’t hurt them. It is also a dangerous delusion. The psychologist Paul Bloom argues our worst cruelties may rest on <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/against-empathy-paul-bloom?variant=32122194853922"><em>not</em> dehumanising people</a>. People may hurt others precisely because <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/the-root-of-all-cruelty">they recognise them as human beings</a> who don’t want to suffer pain, humiliation or degradation.</p>
<p>For example, the Nazi Party dehumanised Jewish people by calling them <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250003836">vermin and lice</a>. Yet the Nazis also humiliated, tortured and murdered Jews precisely because <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/the-root-of-all-cruelty">they saw them as humans</a> who would be degraded and suffer from such treatment.</p>
<h2>Do-gooder derogation</h2>
<p>Sometimes people will even harm the helpful. Imagine you are playing an <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/319/5868/1362">economic game</a> in which you and other players have the chance to invest in a group fund. The more money is paid into it, the more it pays out. And the fund will pay out money to all players, whether they have invested or not. </p>
<p>At the end of the game, you can pay to punish other players for how much they chose to invest. To do so, you give up some of your earnings and money is taken away from the player of your choice. In short, you can <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/spite-hb.html">be spiteful</a>.</p>
<p>Some players chose to punish others who invested little or nothing in the group fund. Yet some will pay to punish players <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/319/5868/1362">who invested <em>more</em> in the group fund</a> than they did. Such acts seem to make no sense. Generous players give you a greater pay-out - why would you dissuade them?</p>
<p>This phenomenon is called “do-gooder derogation”. It can be found around the world. In hunter-gatherer societies, successful hunters are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617752642">criticised for catching a big animal</a> even though their catch means everyone gets more meat. Hillary Clinton <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/spite-hb.html">may have suffered do-gooder derogation</a> as a result of her rights-based 2016 US Presidential Election campaign.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Picture of a woman hugging a friend while looking dissatisfied." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359640/original/file-20200923-20-fbn5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some people struggle to be grateful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-dissatisfied-angry-facial-expression-670858699">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Do-gooder derogation <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/spite-hb.html">exists because of our counter-dominant tendencies</a>. A less generous player in the economic game above may feel that a more generous player will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617752642">be seen by others as a preferable collaborator</a>. The more generous person is threatening to become dominant. As the French writer Voltaire put it, the best is the enemy of the good.</p>
<p>Yet there is a hidden upside of do-gooder derogation. Once we have pulled down the do-gooder, we are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611415695">more open to their message</a>. One study found that allowing people to express a dislike of vegetarians led them to become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611415695">less supportive of eating meat</a>. Shooting, crucifying or failing to elect the messenger may encourage their message to be accepted.</p>
<h2>The future of cruelty</h2>
<p>In the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/">Whiplash</a>, a music teacher <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo&pp=QAA%3D">uses cruelty to encourage greatness</a> in one of his students. We may recoil at such tactics. Yet the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought we had <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jnietstud.48.3.0402">become too averse to such cruelty</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7d_jQycdQGo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jnietstud.48.3.0402">For Nietzsche</a>, cruelty allowed a teacher to burn a critique into another, for the other person’s own good. People could also be cruel to themselves to help become the person they wanted to be. Nietzsche felt suffering cruelty could help develop courage, endurance and creativity. Should we be more willing to make both others and ourselves suffer to develop virtue?</p>
<p>Arguably not. We now know the potentially appalling long-term effects of suffering cruelty from others, including damage to both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.10.012">physical</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715002743">mental health</a>. The <a href="https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/paul-gilbert/the-compassionate-mind/9781849010986/">benefits of being compassionate towards oneself</a>, rather than treating oneself cruelly, are also increasingly recognised. </p>
<p>And the idea that we <em>must</em> suffer to grow is questionable. Positive life events, such as falling in love, having children and achieving cherished goals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000173">can lead</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.791715">growth</a>.</p>
<p>Teaching through cruelty invites abuses of power and selfish sadism. Yet Buddhism offers an alternative - <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/arent-we-right-be-angry/">wrathful compassion</a>. Here, we act from love to confront others to protect them from their greed, hatred and fear. Life can be cruel, truth can be cruel, but we can choose not to be.</p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/free-thought-can-you-ever-be-a-truly-independent-thinker-129033?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=LifesBigQuestionsUK">Free thought: can you ever be a truly independent thinker?</a></em></p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon McCarthy-Jones receives funding from the US-based Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.</span></em></p>What causes unprovoked acts of violence? And is there any place for such cruelty in our society?Simon McCarthy-Jones, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1423642020-07-15T12:13:30Z2020-07-15T12:13:30ZPersonality can predict who’s a rule-follower and who flouts COVID-19 social distancing guidelines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347340/original/file-20200714-139854-1wyiypp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=107%2C86%2C3368%2C2069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who will wait on the checkout line footprints and who will rage against them?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vons-shopper-maintain-safe-distance-in-the-checkout-line-at-news-photo/1212798930">Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As states struggle to get the COVID-19 balance right – between eased restrictions and rising infection rates – it falls to individuals to abide by mask-wearing rules and to maintain six feet of distance between themselves and others when out and about.</p>
<p>Some people dutifully endure the hardships of coronavirus lockdown, while others can’t be bothered to keep their distance. Why?</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fXwMNNMAAAAJ&hl=en">As a cognitive researcher</a>, I’m interested in how what psychologists call the <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422">“Big Five” personality traits</a> influence the ways individuals deal with social distancing rules in daily life. Who is more likely to mask up every time they leave their home? And who is more likely to flout these evolving behavioral expectations?</p>
<h2>Personal space, territorial invasion</h2>
<p>How comfortable you are being near to other people has a big cultural component. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall made a study of <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-proxemics-definition-examples.html">what he called proxemics</a>, measuring personal space expectations around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pandemic response means the personal space bubble is now bigger than the previous norm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Personal_Spaces_in_Proxemics.svg">Jean-Louis Grall/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Touching or whispering happens in the closest zone. From about 1.5 to 4 feet away is the distance reserved for communicating with friends. Now public health recommendations have extended that zone to 6 feet or more, the distance that had been normal for interactions with those you don’t know well.</p>
<p>When people violate proximity norms, it can feel like they’re invading your territory. And nowadays, the stakes are higher than just your personal comfort – these distance guidelines are meant to protect you from infectious germs.</p>
<p>Subconsciously, everyone knows the traditional spatial zones. The “wait here” foot emblems now found at a store’s checkout line are necessary to help rewrite the cognitive script for where you stand until it becomes a mindless habit. You are forced to “unlearn” subconscious behavior; old dogs must learn new tricks. </p>
<p>Strangers who invade your social distance are being aggressive if they’re aware of what they’re doing. But if it’s done mindlessly or subconsciously, then personality traits are helping drive the behavior.</p>
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<h2>Predictions based on personality traits</h2>
<p>For more than four decades, psychology researchers have divvied people up by personality types based on an individual’s <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n9">combination of five key traits</a>. They’re used to predict how people make purchases, <a href="https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/business/how-the-big-five-personality-traits-influence-work-behavior/">behave at work</a>, even <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/personality-traits-life-outcomes-replication.html">long-term life outcomes</a> like marriage stability and career achievement. <a href="http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/counseling-psychology/history-of-counseling/paul-costa-and-robert-mccrae/">Paul Costa and Robert McRae</a> popularized the acronym OCEAN, for openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone varies from high to low on each of the five personality traits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/big-five-personality-traits-psychology-concept-royalty-free-image/1242962102">Olivier Le Moal/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>An open individual is inclined to be curious, imaginative, creative, original, artistic and flexible. Openness reflects a tendency to think in abstract, complex ways. People high in openness tend to be adventurous and intellectual and enjoy the arts, while those on the opposite end of the spectrum tend to be practical, conventional and focused on the concrete. The more open your personality is, the better you might cope with uncertainty over a long, sustained period – as in the case of a global pandemic.</p>
<p>Conscientiousness is the tendency to be habitually careful, reliable, hard-working, well-organized and purposeful. A conscientious person controls, regulates and directs their impulses. They would likely be early adopters of mask-wearing, even without direction to do so. This trait makes someone less willing to violate territorial space and social distancing guidelines.</p>
<p>Extroversion is characterized by being outgoing and drawing energy from interacting with others, compared to introverts who get their energy from within themselves. Behavioral neuroscience research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-014-0331-6">revealed two subtypes of this trait</a>.</p>
<p>Agentic extroversion is about being comfortable in the limelight and taking a leadership position. These people are less likely to feel a strong bond with others and have more interest in going for rewards in social or workplace contexts.</p>
<p>On the other hand, affiliative extroverts don’t seek out leadership roles as much and have close social bonds with a lot of people from which they gather happiness and meaning.</p>
<p>Both types of extroverts would likely enjoy virtual networking during isolation, while probably struggling with isolation if sheltering alone.</p>
<p>Agreeableness reflects compliance. It is the opposite pole of antagonism and reflects a tendency to be good-natured, acquiescent, courteous, helpful and trusting. People high in this trait would probably go along with mask-wearing right away and be more likely to follow social distancing guidelines as soon as they’re announced without grumbling about the rules.</p>
<p>Neuroticism is characterized by impulsivity and a tendency to experience negative emotions including anxiety, worry, fear, anger, depression or sadness, hostility, self-consciousness and loneliness. This trait is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100352">wishful thinking and disengagement</a> in order to escape feelings of distress. Presumably people high on neuroticism would tend to react to the pandemic with avoidance and denial.</p>
<h2>The dark triad of personality traits</h2>
<p>Personalities can have their dark sides, too.</p>
<p>Narcissism involves loving oneself obsessively; it goes along with grandiosity and vanity.</p>
<p>Machiavellianism is about manipulating others; it’s characterized by cynicism and long-term, calculating strategies.</p>
<p>Finally there’s psychopathy, meaning a lack of empathy. Psychopathic people are usually impulsive and have cold interpersonal relations. Individuals at the higher end of the continuum are deceptive, aggressive, sexually promiscuous and coercive.</p>
<p>All of these dark triad traits, as psychologists group them, would likely be associated with more social distancing violations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Personality traits influence who’s fine with masks and who isn’t.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/taxi-driver-with-thumbs-up-and-wearing-a-facemask-royalty-free-image/1223488542">andresr/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Personality influences your behavior</h2>
<p>Everyone varies on all of those personality traits from high to low. It’s possible to deduce a personality profile for someone more likely to rampantly violate social distancing guidelines.</p>
<p>Pulling from meta-analyses of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2017.14">how personality affects pro-social behaviors</a>, I’ve come up with this formulation. I have in mind coronavirus-mitigating behaviors in the U.S., but it could be tested cross-culturally and in other contexts.</p>
<p>Social distancing violator = Low openness + Low conscientiousness + Low agreeableness + High neuroticism + High Machiavellianism + High narcissism + High psychopathy + Error</p>
<p>My model predicts that a person who scores lower in openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness would be more likely to violate social distancing guidelines. Same for someone higher in neuroticism, Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.</p>
<p>The error term in the equation is a bit of a fudge factor; it represents all the variation in social distancing that is not explained by the personality traits. For example, political ideology influences social distancing compliance, with <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/political-beliefs-and-compliance-social-distancing-orders">Republicans less likely to adhere</a> to social distancing orders.</p>
<p>Psychology researchers are starting to collect data during the pandemic that supports this model. In one study, for instance, Pavel Blagov found that people with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness were less likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620936439">endorse health recommendations</a> related to social distancing and hygiene during the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>Personality is not fixed; it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00543.x">can evolve over one’s lifespan</a>. As the coronavirus crisis drags on, I’ll be interested to see how adherence to social distancing guidelines changes over time – and wondering how much personality traits are changing too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James M. Honeycutt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Psychologists call these traits the ‘Big Five’: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. A researcher suggests your profile implies your response to social distancing.James M. Honeycutt, Lecturer in Executive Education; Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies from Louisiana State University, University of Texas at DallasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1306222020-02-03T16:12:47Z2020-02-03T16:12:47ZHow we discovered a personality profile linked to war crimes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316841/original/file-20200224-24672-7l0jzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swedish soldiers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Magnus Linden.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former US Private First Class Stephen Green <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26265798">was found guilty</a> of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl and murdering her family in Mahmudiyah, Iraq in 2006. Four years later, US Corporal Jeremy Morlock was convicted of ambushing, murdering and maiming Afghan civilians in 2010.</p>
<p>Investigations revealed that Green had a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060718151434/http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/05/iraq.charge.ap/index.html">pre-existing antisocial personality disorder</a>. This effectively made him indifferent to the suffering of others. Morlock, too, had a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-kill-team-how-u-s-soldiers-in-afghanistan-murdered-innocent-civilians-169793/">personal history</a> of anti-social behaviour. </p>
<p>Now our recent study, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08995605.2019.1671095">published in Military Psychology</a>, has identified a personality profile linked with such war atrocities. It raises the question of whether military organisations could and should take more care when recruiting people.</p>
<p>The examples of moral transgressions from the global “war on terror” suggest there is a link between antisocial personality traits and breaches of battlefield ethics. This is backed up by scientific evidence, with psychological studies dating back to the aftermath of World War II.</p>
<p>Studies show that a personality cluster known as the “dark triad” is related to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08995605.2019.1671095">negative attitudes towards military ethics</a>. This includes psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism (the power-hungry personality). Socio-political attitudes such as right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation – believing that “superior” groups should dominate “inferior” groups – also belong to this class.</p>
<p>Of these, data on civilian and military samples suggest that psychopathy is the main risk factor for moral transgressions <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691616666070">in both civilian</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00127-011-0443">military work</a>. This is perhaps unsurprising given that psychopaths have low empathy and anxiety, but are risk taking and manipulative.</p>
<h2>New data</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that dark personality traits have a common core. We collected pre-deployment data on the five “dark triad” traits in a sample of Swedish peacekeepers bound for Mali, Africa. </p>
<p>We then used <a href="https://www.statisticssolutions.com/structural-equation-modeling/">structural equation modelling</a>, which is a mathematical tool that can find correlations between different variables. For example, it is hard to define what intelligence is. But if you have a hypothesis, you can test people with various exams that you think predict intelligence. You can thereafter feed the scores into the model – these would be the observed variables. Intelligence could then be discovered as the latent variable to which these observed variables statistically contributed.</p>
<p>We used this model to identify the underlying latent variable of the five dark personality traits – what they have in common. We dubbed this shared content the “core of darkness”. We then discovered it was linked both to negative attitudes towards military ethics and higher frequency of self-reported unethical behaviour. The latter included anonymously admitting to minimising cooperation with co-workers so as to limit their success. In an analysis of a sub-sample of the soldiers, the dark core also predicted a higher frequency of insulting and cursing non-combatants.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313330/original/file-20200203-41485-1m13ed1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Torture of Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh in Abu Ghraib prison.</span>
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<p>Based on <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/per.1893">previous personality research</a>, it is likely that soldiers with high “dark core” scores are more callous and manipulative, so these traits may lie at the heart of the core of darkness. This in turn affects their attitudes towards human rights in general and their fellow soldiers. Therefore, as was also suggested by military psychologists after the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508421003595984">systematic abuse of Iraqi detainees</a> in Abu-Ghraib prison in 2003 was revealed, it is important to identify these soldiers.</p>
<h2>Double-edged sword</h2>
<p>But observations suggest that this is a double-edged sword from the point of view of military recruiters. For example, during previous wars, men judged by some military psychiatrists to be the “best killers” <a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/our-staff/academic-staff/joanna-previous/an-intimate-history-of-killing">were often the ones with dark traits</a>. And they were preferred for positions where “aggression” was considered important. This suggests that having a dark personality might be viewed positively in certain areas in terms of “getting dirty jobs done”. </p>
<p>Another more recent example is the recruitment of soldiers with so-called “<a href="https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol61/iss4/2/">moral waivers</a>” in the war against terror – ignoring their criminal records. That is concerning as we know that dark personality traits are over-represented among people who have been convicted of crimes in general. This suggests that sometimes, filling the ranks might be prioritised over getting the right people. </p>
<p>From a practical perspective, identifying and screening out soldiers with a high score on the dark core isn’t easy. It requires that the military actually develop and routinely implement refined assessment techniques. </p>
<p>What’s more, military culture may contribute towards some negative behaviour. For example, evidence suggests a tendency to become socially dominant can actually <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08995600701548072?src=recsys">develop during cadet training</a>. There are also many examples where inadequate leadership has <a href="https://archive.ph/20131228005523/http://www.armytimes.com/article/20111127/NEWS/111270307/">had a negative impact</a> on people with pre-existing dark personality traits.</p>
<p>It may be inevitable that atrocities happen in war. But that doesn’t mean that some, or even many, ethical violations could not be prevented. To do this, we have to take more notice of the evidence that we have available.</p>
<p>If we are more careful about whom we employ in our professional militaries, and who leads them, there is a good chance that we could eliminate some important risk factors. This would certainly help improve the standard of military ethics – something we should all welcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The military should take more care when hiring new staff if we are to prevent atrocities in wars.Magnus Linden, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Lund UniversityDavid Whetham, Professor of Ethics and the Military Profession, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256602019-11-07T16:08:41Z2019-11-07T16:08:41ZWhat is a psychopath?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300523/original/file-20191106-12506-153ykcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can you feel what I'm feeling?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTU3MzEwNDI0MywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTA2MzM3NzA1MyIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMDYzMzc3MDUzL21lZGl1bS5qcGciLCJtIjoxLCJkIjoic2h1dHRlcnN0b2NrLW1lZGlhIn0sIlEzWEtYTnZlcm5SOFI3YStVTStRQzJuTjdONCJd%2Fshutterstock_1063377053.jpg&ir=true&pi=33421636&m=1063377053&src=6a2d751d-6be9-4c15-b23a-b4ad4788583c-1-0">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions recently flocked to the <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Joker-(2019)#tab=summary">cinema</a> to watch Joker, the origin story of Batman’s notorious nemesis. Many have commented that the film is a portrait of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/28/he-is-a-psychopath-has-the-2019-joker-gone-too-far">a textbook psychopath</a>. But perhaps the bigger question is how many among the audience have similar traits? Indeed, is it possible that you are a psychopath yourself?</p>
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<p>To answer this question, we need to examine the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy presented in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Cooke2/publication/232570257_Evaluating_the_Screening_Version_of_the_Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist-Revised_PCL_SV_An_Item_Response_Theory_Analysis/links/00b4951bb1ac064411000000.pdf">PCL-R</a>, which was developed by Robert Hare in the 1970s. </p>
<p>Thanks to Hare, experts can use the PCL-R to assess whether an individual is exhibiting any of the criteria for psychopathy. Estimates suggest that <a href="https://www.livescience.com/16585-psychopaths-speech-language.html">about 1% of the population qualifies</a> – although the percentage is thought to be far higher among <a href="https://www.livescience.com/16585-psychopaths-speech-language.html">the prison population (25%)</a> and company <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2016/09/16/gene-marks-21-percent-of-ceos-are-psychopaths-only-21-percent/">chief executives (21%)</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-psychopaths-103865">Five things you didn't know about psychopaths</a>
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<p>The absolute or prototypical psychopath would produce a maximum score of 40 from Hare’s 20-item checklist, while a score of zero would indicate someone with no psychopathic tendencies. Those with a score of 30 or over should qualify for further assessment and indications of psychopathy, while many criminals score between 22 and 30. Consequently, psychopathy is perhaps best seen as a spectrum, with all of us exhibiting some traits at some point in our lives.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we cannot assume that nurture – a hard upbringing, for example – will make us psychopathic. The debate between nature versus nurture has been long discussed in relation to psychopathy and there has yet to be a clear answer. But it has been suggested recently that while a genetic predisposition is essential for a person to exhibit traits of psychopathy, some environmental factors, such trauma, abuse and rejection by loved ones, could determine the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/1359178995000100">course of the disorder</a>. </p>
<p>Nor should we assume that a person matching some PCL-R criteria is a psychopath. We must also keep in mind that not all psychopaths are criminals. Many are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415580297">successful professionals</a>, so a high PCL-R score does not necessarily make us dangerous or murderous. Patrick Bateman, the blood-spattered anti-hero of Brett Easton Ellis’s infamous 1991 novel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/10/american-psycho-bret-easton-ellis-irvine-welsh">American Pycho</a>, certainly is a psychopath – but not all psychopaths are Patrick Bateman.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, psychopaths are clearly relatively common – so how can we spot one? After all, if a person is a psychopath, they will rarely accept it or advertise the fact.</p>
<h2>The psychopath test</h2>
<p>The first characteristic of a psychopath according to the PCL-R is glib and superficial charm. Of course, this can be an apparently positive characteristic. This is not a trait motivated by a genuine interest or empathy for others, however, but allows psychopaths to charm and <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-an-example-of-psychopathic-charm">manipulate those around them</a>, from work colleagues to <a href="https://theconversation.com/worried-you-are-dating-a-psychopath-signs-to-look-for-according-to-science-106965">romantic partners</a>. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/communication-success/201810/7-characterisitics-the-modern-psychopath">Gaslighting</a> – whereby others are led to question their own actions and beliefs – may be a favoured strategy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300522/original/file-20191106-12474-120jedz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Answer with care.</span>
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<p>Another key characteristic is a grandiose sense of self-worth. Of course, this profound sense of confidence or self-belief may explain why so many psychopaths appear to thrive in the cutthroat world of business. Unfortunately for their colleagues and “friends”, however, psychopaths also tend to make themselves look better by <a href="http://parenting.exposed/dating-and-relationships-after-leaving-a-psychopath/">belittling those around them</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Cooke2/publication/232570257_Evaluating_the_Screening_Version_of_the_Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist-Revised_PCL_SV_An_Item_Response_Theory_Analysis/links/00b4951bb1ac064411000000.pdf">may lie pathologically</a>. Keep an eye out for <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/communication-success/201810/7-characterisitics-the-modern-psychopath">narcissists</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/worried-you-are-dating-a-psychopath-signs-to-look-for-according-to-science-106965">Worried you are dating a psychopath? Signs to look for, according to science</a>
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<p>Other criteria on the PCL-R checklist include a lack of remorse or guilt, callousness, a parasitic lifestyle and <a href="https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/personality-types-most-likely-to-cheat-and-why-they-do-it">promiscuous sexual behaviour</a>. Psychopaths, in short, tend to be <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/psychopaths-cheat-and-take-risks-due-to-impaired-social-understanding.html">risk takers</a> and may be less likely to show, or feel, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2242355/">fear</a>. </p>
<p>But they’re not always cool operators. One characteristic that is both obvious and common is poor behavioural control, which is perhaps linked to psychopaths being more likely to have a history of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Cooke2/publication/232570257_Evaluating_the_Screening_Version_of_the_Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist-Revised_PCL_SV_An_Item_Response_Theory_Analysis/links/00b4951bb1ac064411000000.pdf">juvenile delinquency</a>. Psychopaths tend to have a good eye for seeing and emulating how others behave, but they may also have outbursts of antisocial behaviour.</p>
<p>Based on the above, my thought is that the Joker – or at least Arthur Fleck, the man behind the makeup – is only a borderline psychopath, with other mental health problems that would warrant further investigation first. There are certainly more real-life psychopaths that would score higher in Hare’s test.</p>
<p>The key question is, based on the above, whether you might be one of them and how you intend to use these traits and skills.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calli Tzani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Everyone has something of the Joker in them.Calli Tzani, Lecturer in Investigative Psychology, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1188542019-06-19T12:52:41Z2019-06-19T12:52:41ZNarcissists and psychopaths: how some societies ensure these dangerous people never wield power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279534/original/file-20190614-158953-1gtued2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C5%2C995%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/concept-narcissism-selfishness-silhouette-selfish-narcissistic-703750915?src=L25Pyki9c_hy-GWzcXokQA-1-1&studio=1">Shutterstock/Prazis Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout history, people who have gained positions of power tend to be precisely the kind of people who should not be entrusted with it. A desire for power often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0092656688900360">correlates with negative</a> personality traits: selfishness, greed and a lack of empathy. And the people who have the strongest desire for power <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/30/world/middleeast/30saddam.html">tend to be the most ruthless</a> and lacking in compassion. </p>
<p>Often those who attain power show traits of psychopathy and narcissism. In recent times, psychopathic leaders have been mostly found in less economically developed countries with poor infrastructures and insecure political and social institutions. People such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a> in Iraq, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/muammar-gaddafi">Muammar Gaddafi</a> in Libya and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Ghankay-Taylor">Charles Taylor</a> in Liberia.</p>
<p>But modern psychopaths generally don’t become leaders in affluent countries (where they are perhaps more likely to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/06/14/why-some-psychopaths-make-great-ceos/#5920ec90261a">join multinational corporations</a>). In these countries, as can be seen <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/22/is-donald-trump-a-textbook-narcissist/?utm_term=.d8be280587dd">in the US</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/10/putin-the-new-tsar-review-bbc2">and Russia</a>, there has been a movement away from psychopathic to narcissistic leaders. </p>
<p>After all, what profession could be more suited to a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajps.12380">narcissistic personality than politics</a>, where the spotlight of attention is constant? <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-love-island-to-hd-brows-what-you-need-to-know-about-narcissism-99328">Narcissists</a> feel entitled to gain power because of their sense of superiority and self-importance. </p>
<p>Those with narcissistic personalities tend to crave attention and admiration and feel it is right that other people should be subservient to them. Their lack of empathy means they have no qualms about exploiting other people to attain or maintain their power. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the kind of people who we might think are ideally suited to take on positions of power – people who are empathetic, fair minded, responsible and wise – are naturally disinclined to seek it. Empathetic people like to remain grounded and interact with others, rather than elevating themselves. They don’t desire control or authority, but connection, leaving those leadership roles vacant for those with more narcissistic and psychopathic character traits.</p>
<h2>Different types of leader</h2>
<p>Yet it would be misleading to say it is only psychopaths and narcissists who gain power. Instead, I would suggest that there are generally three types of leaders. </p>
<p>The first are accidental leaders who gain power without a large degree of conscious intention on their part, but due to privilege or merit (or a combination). Second are the idealistic and altruistic leaders, probably the rarest type. They feel impelled to gain power to improve the lives of other people – or to promote justice and equality, and try to become instruments of change. But the third are the narcissistic and psychopathic leaders, whose motivation for gaining power is purely self-serving. </p>
<p>This doesn’t just apply to politics, of course. It’s an issue in every organisation with a hierarchical structure. In any institution or company, there is a good chance that those who gain power are highly ambitious and ruthless, and lacking in empathy.</p>
<p>Narcissistic leaders may seem appealing because they are often charismatic (they cultivate charisma in order to attract attention and admiration). As leaders they can be confident and decisive and their lack of empathy can promote a single-mindedness which can, in some cases, lead to achievement. Ultimately though, any positive aspects are far outweighed by the chaos and suffering they create. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279537/original/file-20190614-158953-1dnrafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An anti-Trump demonstration in Washington DC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-jan-20-2018-on-1006842706?src=INXFwzJWSwY8RrRLtfP2og-1-4&studio=1">Shutterstock/bakdc</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is needed are checks to power – not just to limit the exercise of power, but to limit its attainment. Put simply, the kind of people who desire power the most should not be allowed to attain positions of authority. </p>
<p>Every potential leader should be assessed for their levels of empathy, narcissism or psychopathy to determine their suitability for power. At the same time, empathetic people – who generally lack the lust to gain power – should be encouraged to take positions of authority. Even if they don’t want to, they should feel a responsibility to do so – if only to get in the way of tyrants.</p>
<h2>Models of society</h2>
<p>This might sound absurd and impractical, but as I suggest in my book, <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/the-fall/">The Fall</a>, it has been done before. There are many tribal hunter-gatherer societies where great care is taken to ensure that unsuitable individuals don’t attain power. </p>
<p>Instead, anyone with a strong desire for power and wealth is barred from consideration as a leader. According to anthropologist <a href="http://www.christopher-boehm.com/about">Christopher Boehm</a>, present-day <a href="http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Boehm_99.html">foraging groups</a> “apply techniques of social control in suppressing both dominant leadership and undue competitiveness”. </p>
<p>If a dominant male tries to take control of the group, they practise what Boehm calls “egalitarian sanctioning”. They team up against the domineering person, and ostracise or desert him. In this way, Boehm says, “the rank and file avoid being subordinated by vigilantly keeping alpha-type group members under their collective thumbs”.</p>
<p>Just as importantly, in many simple hunter-gatherer groups power is assigned to people, rather than being sought by them. People don’t put themselves forward to become leaders – other members of the group recommend them, because they are considered to be experienced and wise, or because their abilities suit particular situations. </p>
<p>In some societies, the role of leader is not fixed, but rotates according to different circumstances. As another anthropologist, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4bXijb1-YmMC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=margaret+power+anthropologist+and+The+leadership+role+is+spontaneously+assigned+by+the+group,+conferred+on+some+members+in+some+particular+situation&source=bl&ots=xsXg_9gnb-&sig=ACfU3U3erNptVbB_EQur-EqZQxjSuJPN7A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbhe2f6ujiAhWjqHEKHadlCGgQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=margaret%20power%20anthropologist%20and%20The%20leadership%20role%20is%20spontaneously%20assigned%20by%20the%20group%2C%20conferred%20on%20some%20members%20in%20some%20particular%20situation&f=false">Margaret Power, noted</a>: “The leadership role is spontaneously assigned by the group, conferred on some members in some particular situation … One leader replaces another as needed.” </p>
<p>In this way, simple hunter-gatherer groups preserve stability and equality, and minimise the risk of conflict and violence. </p>
<p>It’s true that large modern societies are much more complex and more populous than hunter-gatherer groups. But it may be possible for us to adopt similar principles. At the very least, we should assess potential leaders for their levels of empathy, in order to stop ruthless and narcissistic people gaining power. </p>
<p>We could also try to identify narcissists and psychopaths who already hold positions of power and take measures to curtail their influence. Perhaps we could also ask communities to nominate wise and altruistic people who would take an advisory role in important political decisions. </p>
<p>No doubt all this would entail massive changes of personnel for most of the world’s governments, institutions and companies. But it might ensure that power is in the hands of people who are worthy of it, and so make the world a much less dangerous place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A more egalitarian power structure is possible.Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1038652018-10-03T08:50:38Z2018-10-03T08:50:38ZFive things you didn’t know about psychopaths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237892/original/file-20180925-149967-oe0hde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3069650/mediaviewer/rm2721927168">IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the hit BBC TV show, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7016936/">Killing Eve</a>, Villanelle, a psychopathic assassin, tells Eve, a security service operative, “You should never call a psychopath a psychopath. It upsets them.” She then pouts her lip in an imitation of someone feeling upset.</p>
<p>Most people think they know what a psychopath is: someone who has no feelings. Someone who probably tortured animals for fun when they were little. But here are five things you probably didn’t know about psychopaths.</p>
<p>1. <strong>There’s a bit of a psychopath in all of us.</strong> Psychopathy is a spectrum, and we are all somewhere on that spectrum. If you’ve ever shown a lack of guilt or remorse, or not felt empathy with someone, or you’ve charmed someone to get what you want (remember that last job interview?), then you’ve displayed a psychopathic trait. Maybe you’re fearless in certain situations or you’ve taken big risks – also psychopathic traits.</p>
<p>2. <strong>Psychopaths are not all “psycho”.</strong> Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs are typical portrayals of psychopaths in popular culture. While it’s true that most serial killers are psychopaths, the vast majority of psychopaths are not serial killers. Psychopaths comprise <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)00771-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982214007714%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">about 1%</a> of the general population and can be productive members of society. </p>
<p>Their lack of emotions, such as anxiety and fear, helps them to stay calm in frightening situations. Experiments have shown that they have a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2242355/">reduced startle response</a>. If someone gave you a fright while you were watching a horror movie, you would probably show an “exaggerated startle response” – in other words, you’d jump out of your skin. Psychopaths react far less intensely in such fear-evoking situations. If anything, they remain calm. This can be a useful trait if you’re a soldier, a surgeon or in the special forces.</p>
<p>Psychopaths can also be very charming (even if only superficially) and they have the ability to confidently take risks, be ruthless, goal-oriented and make bold decisions. This makes them well suited to environments like Wall Street, the boardroom and parliament. Here, psychopaths are more likely to be making a killing than killing.</p>
<p>3. <strong>Psychopaths prefer Sex in the City to Little House on the Prairie.</strong> Psychopaths are more likely to be found in towns and cities. They prefer what psychologists call a <a href="http://aglenn.people.ua.edu/uploads/1/4/1/8/14182546/glenn_avb_2011.pdf">“fast life history strategy”</a>. That is, they focus on increasing their short-term mating opportunities and number of sexual partners rather than investing a lot of effort in long-term mating, parenthood and life stability. This strategy is linked to increased risk taking and selfishness. Also, cities offer psychopaths better opportunities for finding people to manipulate. They also offer greater anonymity and hence a reduced risk of being detected. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239006/original/file-20181002-85617-49e8zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Psychopaths like high stakes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/583864891?src=M58xPBBaFUjdd_hMPUw4Gw-1-5&size=medium_jpg">F8 studio/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>4. <strong>Female psychopaths are somewhat different.</strong> Although male and female psychopaths are similar in many ways, some studies have found differences. For example, female psychopaths appear to more prone to <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/pedi_2016_30_237">anxiety, emotional problems and promiscuity</a> than male psychopaths. </p>
<p>Some psychologists argue that female psychopathy is sometimes diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, instead – characterised by poorly regulated emotions, impulsive reactions and outbursts of anger. This might explain why most studies show that rates of psychopathy are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19042020">lower in females</a>.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://conference.unizd.hr/ecp19/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/07/Program.pdf">latest research</a> shows that female psychopaths seem to prefer to date non-psychopathic men in the short-term, perhaps as a plaything or to allow easy deception and manipulation. But for long-term relationships, a female psychopath will be looking for a fellow psychopath. Eventually, birds of a feather, flock together.</p>
<p>5. <strong>Psychopaths do have feelings … well, some feelings.</strong> While psychopaths show a specific lack in emotions, such as anxiety, fear and sadness, they can feel other emotions, such as happiness, joy, surprise and disgust, in a similar way as most of us would. So while they may struggle to recognise fearful or sad faces and are less responsive to threats and punishments, they can identify happy faces and they do respond positively when getting rewarded. </p>
<p>However, while winning a fiver might make you happy, a psychopath would need a bigger reward to perk them up. In other words, they can feel happy and motivated if the rewards are high enough. Of course, they can also get angry, especially in response to provocation, or get frustrated when their goals are thwarted. So Villanelle is right, to some extent. You can hurt a psychopath’s feelings, but probably different feelings and for different reasons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103865/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadja Heym does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Villanelle may be a psychopath, but she doesn’t represent most psychopaths.Nadja Heym, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/961732018-05-08T20:22:36Z2018-05-08T20:22:36ZThe preferred jobs of serial killers and psychopaths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218671/original/file-20180512-184630-j6ffcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">blank</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The recent and startling arrest of the elusive <a href="http://people.com/crime/golden-state-killer-behind-investigation-arrest/">Golden State Killer</a>, aka the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Diamond Knot Killer/Visalia Ransacker in what was arguably the most vexing and disturbing constellation of interlinked cold cases in American history, has raised more questions than answers. </p>
<p>One question is how a serial burglar, rapist and murderer could operate in so many jurisdictions simultaneously and, much like <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-bernardo-and-karla-homolka-case/">the case of Paul Bernardo</a> in Canada, have law enforcement officials so myopically overlook the connections among his crimes in several different cities.</p>
<p>Another question is, of course, how a police officer like <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5688023/Judge-OKs-taking-DNA-photos-Golden-State-Killer-suspect.html">Joseph DeAngelo</a>, the accused Golden State Killer who makes his next court appearance on May 14, could be capable of such sadistic brutality throughout a large portion of his brief and troubled law enforcement career. </p>
<p>Similar questions have been raised in the past about other serial offenders, killers whose innocuous and even virtuous jobs seemed to belie the horrors they committed while hiding behind a veneer of respectability. That includes the infamous Canadian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/that-one-time-a-canadian-air-force-pilot-who-was-also-a-serial-killer-flew-queen-elizabeth-2015-9">Col. Russell Williams</a> (who once piloted a VIP aircraft whose passengers included Queen Elizabeth) to lesser-known computer store owner and prominent Nashville businessman <a href="https://casetext.com/case/state-v-steeples">Tom Steeples</a>, who killed three people for thrills before committing suicide while in police custody. </p>
<p>But in fact, occupations and serial murders are often linked, and some specific full-time and part-time jobs are strangely over-represented among serial killers. So much so, in fact, that over the last 50 years, some dominant patterns have emerged. </p>
<p>As detailed in my recent book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551497/murder-in-plain-english-by-michael-arntfield-and-marcel-danesi/9781633882539/"><em>Murder in Plain English</em>,</a> these same occupations are commonly broken down into four categories based on skill, training and turnover. Some of them might surprise you, others not.</p>
<h2>Serial killer job breakdown</h2>
<p><strong>—</strong> Top 3 Skilled Serial-Killer Occupations: 1. Aircraft machinist/assembler; 2. Shoemaker/repair person; 3. Automobile upholsterer</p>
<p><strong>—</strong> Top 3 Semi-Skilled Serial Killer Occupations: 1. Forestry worker/arborist; 2. Truck driver; 3. Warehouse manager </p>
<p><strong>—</strong> Top 3 Unskilled Serial Killer Occupations: 1. General labourer (mover, landscaper, et. al.); 2. Hotel porter; 3. Gas station attendant</p>
<p><strong>—</strong> Top 3 Professional/Government Serial Killer Occupations: 1. Police/security official; 2. Military personnel; 3. Religious official </p>
<p>Obviously, not everyone occupying these jobs is a serial killer, nor are they likely to become one.</p>
<p>But there’s something about these jobs that is inherently appealing to offenders, or that otherwise cultivates the impulses of serial killers-in-waiting and causes them to be curiously over-represented among this rare breed of murderer. </p>
<p>DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer, for instance, actually held down three of these jobs over the course of his lifetime: Police officer, military personnel (he was previously in the U.S. navy), and, peripherally, truck driver, although his post-police career (he was fired in 1979 for shoplifting) was spent mostly as a mechanic for a fleet of grocery store freezer trucks. </p>
<h2>Bygone era</h2>
<p>A closer look at the these occupations reveals a bygone era in terms of available jobs — occupations that, while once common and accessible to killers in the ‘60s, '70s and '80s —are now largely obsolete. The job market is changing; with that, so is the disturbing but legitimate nexus between murder and labour. </p>
<p>The shift toward a service-based, tech-driven and typically contractual economy, what is often called <a href="https://www.laborrights.org/issues/precarious-work">precarious work</a>, along with the disappearance of once traditional career paths will obviously have profound effects not only on the jobs held by offenders but also how they acquire their victims. </p>
<p>As discussed in my forthcoming book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Monster-City-Murder-Mayhem-Nashvilles/dp/1503952886"><em>Monster City</em></a>, there was a precipitous surge in serial murder in Nashville with the rise of the “new” country music scene in the '80s and '90s, giving would-be killers access to new victims. </p>
<p>Serial killers once used the guise of their employment to stalk and acquire specific victims or types of victims (<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/btk-serial-killer-inside-confessional-new-book-w439143">Dennis Rader</a>, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/29/local/la-me-i-5-strangler-20110629">Roger Kibbe</a> and <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-07-18/news/0707170835_1_truck-arrest-town">Bruce Mendenhall</a> all immediately come to mind). But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01490400.2017.1384941">new research</a> suggests that leisure activities like music, including online interactions, may be the new avenue through which serial killers troll for their victims.</p>
<p>It’s also where they mentally rehearse their crimes amid a shrinking offline public sphere and work world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217791/original/file-20180504-166890-wuilpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this artist’s sketch, alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur makes an appearance via video in a Toronto courtroom in April 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The result is that we are likely to see, returning once again to alleged Toronto serial killer <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/alleged-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur-s-latest-victim-came-to-canada-on-mv-sun-sea-to-protect-his-life-1.4622216">Bruce McArthur</a>, blurred occupational-recreational categories involving both online and offline dimensions — a new paradigm that will force us to adjust the list of the most common jobs among serial killers. </p>
<p>The caveat, of course, is that a single defining occupation is in continuous flux. Could “occupation,” for instance, denote a primary vocation, a part-time avocation or even just a paid hobby or pastime? </p>
<h2>Pastimes as well as professions?</h2>
<p>Might it also include an unpaid pastime by which a person defines himself or herself? </p>
<p>A quick perusal of top LinkedIn “influencers” and “open networkers,” for example, suggests many people actually list their passions or pastimes and not their paid jobs as their primary occupation.</p>
<p>In McArthur’s case, we see that while he conforms to the “general labourer” category, as a landscaper and not just a grass-cutter, as well as the owner of his own company, he also fits no clear vocational definition. </p>
<p>And yet, as we already know from the morbid mass grave recovered from a client’s home on Mallory Crescent in Toronto, the occupation of the accused was central to his alleged offences and how he reportedly disposed of victims — it was integral to his apparent modus operandi. </p>
<p>So while many killers use their employment as a pretext to acquire vulnerable victims, obtain information or cultivate violent fantasies for reasons we still don’t fully understand (“Milwaukee Cannibal” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/18/us/15-life-terms-and-no-parole-for-dahmer.html">Jeffrey Dahmer</a> once admitted that his work as a chocolate factory machinist awakened homicidal and necrophilic urges he had otherwise suppressed), in McArthur’s case, occupation was the back-end to his alleged crimes, not the inspiration for them.</p>
<h2>What about the psychopaths?</h2>
<p>As we begin to redraw the map of serial murder and career paths, it might also be useful to look at the otherwise better-known index of occupations over-represented among psychopaths. </p>
<p>While not all psychopaths are serial killers, psychopathy — or at the very least, the possession of psychopathic traits — is a common denominator among serial killers, sex offenders and most violent criminals. Have a look at the Top 10 occupations <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/these-10-jobs-attract-the-most-psychopaths-a6692656.html">according to an Oxford University psychologist</a>:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>CEO or business executive</p></li>
<li><p>Lawyer</p></li>
<li><p>Media personality</p></li>
<li><p>Salesperson</p></li>
<li><p>Surgeon</p></li>
<li><p>Journalist or news anchor</p></li>
<li><p>Police officer</p></li>
<li><p>Religious official</p></li>
<li><p>Chef</p></li>
<li><p>Miscellaneous civil servant (military, city council, corrections, etc.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In overlaying the two lists, we can see that even amid a perpetually changing economy, certain jobs are always likely to appeal to those people we will later be stunned to learn managed to carry on that type of work while also being monsters in our midst. </p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published May 8, 2018. The earlier story described Bruce McArthur as a landscape architect instead of a landscaper.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Arntfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The arrest of former cop Joseph DeAngelo in the Golden State Killer case raises questions about the common occupations of killers and psychopaths. Canada’s Russell Williams was a former military officer.Michael Arntfield, Associate Professor of Criminology & English Literature, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875212018-01-28T18:08:03Z2018-01-28T18:08:03ZWhy the difficult person at work probably isn’t a psychopath<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203343/original/file-20180124-107974-1fdpuus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our workplace and work processes may be contributing to stress and bad behaviour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As workplaces become <a href="https://www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/mental-injury">increasingly</a> difficult and damaging environments, there are plenty of <a href="https://hbr.org/product/how-to-work-with-toxic-colleagues-hbr-onpoint-magazine/OPFA16-MAG-ENG">articles</a> and <a href="http://sweetpoison.shop033.com/p/9265127/taming-toxic-people.html">books</a> on dealing with “psychopaths” among your colleagues. </p>
<p>But psychopathy is <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201610/diagnosing-psychopathy">heavily contested</a> as a diagnostic category. And labelling a coworker a psychopath fails to account for how our workplaces can encourage bad behaviour.</p>
<p>From an “<a href="https://alwaysonculture.wordpress.com/">always on</a>” work culture to badly designed work practices, there are many reasons why a colleague could be behaving badly. This is partly why clinicians are <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2016/08/the-goldwater-rule">prohibited</a> from diagnosing someone from afar - there may be many other factors influencing the behaviour.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/psychopaths-versus-sociopaths-what-is-the-difference-45047">Psychopaths versus sociopaths: what is the difference?</a>
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<p>The research on criminal psychopathy is <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4692">based on thousands of cases</a> and involves statistical prediction of future actions based on these cases. The <a href="https://hbr.org/product/how-to-work-with-toxic-colleagues-hbr-onpoint-magazine/OPFA16-MAG-ENG">articles</a> that set out how to tell if your boss is a psychopath simply do not have the same evidence base. </p>
<p>Of the <a href="http://www.hare.org/scales/pclr.html">20 criteria</a> used to assess criminal psychopathy, many do not translate to the workplace (<a href="http://www.hogrefe.co.uk/psychopathic-personality-inventory-revised-ppi-r.html">other measures</a> have not been tested in work environments either). </p>
<h2>What about the workplace?</h2>
<p>As we have seen in recent sexual harassment scandals in <a href="https://theconversation.com/targeting-hidden-roots-of-workplace-harassment-is-key-to-fulfilling-oprahs-promise-to-girls-89908">media</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/taxpayers-are-subsidizing-hush-money-for-sexual-harassment-and-assault-86451">politics</a>, when workplaces don’t punish employees for unacceptable or harmful behaviour <a href="https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/docs/default-source/publications/research-paper/antecedents-and-processes-of-professional-misconduct-in-uk-health-and-social-care.pdf?sfvrsn=8">it gives tacit permission</a>, in effect encouraging it to continue.</p>
<p>Individuals behaving badly are often oblivious to the impact they are having, and so without proper sanctions and containment remain unaware of the need to self-correct. But there are also specific aspects of our workplaces that may contribute to such problematic behaviour.</p>
<p>People’s personalities <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/01/09/new-insights-into-lifetime-personality-change-from-meta-study-featuring-50000-participants/">aren’t fixed</a>, which means that some human resources tools, such as testing for “<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/emotional-intelligence">emotional intelligence</a>” (also known as EQ), may actually incentivise people to become more skilful at manipulating others’ emotions.</p>
<p>If someone is hired or promoted because they are very good at impression management and manipulation, they are likely to be very effective at making their managers believe they are doing a good job while also bullying their peers and subordinates.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/emotionally-intelligent-employees-may-come-with-a-dark-side-manipulation-55942">Emotionally intelligent employees may come with a dark side – manipulation</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/good-work-design">Badly designed</a> workplaces, including excessive demands, poor physical environment, unfair practices and a lack of social support, <a href="https://workfamily.sas.upenn.edu/wfrn-repo/object/pt3yu38m2ae8vj2t">can produce</a> stress in employees.</p>
<p>For example, ill-conceived human resources processes, including performance management, <a href="http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/competitive-hr-practices-good-incentive-or-a-poisoned-chalice">can undermine</a> social relations. </p>
<p>As a result, coworkers’ coping strategies (including changing the way we think about a situation, using humour, or focusing on solving problems) <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1986-19792-001">become overwhelmed</a>. This leaves them less able to attend to the day-to-day normal pressures of work, and to regulate their own social behaviours effectively. </p>
<p>In other words, bad behaviour in the workplace could be linked to fatigue, rather than to an aspect of a person’s character. </p>
<p>Distress caused by difficult social contexts <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5534210">can also lead to “dissociation”</a>. Dissociation is a self-protective mechanism that enables people to cut themselves off from their feelings of distress. But it can be experienced by others as coldness or a lack of empathy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-others-feelings-what-is-empathy-and-why-do-we-need-it-68494">Understanding others' feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?</a>
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<p>Instead of miscategorising these distressed people as psychopathic, we need to <a href="https://www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/mental-injury">better understand and recognise</a> early indicators of reactions that need care.</p>
<p>To be accurately used in a workplace, the term “psychopathy” would require collecting data on thousands of cases of employees and examining variables that predict, for example, bullying, harassment, fraud, and other counterproductive work behaviours. This research <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.925/abstract">does exist</a>, but it is preliminary and needs replication with much larger samples.</p>
<p>But more profoundly, this distracts us from what we should be doing: making our workplaces better places to be. This will come from careful attention to the way that structures and practices feed unfairness and bring out the worst in us. </p>
<p>Instead of developing new ways of scapegoating each other with psychological concepts, we need to create environments that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29274614">take care of our need to belong</a> and <a href="https://www.whatworkswellbeing.org/">to be appreciated</a> for our contributions.</p>
<p>And finally, if you are really drawn to labelling a colleague a psychopath, you should perhaps also consider the question “is it me?”. There is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167214529800">substantial psychological evidence</a> that judgement about the actions of others are usually harsher than our judgement of our own actions - even when they are the same actions. </p>
<p>Labelling someone a psychopath makes the issue about the individual, rather than focusing on what the organisational factors are that are contributing to the behaviour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Wilde has written representing both the British Psychological Society and Council for Work and Health - in a voluntary capacity so no financial interest. Both invested in the creation of healthy workplaces which is aligned with the theme of the article currently in production.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katarina Fritzon and Rosalind Searle do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s tempting to think that difficult coworker might be a psychopath, but this just distracts us from the difficult work of making our workplaces better places to be.Katarina Fritzon, Associate Professor of Psychology, Bond UniversityJoanna Wilde, Industrial Fellowship, Aston UniversityRosalind Searle, Professor of HRM and organisational Psychology, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/842002017-10-31T00:46:33Z2017-10-31T00:46:33ZWomen can be psychopaths too, in ways more subtle but just as dangerous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189706/original/file-20171011-2024-wfpf1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Behavioural differences in female psychopaths could cause them to slip under society’s radar.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hear the word psychopath and most of us think of violent, dominant men. There are lots of male psychopathic monsters from movies to illustrate this point. Think Alex in A Clockwork Orange, or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.</p>
<p>But we do have some female examples: Annie Wilkes in Misery, and who could forget Alex Forrest’s bunny-boiling character in Fatal Attraction? These frightening fictional femme fatales stay with us – I’ve heard the term “bunny boiler” used to signify a woman behaving irrationally and violently – but they are unusual. We largely expect psychopaths to be men.</p>
<p>Research indicates <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14999013.2014.951105">there are likely</a> to be fewer female psychopaths than male. This may well be true. However, a compounding factor leading to the underestimation of the true occurrence rate of psychopathy in women could be behavioural differences that cause them to slip under society’s radar. This is important to acknowledge as female psychopaths can be just as dangerous as their male counterparts.</p>
<h2>What is psychopathy?</h2>
<p>Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterised by a number of abnormal behavioural traits and emotional responses. These include lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, and being manipulative and deceitful. People with psychopathy are often irresponsible and have a disregard for laws or social conventions.</p>
<p>Psychopaths often get away with these behaviours because they can be superficially quite charming. They are true observers of human behaviour, often <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-015-0012-x">being able to mimic</a> love, fear, remorse and other emotions well enough to go undetected. </p>
<p>Current thinking suggests psychopaths’ behaviour patterns result from variations in the structure of their brains at birth. A <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705123121.htm">recent study</a> from Harvard University indicated their brains are wired in a way that can lead to violent or dangerous actions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191563/original/file-20171024-20397-1yt8qwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Psychopaths, like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, are keen observers of the human condition and can mimic normal behaviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/mediaviewer/rm1804592384">Am Psycho Productions Edward R. Pressman Film Lions Gate Films, Muse Productions, P.P.S. Films, Quadra Entertainment, Universal Pictures</a></span>
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<p>Researchers used MRI scans to determine if activity and connections between areas of the brain associated with impulsivity and assessing the value of choices differed between those who scored highly for psychopathy and those who didn’t. The scans showed psychopaths make more short-sighted, impulsive decisions based on short-term gain, when compared to non-psychopaths, and that it is the structure of their brains that leads them to make these kinds of poor decisions. </p>
<p>Add this to their lack of empathy and it means if violence or dangerous behaviour will help a psychopath achieve a short-term goal, that is the path they will take. There is also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933872/">evidence genetics</a> are at least partly responsible for the development of psychopathic traits. In essence, psychopaths are born, not made.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/psychopaths-versus-sociopaths-what-is-the-difference-45047">Psychopaths versus sociopaths: what is the difference?</a>
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<h2>Case studies</h2>
<p>Certain case studies show how women psychopaths present in the real world. “Amy” is a 20-year-old female <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14999013.2012.746755">serving a life sentence</a> for murder. She has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder with psychopathic traits. </p>
<p>Amy fits the description of having extreme psychopathic tendencies. She was showing antisocial behaviour in her teens, including running away from home and engaging in substance abuse. Before her conviction for murder, Amy had numerous convictions for fraud and assault. </p>
<p>The authors who assessed her case described Amy as deceitful and boastful, with a strong sense of self-entitlement. She was also described as having an extreme lack of empathy and remorse, while taking no responsibility for her actions. </p>
<p>Amy is physically and verbally violent to those around her, preying on vulnerable prisoners through bullying behaviours. Perhaps most striking is that Amy is noted to be very domineering, predominantly seeking power and control over others, sometimes using sexual charm to get what she wants. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191565/original/file-20171024-30565-1mnafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Female psychopaths seem to be more hidden than their male counterparts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<h2>Female psychopaths</h2>
<p>Research, limited though it is, suggests female psychopaths are manipulative and controlling, cunning, deceitful, don’t take responsibility for their actions, are exploitative and, of course, they lack empathy. Studies of incarcerated women suggest psychopathic females <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14999013.2014.951105">commit crimes at a younger age</a> compared to women without psychopathic traits. </p>
<p>They can have a history of being bullied and their behavioural traits <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-00292-006">tend to develop</a> (or at least express themselves) in their teenage years.</p>
<p>Female psychopaths commit crimes across multiple categories – robbery, drug crimes, assault. Other female inmates largely have only one offence type in their history. And psychopathic offenders’ crimes are more often motivated by power, dominance or personal gain than for non-psychopathic females. Female psychopaths are also <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-00292-006">more likely</a> to repeat-offend than those without psychopathic tendencies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-others-feelings-what-is-empathy-and-why-do-we-need-it-68494">Understanding others' feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?</a>
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<p>Many of these traits apply to male psychopaths too. But there are differences. In terms of occurrence rates, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3379858/">studies show</a> female inmates with psychopathy make up 11-17% of the overall prison population, compared to their male counterparts at 25-30%. </p>
<p>This may be because female psychopaths are likely to be more <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14999013.2014.951105">relationally or verbally aggressive</a> than physically violent, and therefore commit less violent crimes than male psychopaths. This might help explain the initially surprising fact that women with psychopathy are found to be less likely to commit murder than non-psychopathic women.</p>
<p>Female psychopaths can also be <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LSiBsdxcGigC&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=hare+parasitic+lifestyle&source=bl&ots=noR2Be9f-V&sig=5eueM48iI3ssLNgQk_yK0F62HOc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ2dTB3oXXAhXEX5QKHemFDqEQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=hare%20parasitic%20lifestyle&f=false">jealous and parasitic</a>, meaning they feel entitled to live off other people, using threat and coercion to get support. </p>
<p>So, while female psychopaths are not all like Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction, they certainly exist and can be as violent, cunning and calculated as their male counterparts. But they more often express their psychopathy in more covert and manipulative ways, meaning their true natures are rarely identified.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xanthe Mallett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While research indicates there are likely to be fewer female psychopaths than male, this may be because their traits are less visible than their male counterparts.Xanthe Mallett, Forensic Criminologist, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/704162017-01-11T19:53:09Z2017-01-11T19:53:09ZThere is no silver bullet to stop fraudsters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151355/original/image-20161222-30950-1te0r85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What does a fraudster look like?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=404">common stereotype</a> of fraudsters is that they are psychopaths. That fraudsters are considered manipulative, callous and remorseless is understandable, considering the consequences of fraud. </p>
<p>But these traits are not necessarily typical. Different people commit different types of fraud in different circumstances.</p>
<p>I reviewed decisions handed down in fraud trials and found that some fraudsters were completely remorseful, some were partly remorseful and others showed no remorse at all. Several fraudsters I interviewed described distress at violating their morals. One fraudster spoke of his regret at causing harm to his victims. </p>
<p>False stereotypes of who fraudsters are, and why they do what they do, could lead us to go after the wrong people.</p>
<h2>Stereotypes aren’t helping</h2>
<p>That the “typical” fraudster is a middle-aged male manager <a href="http://www.ub.unibas.ch/digi/a125/sachdok/2011/BAU_1_5663361.pdf">is another stereotype</a>. But this does not explain two of the largest frauds by individuals in Australian history, both committed by women – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-10/accountant-jailed-for-27staggering27-2445m-fraud/3822932">Rajina Subramaniam</a> (A$45 million) and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/business/clive-peeters-left-reeling-by-20m-sting-20090811-egz2.html">Sonya Causer</a> ($20 million). </p>
<p>Theories about fraud offer little help in predicting fraudsters. The dominant theory, <a href="http://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-the-fraud-triangle">The Fraud Triangle</a>, presents fraud as comprising motive, opportunity and a justification. </p>
<p>But it says nothing about who will have both a motive for fraud <em>and</em> decide to commit fraud.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152052/original/image-20170108-18659-1uk63h0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Fraud Triangle and Diamond.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>An adaptation of The Fraud Triangle, <a href="http://www.jmu.edu/audit/wm_library/HyderFraud_Diamond.pdf">The Fraud Diamond</a>, adds an extra element – capability. The rationale is that some level of capability is needed to identify and exploit an opportunity for fraud. </p>
<p>But, as I will explain later, this also is too simplistic. </p>
<h2>How to spot a fraudster</h2>
<p>Opinions differ on whether fraudsters are different from the rest of us and, if so, what makes them different. Some fraudsters who offend to protect their employers are <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2006.00226.x/abstract">highly conscientious, irresponsible and lack regard for social norms</a>. In contrast, fraudsters who offend for their own benefit have been found to be <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00875.x/abstract">narcissistic and lacking conscientiousness</a>.</p>
<p>Some fraudsters have gambling addictions, but not all addicts commit fraud. <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10611-008-9113-9">Some researchers</a> question whether gambling may sometimes be an excuse rather than a reason for fraud. </p>
<p>One of the fraudsters I interviewed described feeling desperate to provide for his family after some investments went bad. He said his shame about his crimes would prevent him from re-offending. Another said he would not re-offend because the risk of a criminal record could prevent him from providing for a family if he had one in future. </p>
<p>The varied results from all this research show the folly in picking just one metric to try to identify a fraudster. Organisations that screen using only criminal records, for example, may wind up hiring more risky, rather than less risky, employees.</p>
<p>Anyway, <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/cfi-pdf/cfi052.pdf">most employees</a> convicted of fraud do not have prior criminal records and may never re-offend.</p>
<p>Career fraudsters may not show up in a criminal records check. Some are smart or lucky enough not to be convicted, charged, or even caught. Previous employers may not realise they have been victimised. Employers may also decide not to involve the authorities to avoid bad publicity.</p>
<h2>So what do you do?</h2>
<p>So how do organisations predict which employees might commit fraud when there is <a href="http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:18331;jsessionid=AE5EC64AE15A7442E25E37C0AE5CE252?exact=sm_creator%3A%22Fitness%2C+Julie%22&f0=sm_subject%3A%22integrity+tests%22">no reliable psychological test</a> to screen them? </p>
<p>Employers need to start by avoiding what psychologists call a fundamental attribution error – focusing on characteristics of individuals while ignoring the effect of environment on their behaviour. This means that to predict who is likely to commit fraud, we need to understand the effect of fraudsters’ environments.</p>
<p>I have created a model to explain how different factors, involving both the potential fraudster and their wider context, may influence different stages of fraud in different ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152054/original/image-20170108-18641-bznfwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The person-process model.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As you can see, there is no one thing we can point to that leads to fraud. </p>
<p>To illustrate the model using the capability element of The Fraud Diamond, an incompetent manager may start falsifying financial statements to disguise his or her mistakes. A lack of capability is no barrier if organisations have poor accounting controls. A smart fraudster may steal more money over a longer period than a less capable fraudster. He or she may also avoid detection altogether.</p>
<p>There is no silver bullet to stop fraudsters. Predicting who is likely to commit which type of fraud under which circumstances would involve comparing a lot of people in the same circumstances who offend and
with those who don’t. But we don’t yet have the data to do this.</p>
<p>If employers want researchers to tell them which employees are likely to commit fraud, they need to help by reporting fraudsters to the authorities instead of sweeping their offences under the carpet. Researchers need to understand that someone who steals repeatedly may have more in common with a kleptomaniac than a serial killer.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we all need to consider that someone who steals to pay for medical treatment for a dying relative may have little in common with a billionaire Ponzi scheme operator.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What are fraudsters really like? Are they all psychopaths? To fight fraud we need an accurate picture of who commits these offences.Jennifer Wilson, Combined PhD / Master of Organisational Psychology candidate, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/665822016-11-22T13:27:11Z2016-11-22T13:27:11ZWhat makes a criminal? Friends, parents – and their failings – play a big part<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144471/original/image-20161103-25353-1tzep3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/170000/velka/hands-in-handcuffs-1462608525wfO.jpg">Google Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most of us, the fear of punishment or social rejection keeps us from behaviour deemed unacceptable and prevents us from committing crimes. But how many would transgress if they knew they could get away with it? </p>
<p>According to psychologist Albert Bandura’s <a href="https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Health%20Communication/Social_cognitive_theory/">social cognitive theory</a>, not that many. This is because as children we have absorbed our society’s standards of conduct, which serve as internalised moral restraints for the rest of our lives. This means that antisocial or criminal behaviour would lead to feelings of guilt, shame and lowered self-esteem. However, there are some who learn strategies to neutralise their moral compass, and it is these people who may pose risks to society in later life.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2016/03/moral-disengagement.aspx">moral disengagement</a> – the process of convincing oneself that ethical standards do not apply in some contexts – allows us to rationalise criminal acts or those that harm others. Research has found that moral disengagement can lead to antisocial conduct and greater aggression by <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/47/6/1619/">reducing sociable behaviour and feelings of guilt</a>. Interestingly, it has also been suggested that moral disengagement is greater in individuals with heightened psychopathic traits – those people who are especially unable to empathise with others.</p>
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<h2>The making of them</h2>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JCP-11-2014-0016">empirical study</a> of serious juvenile offenders, my colleagues and I reported that those with increased levels of psychopathic traits also tended to be those who demonstrated moral disengagement. The most prominent predictor of moral disengagement was a dimension of psychopathy that refers to emotional deficits such as shallow affect, lack of empathy, and being manipulative. </p>
<p>But how do people develop this higher level of moral disengagement and psychopathic traits in the first place? These traits are associated with being a witness to violence and being a member of a gang, for example. What this suggests is that exposure to a violent and anti-social environment as a child or young adult may lead youths on a path that hardens into an attitude and way of reasoning that is morally lax. It also appears that for some children victimisation may result in the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-008-9196-z">belief that violence is morally acceptable</a>.</p>
<p>The influence of the environment on reasoning and the subsequent development of a criminal social identity is an interesting issue. Professor Daniel Boduszek at the University of Huddersfield introduced the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2016.1167433?journalCode=udbh20">Integrated Psychosocial Model of Criminal Social Identity</a>, a model which attempts to express the role of psychological and social factors in the process that turns people towards criminal behaviour. The argument is that social identity is based on group membership, which provides a person with a sense of belonging in our social world. Group membership is also crucial for maintaining positive self-image, and this is one of the reasons we form relationships and friendships.</p>
<p>A group in which criminal or aggressive behaviour is common may provide an alternative identity for those adolescents who have been rejected by their family or more well-behaved peers. Feelings of anger, frustration and hostility that are the result of peer rejection may be further intensified by destructive or problematic parents, or insufficient parental supervision. Consequently, the bonds that form among those in a gang or criminal social group fill the emotional void, increasing the individuals’ sense of positive self-identity. A lack of parental affection can be dangerous for another reason, because it can impede the development of emotions such as guilt and empathy that are required to make moral judgements. This leads to a reduced motivation to behave well.</p>
<h2>Nature, nurture</h2>
<p>Building on research findings, the key appears to be educational programmes that steer youths away from antisocial peers, such as positive action programmes developed to <a href="http://www.eif.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Final-R2-WW-Prevent-Gang-Youth-Violence-final.pdf">encourage pro-social behaviour among children</a>. We also need to change attitudes among those young people who have already developed antisocial tendencies. For example, the <a href="http://www.noneinthree.org/index.html">None in Three</a> EU-funded project, headed by Professor Adele Jones at the University of Huddersfield, aims to prevent violence against women by giving children a specially designed pro-social video game with an implicit message that such violence is unacceptable. </p>
<p>What is needed are more strategies that can help recognise children who lack this emotional attachment to their parents or peers, who therefore have an increased need for acceptance from outside the home and may seek and find it among criminal networks. Early intervention is key, because such “neediness” is readily exploited by organised gangs, which offer a sense of belonging and an immediate boost to self-esteem.</p>
<p>Finally, some parents may not be affectionate towards their children because they don’t know how to express love. They themselves may come from families in which emotions were sparsely communicated. These parents will benefit from parenting skills workshops, which would equip them with the techniques for improving communication and building positive relationships with their children. </p>
<p>If we are to break the intergenerational cycle of crime and violence, it’s vital that we target both children and parents in an effort to reduce the emotional pain that can sow the seeds of criminality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agata Debowska does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some youths find in gangs the love and social standing that’s missing in their home lives.Agata Debowska, Research Psychologist, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667812016-10-12T19:08:09Z2016-10-12T19:08:09ZNo, enjoying a gin and tonic doesn’t mean you’re a psychopath<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141359/original/image-20161012-8415-16ro0ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't feel bitter, but that story you read about gin was probably wrong.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Igor Normann/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was looking at Facebook one evening last week when my attention was captured by the headline “<a href="http://thetab.com/uk/2016/09/05/gin-lovers-psycopaths-17675">Gin lovers are all massive psychopaths, according to experts</a>” – a somewhat disconcerting thing to read as I sipped the gin and tonic I had in my hand at the time. </p>
<p>As someone whose propensity to empathise with others has seen me spend entire evenings crying over the plight of movie characters, psychopathy has never made its way onto my list of self-diagnoses.</p>
<p>I instantly felt compelled to learn more about how a penchant for gin had become the new diagnostic tool to detect a <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychopaths-versus-sociopaths-what-is-the-difference-45047">psychopath</a>. The short story is, it hasn’t. </p>
<p>I determined this reasonably efficiently. A search for the word “gin” in the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315300428">research paper</a> that prompted this news story produced a grand total of zero hits.</p>
<p>It’s therefore rather concerning that this paper has spawned a huge number of popular articles all reporting this non-existent link, such as <a href="http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/Gin-psychopath-test-alcohol-tonic-drink-truth-personality-favourite-beverage">this one that has been shared on Facebook nearly 300,000 times</a>. </p>
<p>Depending on what you read, if you’re partial to a gin and tonic you are either <a href="http://thetab.com/uk/2016/09/05/gin-lovers-psycopaths-17675">a psychopath</a>, or slightly more generously, <a href="http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/drinks/news/a7758/gin-psychopath-study/">a possible psychopath</a>. </p>
<p>Other stories have cast the net a bit wider, branding <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/14/coffee-psychopathy-study_n_8296076.html">coffee</a> and <a href="http://vinepair.com/booze-news/if-you-are-a-fan-of-ipa-science-says-youre-more-likely-to-by-psychotic/">beer</a> drinkers as potential psychopaths too – which, if you think about it, would make society a pretty scary place. </p>
<h2>Booze news</h2>
<p>These news stories are misreported accounts of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315300428">research</a> from the University of Innsbruck. Across two studies, the researchers investigated the relationship between bitter taste preferences and various antisocial personality traits, including psychopathy.</p>
<p>While many tend to think of it as a disorder that afflicts only the most calculating of criminals, psychopathy is also conceptualised as a personality trait that falls along a continuum, with those at the extreme end characterised by superficial charm, callousness, and a lack of empathy.</p>
<p>The researchers measured psychopathy using a <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/227057/The_Dirty_Dozen_A_Concise_Measure_of_the_Dark_Triad.pdf">brief personality measure</a> that assesses three socially undesirable personality traits: psychopathy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-becoming-so-narcissistic-heres-the-science-55773">narcissism</a>, and Machiavellianism – collectively known as the “<a href="http://members.shaw.ca/ssucur/materials/02_selected_notes/06_tempest/03_PaulhusWilliams.pdf">dark triad</a>”. </p>
<p>Participants indicated their agreement with statements such as “I tend to be callous or insensitive” and “I tend to lack remorse”. Responses were then averaged to create a score for psychopathy and the other traits.</p>
<p>The researchers measured bitter taste preferences in two ways. First, participants were provided with a list of 10 bitter foods and drinks, including coffee, tonic water, beer, radishes and celery, and rated them on a scale from 1 (dislike strongly) to 6 (like strongly). These scores were then averaged to create an overall measure of bitter taste preferences for each person. The researchers also asked participants to rate their liking for bitter foods and drinks in general (as opposed to the specific examples) on the same scale.</p>
<h2>The bitter truth</h2>
<p>The results reported no significant relationship between psychopathy scores and participants’ preference scores for the specific bitter foods and drinks. That is, those with higher psychopathy scores did not display stronger overall liking for the bitter foods and drinks on the list, including tonic water, coffee and beer.</p>
<p>However, there was a weak correlation between psychopathy scores and participants’ scores on their <em>general</em> preference for bitter tastes. So you might say that people at the psychopathic end of the spectrum are slightly more likely to express a preference for eating or drinking bitter things in general. </p>
<p>How on earth do these findings translate to people who drink gin, coffee or beer being probable psychopaths? Quite simply, they don’t. </p>
<p>The study provided no evidence that an individual’s preference for specific bitter drinks like coffee, beer or tonic water (with or without gin) has any relationship with psychopathy. Even if it had, this would fall a long way short of being able to brand anyone who enjoys a G&T as a psychopath. </p>
<p>The only thing this study found was a weak positive relationship between psychopathy and a general penchant for bitter things. In my view, this link is negligible compared with other, more well established predictors of psychopathy, such as a person’s <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/secrets-criminal-mind-adrian-raine/">genes</a> or sex.</p>
<p>If you want to know whether someone is a psychopath, the truth is that most will reveal themselves soon enough, especially if you know the <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-psychopaths-are-criminals-some-psychopathic-traits-are-actually-linked-to-success-51282">telltale signs</a> – which don’t include whether or not they’re brandishing an aperitif.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Willis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Claims that gin lovers are more likely to be psychopaths are just another case of science media misreporting - which should be a tonic to any tipplers who were worried by the news.Megan Willis, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626652016-08-29T01:09:35Z2016-08-29T01:09:35ZHow to tell if your boss is a psychopath – and what to do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133158/original/image-20160804-493-zhiy30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are you setting a good example for others to follow?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being in business calls for a determined if not ruthless mindset, the ability to be confident and in control, and to be forceful, calculating, and a meticulous planner. Attributes that few possess. But there is one category of person that has them in abundance – the psychopath.</p>
<p>Researcher Robert Hare estimates 1% of the general population fits the <a href="http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html">profile</a>, though the percentage of CEOs might be four times that figure.</p>
<p>Oxford University psychologist Kevin Dutton surveyed 5,400 people across a wide range of professions. He compiled a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Psychopaths-Saints-Killers-Success/dp/0374291357/180-6535823-1383726?tag=amznlinkeng-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&linkId=0e55cea8f465840a0d08e8dc53248b4b&redirect=true&ref_=as_li_ss_tl">list of the top 10 jobs</a> ranking highest for psychopathy. Top of the list? <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/04/25/the-disturbing-link-between-psychopathy-and-leadership/#638314fb2740">CEO</a>, followed by lawyer, media personality, salesperson and surgeon. </p>
<p>While psychopathic individuals are more likely than other people to commit crimes, <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-psychopaths-are-criminals-some-psychopathic-traits-are-actually-linked-to-success-51282">most of them manage to live successful lives</a>, their psychopathic personality helping them along the way.</p>
<p>The problem is, it’s the psychopathic boss who makes the culture and sets the tone for the way some organisations go about their business. </p>
<p>Does the boss like to operate <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-traits-of-an-ethical-leader-51181">ethically</a>, or do they skate around in the grey zone between ethical and legal? Or worse, do they like to step over the line into illegality if the risks are low and the benefits outweigh the legal liability? </p>
<p>Those that work for such a boss can sometimes get caught in the trap, so set on not upsetting the boss, they develop a case of “ethical blindness”. These workers are not usually conscious of being unethical, it is simply that management has created an environment in which ethics are not much considered, allowing otherwise decent people to become established in that behaviour. </p>
<p>Put an otherwise good person in a toxic environment, perhaps one created by a psychopathic boss, and that person will find it very difficult to resist the slide into <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/04/ethical-breakdowns">ethical blindness</a> and harmful behaviour.</p>
<h2>What to watch for</h2>
<p>Psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, best known for his <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/">Stanford Prison Experiment</a>, came up with a set of <a href="https://philosaccounting.com/site-map/social-processes-that-expedite-evil-philip-zimbardo/">social processes</a> that “expedite evil”. Reading them is a reminder for how we are all perched at the top of our own slippery slope: </p>
<p><strong>Mindlessly taking the first small step</strong>. Its easy when there is something to be gained and little to lose. Its the “thin edge of the wedge” that creates forward momentum. In business, you might be expected to cut a few corners as an acceptable part of getting the job done. As time goes by, the practice moves beyond “is this the right thing to do” to “can I get away with it?”, a transition that is easily made in a culture of ethical blindness. </p>
<p><strong>Dehumanisation of others</strong>. When tribal “us and them” thinking leads people to see outsiders as sub-human. The blood-soaked history of warfare shows the destructive potential of this thinking. When a boss tells everyone that this is war, that we must “smash the competition”, or “bury them” they are creating a hostile environment in which survival is linked to killing the enemy. </p>
<p><strong>De-individuation of self (anonymity)</strong>. People who mask their identity are more likely to behave in anti-social ways because anonymity gives permission to behave badly. If a worker is an anonymous cog in a machine-like organisation, they feel less than human themselves, and so less governed by human decency. </p>
<p><strong>Diffusion of personal responsibility</strong>. Become swept up in the mob mentality (eg. lynch-mob), and you are capable of almost anything. Thousands of usually law-abiding Londoners became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots">looters</a> and arsonists during the 2011 riots because “everyone else was doing it”. A workplace with “the end justifies the means” culture makes it easy for people to do what everyone else is doing.</p>
<p><strong>Blind obedience to authority</strong>. When an authority figure like the boss orders you to do something it is difficult to refuse, particularly if not complying carries serious consequences. In the past, such disobedience could be fatal. </p>
<p><strong>Uncritical conformity to group norms</strong>. Norms exert a powerful influence over our behaviour, particularly if disobedience or being a nonconformist will get you fired from the organisation. In the evolutionary past, social exclusion was tantamount to death so our instincts are to conform. </p>
<p><strong>Passive tolerance of evil through inaction or indifference</strong>. As Edmund Burke noted, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. You don’t need to be a perpetrator, it’s enough to simply stand passively by. </p>
<h2>Bottom-up leadership</h2>
<p>You can still establish yourself as an ethical person in your own sphere of influence provided the boss is not diabolical. This is a form of bottom-up leadership that sets a good example for others to follow. </p>
<p>When enough spheres of influence overlap, the culture changes. In the end, your best option may be to look for another job and exit gracefully. But don’t underestimate the power of <a href="http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=managementfacpub">collective action</a> to create an ethical workplace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tuffley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Put otherwise good people in an environment created by a psychopathic boss and they could end up with ethical blindness.David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics and Socio-Technical Studies., Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/558942016-04-28T21:52:44Z2016-04-28T21:52:44ZDemolition: a confused film about confusing emotions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120352/original/image-20160427-30953-1oq8nsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fox</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A tragic car accident. Investment banker Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal) emerges from the smash unscathed. His wife Julia (Heather Lind), however, is killed. Davis appears to be totally unable to feel anything about this event. So starts Demolition, a new film that – researcher of emotions as I am – I eagerly went to see.</p>
<p>A rush of telltale signs seems to signal a variety of emotional problems in Davis. These are problems that have occupied psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and social workers throughout the 20th century. I lapped these up, thinking Davis was slowly being revealed as a classic psychopath. An obvious disregard for others. Obsessing with small slights, like his peanut M&Ms failing to drop from a vending machine. Seemingly pointless lies to strangers on the train to work. Pulling the emergency cord of the train to avoid having to give an emotionally significant response. Practising crying in the mirror at his wife’s wake.</p>
<p>At this point I was sure. He admits to never having loved his wife, claiming that marrying her was an easy thing to do. He’s an investment banker, fitting today’s vision of the rich, charming, empathy-free psychopath – think <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/">American Psycho</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120353/original/image-20160427-30982-ut7vaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A banker – surely psychopathic?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fox</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is a psychopath?</h2>
<p>Psychopathy became a prominent issue in Britain and America during the 20th century. The concept was imported to British psychiatry from America by David Kennedy Henderson, an Edinburgh psychiatrist.</p>
<p>Concerns with juvenile delinquency and “anti-social behaviour” brought forward the figure of an easily angered young man, drifting between jobs, with grandiose ideas, a chip on his shoulder and an inability to understand why he wasn’t as successful as he thinks he should be. The Royal Medico-Psychological Association <a href="http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/usefulresources/thecollegearchives.aspx">defined</a> psychopaths in the 1950s as people with a “persistent anti-social mode of conduct” that may include: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Pathological lying swindling and slandering; alcoholism and drug addiction; sexual offences, and violent actions with little motivation and an entire absence of self-restraint, which may go as far as homicide.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The problem with psychopathy as a concept is that it is rather circular. Barbara Wootton, a prominent critic of the term, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Social_science_and_social_pathology.html?id=cvoYAAAAIAAJ">lays it out</a> very clearly: psychopaths are “the model of the circular process by which mental abnormality is inferred from anti-social behaviour, while anti-social behaviour is explained by abnormality”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120030/original/image-20160425-22364-1vielqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jake Gyllenhaal in Demolition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.foxpressofficeuk.com/films/demolition/images/">Twentieth Century Fox Press Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key word in all of this is “social”. Social responsibility and anti-social behaviour. Davis is repeatedly confronted with his father-in-law, the straight-laced, emotionally repressed Phil (Chris Cooper). However much Phil tries to hold in his emotions, he appears on the verge of breaking down. Davis on the other hand, appears completely disengaged. He remarks on the atmosphere of the bar they’re in, right in the middle of Phil’s emotional confession of his pain. This sets up the key contrast: Phil is repressed, while Davis appears to be unable to respond emotionally at all.</p>
<h2>A puzzling twist</h2>
<p>But then my theory is destroyed. Davis begins to connect with a customer service operator named Karen (Naomi Watts), at the vending machine company that owes him the M&Ms. He meets and also connects with her son Chris (Judah Lewis), who is struggling with his sexuality. This part of the film is arguably shot with the most self-conscious symbolism in all of cinema history: Davis smashes up his house with a sledgehammer (in case the audience doesn’t get it he actually refers to this work as “destroying my marriage”). He reconnects with the world, through Karen and Chris. He uncovers emotions when he discovers an unsettling revelation about his late wife.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oijxltsBYGA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>So in the end it isn’t about psychopathy. It’s about shock, or grief, or delayed emotional reactions. Because then all the emotions do come out, and he makes up with his late wife’s family, and funds a carousel for children with special needs in her memory.</p>
<p>There is still something interesting here, despite the saccharine resolution. It’s about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model">having the “right” emotions</a>, in the right contexts, and how difficult this can be. Even in the aftermath of a life-changing event, where all the old certainties have been upended, we must tread a fine line. Grief is fine, but not too much, and not for too long. But not too little either, and don’t be flippant. Emotions and emotional expression come easily for some. What some people feel fits into lots of the right boxes for the particular time and place. But what if you are unable to process your experience in those socially-sanctioned ways?</p>
<p>But I still have doubts. It is implied at points that Davis has never really had the right emotions his whole adult life. Admittedly, he might just be projecting that affective flatness back from his “in-shock” state. But then again, maybe he is empathy free and emotionless and he’s just learned to fake it a little better. Who buys a carousel for emotional closure? Clearly somebody with no idea about human emotional response.</p>
<p>But here are the questions that the film could have explored, but didn’t: how do we deal with people whose emotional responses we don’t understand? Are they ill? Are they bad? Instead, Davis resolves the questions and everything is fine. But we all have points at which our behaviour, or emotional response, or both doesn’t match what others expect. Who gets to decide those expectations, or the consequences when these things don’t match up?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Millard receives funding from the Medical Humanities division of the Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p>How do we deal with people whose emotional responses we don’t understand? Demolition does not have the answers.Chris Millard, Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/501372015-11-04T14:06:24Z2015-11-04T14:06:24ZThe last psychopath: using the brain to root out disorder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100738/original/image-20151104-21232-1of8ugp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eleanor Worthington Cox plays Jessie in Tomcat</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Davenport</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is compulsory for expectant mothers to have their unborn child genetically screened for disabilities or traits considered to be a burden to society. If a genetic “defect” is found, termination is mandatory. Those who refuse to comply face court orders.</p>
<p>This scenario is still science fiction, but for how long?</p>
<p>The subject is tackled in James Rushbrooke’s excellent play, Tomcat, which is currently running at <a href="http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-little/tomcat/">Southwark Playhouse</a> in London. </p>
<p>Twelve-year-old Jessie (Eleanor Worthington Cox) is the protagonist of the play. She is the last human carrying the genetic marker for psychopathy and has been the subject of a research project for ten years. She lives in captivity and is observed by a team of doctors and scientists who want to understand the biological basis of psychopathy. The researchers believe that it is not possible for the environment to save her from her genetic destiny.</p>
<h2>Deleting diversity</h2>
<p>Rushbrooke powerfully portrays a near future in which society has traded freedom and respect for humanity for a “healthy” populace, free of disability and disorders. The play raises the question: if we had the technology to get rid of the traits that cause a burden to society, should we use it? </p>
<p>But what counts as an illness or a disability? And is there a value in conserving disability? </p>
<p>We already have <a href="http://www.hfea.gov.uk/preimplantation-genetic-diagnosis.html">pre-implantation genetic diagnosis</a> that, in the UK, can be used to screen for thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, and other genetic disorders. It can also be used to screen for traits traditionally considered a disability, such as <a href="http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/pgd/">deafness</a>. </p>
<p>More recently, a maternal blood test called <a href="http://www.rapid.nhs.uk/guides-to-nipd-nipt/nipd-for-single-gene-disorders/">non-invasive prenatal diagnosis</a> was developed to test for single gene disorders and is being implemented in the UK. And <a href="http://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/science/crispr">CRISPR-Cas9</a> genome editing techniques may, one day, give clinicians the tools to edit embryos. A group at the Francis Crick Institute has already applied to the regulatory Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-public-must-speak-up-about-gene-editing-beyond-embryo-modification-48623">a licence to use the technology in human embryos</a> in the lab, but clinical applications are still a long way off. </p>
<p>We also have other kinds of technologies that are discussed in the play. For example, brain imaging techniques, such as fMRI (which measures brain activity through changes to blood flow) are starting to reveal the biological basis for conditions such as <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15209063?dopt=Abstract&holding=npg">psychopathy</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2012/may/30/1">body identity integrity disorder</a> by showing the differences in brain scans of people with these conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100741/original/image-20151104-21232-bgxgvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murder in mind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brain imaging has been used <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/464340a.html">in US courts</a> as evidence for psychopathy. In 2008, fMRI evidence was used, for the first time in a US court, to decide the fate of Brian Dugan, a man accused of murdering two children and a woman. An expert witness used evidence from fMRI brain scans (but not the scans themselves) to argue that Dugan should be given life in prison instead of the death penalty because of his condition. The defence argued that psychopathy made him do what he did, as he lacked empathy and was only partially responsible for his acts. But the prosecution argued that fMRI evidence should be used as aggravating circumstances, as psychopathy is not a condition that can be cured. Confining Dugan to a life in prison would only impose a burden on society and could not rehabilitate him, they argued. In any case Dugan was convicted and sentenced to death (<a href="http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/03/passing-thought-today-truly-marks-the-end-of-the-nicarico-murder-case.html">later commuted to life</a>). </p>
<p>More recent applications of brain imaging as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/inverse/neuroscience-and-the-future-of-the-insanity-defense_b_8147946.html">“insanity defense”</a> have prompted discussions of free will and responsibility of action. Court disputes around <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/neuroscience-in-court-the-painful-truth-1.16985">chronic pain cases</a>, which are traditionally been a hot subject because of the suspicion of malingering on the plaintiffs, are also being revolutionised with the introduction of brain imaging as proof of evidence of the conditions. The risk in the use of these technologies as a evidence of a biological underlying cause is a reduction of the individual to a brain or genes. It’s all nature, no nurture.</p>
<h2>A safe society, but at what cost?</h2>
<p>In Tomcat, Jessie echoes some of the arguments made by people with autism spectrum disorders who reject the label of disability and want to be considered “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/diversity/disability/neurodiversityatthebbc">neurodiverse</a>” as their condition determines their identity. </p>
<p>These issues are timely. Disability rights activists have started to <a href="http://www.savingdownsyndrome.org/press-release-otago-university-bioethics-director-must-resign-following-discriminatory-paper-on-down-syndrome/">question the screening tests</a> which would lead to a future free of illnesses and disabilities. Would we relinquish our value of personal freedom for a “healthy” society? What would we lose of our humanity in such a world? Are we slipping towards eugenics with a new wave of biological determinism based on genes and brain scans?</p>
<p>Tomcat prompts reflections of how we think about disability, illness, and identity. As Jessie says: “I don’t want to be me if I can’t be me.” Isn’t this the case for all of us?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Silvia Camporesi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tomcat, a play by James Rushbrooke, portrays a dark future where there is no place for neurodiversity. Is this our future?Silvia Camporesi, Lecturer in Bioethics & Society, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/457012015-08-07T04:29:53Z2015-08-07T04:29:53ZWhy we may never understand the reasons people hunt animals as ‘trophies’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91110/original/image-20150807-9914-125jqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People hunt for many reasons – it's not just for trophies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thekevinchang/5193375145/">Kevin Chang/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>US dentist Walter Palmer caused global outrage this month when he killed Cecil the lion, a local favourite at Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest game reserve. Palmer is <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33787351">thought to have paid US$50,000</a> for killing Cecil, after the lion was lured outside the protection of the park. </p>
<p>But Palmer is not the first such trophy hunter, and he’s unlikely to be the last. In May, Texan hunter Corey Knowlton, who had paid US$350,000 in an auction for a permit, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/19/africa/namibia-rhino-hunt/">killed an endangered black rhino in Namibia</a>, claiming his “hunt” was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a vital component of Namibia’s effort to save the animal from extinction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In November 2013, American TV wildlife presenter <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/melissa-bachman-sparks-outrage-after-2798136">Melissa Bachman sparked international outrage</a> with a Facebook post:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion … What a hunt! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The public spoke, and Bachman was <a href="http://www.thewhig.com/2013/11/20/hardcore-huntress-dropped-by-nat-geo-amid-protests">dropped by the National Geographic Channel</a> from its show Ultimate Survivor Alaska after a petition on Change.org received more than 13,000 signatures in under 24 hours. </p>
<h2>Hurting animals</h2>
<p>Many people hunt and fish for sustenance, which makes some kind of sense, but why do some people enjoy hunting and killing animals for fun? As it happens, there’s little direct research on why adults enjoy killing animals for “sport”. What we do know is that there’s a link between children hurting animals and violence in adulthood. </p>
<p>Since the 1970s, research has shown that the majority of adults who commit violent crimes have <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/why-the-wild-things-are/201302/do-mass-killers-start-out-harming-pets">a history of animal cruelty in childhood</a>. Some studies suggest that up to 70% of the most serious and violent offenders in prison have repeated and severe episodes of animal abuse in their history.</p>
<p>Indeed, cruelty to animals, along with bed-wetting past the age of five and fire-starting, are together known as the “homicidal triad”. This potential indication of violence in adulthood was first suggested by forensic psychiatrist John MacDonald in a <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/ajp.120.2.125">1963 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry</a>.</p>
<p>More recent research shows that while some violent offenders do have all three traits in their past, many do not. Other indicators – such as a lack of empathy and disregard for the needs of others – are <a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/macdonald-triad-do-three-common-childhood-behaviors-predict-serial-killer-243106">often more prevalent in violent offenders</a>. But – and it’s a big one – although all three traits may not show up in all children who grow up to be violent adults, cruelty to animals in children can be a significant sign of a very troubled mind. </p>
<p>Serial killers David Berkowitz (also known as Son of Sam), who killed six people; Jeffrey Dahmer, who raped and murdered 17 men and boys; and Albert DeSalvo (also known as The Boston Strangler), who confessed to killing 13 women but was imprisoned for a series of rapes, all stated animal torture as their first acts of violence. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91112/original/image-20150807-9923-1lkd55t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perhaps hunting large animals is an example of some people’s need to show dominance over others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/679904898/">Randy Robertson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, not every child who intentionally and repeatedly hurts animals will go on to become a killer or sex offender. But early intervention and attempts to understand the cause of such behaviour may well be warranted.</p>
<h2>But ‘trophy hunting’?</h2>
<p>Still, the need to hurt animals that some children feel doesn’t explain why some adults hunt and kill large, and often dangerous, animals that they have no intention of eating. I have searched the psychology literature and, while there’s a lot of conjecture about what it means, the fact that very little research exists to support any assumptions makes reaching an understanding of this behaviour very difficult.</p>
<p>Perhaps hunting large animals is an example of some people’s need to show dominance over others. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175303709X457595#.VcQS9ClfXy8">Research shows</a> increased levels of hostility and a need for power and control are associated with poor attitudes towards animals, among men in particular.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886913002365">Another paper</a> has linked personality traits of some people who hunt for sport to a different “triad” of behaviours, known ominously as the “dark triad”. This includes narcissism (egotistical admiration of one’s own attributes, and a lack of compassion), Machiavellianism (being deceitful, cunning and manipulative) and psychopathy (lack of remorse or empathy, and prone to impulsive behaviour). </p>
<p>It found that, of the three behavioural traits, psychopathy was most closely associated with intentionally harming animals, as was a composite measure of all three traits – although the relationship was pretty weak. </p>
<p>On the face of it, that does fit with the suffering animals often endure at the hands of hunters – it took Cecil 40 hours to die. Palmer initially wounded him with a crossbow. He finally shot him dead almost two days later, before beheading and skinning him. </p>
<p>But not all hunted animals experience prolonged suffering before dying. And there are myriad reasons why people hunt, so how they (and everyone else) feel about the act itself is likely complex. Some people, for instance, enjoy the thrill of the chase (think about fisherman who catch big fish but then release them), others hunt for food and still others for “trophies”.</p>
<p>The problem is that understanding why people hunt for pleasure would require in-depth psychological assessments of a large number of hunters against evaluative measures for a whole range of personality traits, before we could try to figure out what people are feeling and what their motivations are.</p>
<p>And that means we may never know why hunters are compelled to seek animal trophies for their walls. Indeed, we might be condemned just to watch and wonder about their motive and emotional capacity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xanthe Mallett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent media coverage of trophy hunting - following the death of the lion Cecil – raises questions about why some people seem to enjoy killing animals for fun.Xanthe Mallett, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Criminology, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368372015-01-29T19:34:01Z2015-01-29T19:34:01ZWhy violent psychopaths don’t ‘get’ punishment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70370/original/image-20150129-22322-12apw14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compared to other antisocial people, psychopaths lack empathy and are less able to understand punishment.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-73189654/stock-photo-silhouette-in-a-subway-tunnel-light-at-end-of-tunnel.html?src=qm9bjW3ifZ5JXKSF1oLpqQ-1-1&ws=1">Viktor Gladkov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The psychologist David Lykken <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Antisocial_Personalities.html?id=02EbH9bGEacC&redir_esc=y">once wrote</a> that most violent crime could be prevented by cryogenically freezing all males aged 12 to 28. Although this option might be appealing at times for high school teachers and parents of teenage boys, it has some fairly obvious problems. For one thing, 28-year-old men might react violently, after thawing out, when they realise they’ve been cheated of their youth.</p>
<p>More seriously, the cryogenic solution misses the point that a small minority of men commit the great majority of violent crime. Many of these men meet the diagnostic criteria for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder">antisocial personality disorder</a>. People with this condition have a history of impulsive aggression, risk-taking and irresponsibility that extends back into childhood.</p>
<p>Even within this small group of violence-prone men there is an important minority. Some are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy">psychopaths</a> and some are not. Compared to other antisocial people, psychopaths lack empathy, behave callously and manipulatively towards others, and have difficulty recognising emotional displays. Their aggression is more premeditated and instrumental, calculated to achieve a goal, rather than reactive to provocation. Their offending is more versatile, starts at an earlier age and is harder to rehabilitate.</p>
<p>Psychologists and psychiatrists have long tried to understand the roots of psychopathy, proposing an assortment of moral or emotional deficits to account for the psychopath’s callousness. To explain their impulsiveness, researchers argue that psychopaths lack anxiety, foresight or self-control. These deficiencies leave them unconcerned about the future consequences of their behaviour or unable to restrain their urges.</p>
<p>These explanations are attempts to make sense of psychopaths’ puzzling failure to learn from experience. The popular imagination is now saturated with successful psychopaths – expensively dressed office tyrants, fiendish ex-boyfriends, slick criminals who outwit thick cops – but most repeatedly make foolish decisions and suffer the predictable consequences. Life, often in the form of the criminal justice system, continues to punish them for their misbehaviour, but they fail to learn its lessons. </p>
<p>As psychiatrist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervey_M._Cleckley">Hervey Cleckley</a>, an early authority on psychopathy, wrote, the psychopath’s “execrable judgement is not particularly modified by experience, however chastening his experiences may be”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70374/original/image-20150129-22317-pctcsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the popular imagination, the ‘successful psychopath’ is eventually caught out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_warfield/4992455554">The_Warfield/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research published this week in <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(14)00071-6/abstract">The Lancet – Psychiatry</a> uses neuro-imaging in an attempt to clarify why psychopaths fail to learn from punishment. The researchers recruited a sample of 32 men with antisocial personality disorder who had committed murder, rape, attempted murder or grievous bodily harm. Twelve were assessed as high in psychopathic traits and 20 as lower. The researchers also studied 18 non-offender men.</p>
<p>All 50 men completed a “response reversal task” inside an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging">MRI</a> scanner while researchers recorded their brain activity. Participants first viewed multiple pairs of images, choosing one image each time and winning or losing points for correct and incorrect choices. The correct choices were then changed unexpectedly so that previously rewarded choices were punished and vice versa. </p>
<p>This task offers an experimental analogue of life’s slings and arrows. It also provides a measure of the ability to deal with them in a flexible, adaptive manner. Failure to adapt following the unexpected reversal might reflect the psychopath’s difficulty learning from experience. Indeed, people with damage to the frontal regions of the brain, who have been described as having <a href="https://neurowiki2012.wikispaces.com/Neurobiology+of+Morality#20">“acquired sociopathy”</a>, experience difficulties with the task.</p>
<p>The psychopathic men actually made no more errors on the task than the other groups either before the reversal (which would suggest inferior learning of the correct choices) or after (which would imply inferior unlearning of them). </p>
<p>However, their neural responses to post-reversal errors differed. Compared to the non-psychopathic offenders, the psychopaths showed a stronger response in some brain regions when they were punished for these mistakes. These regions are involved in avoiding negative outcomes and responding to unexpected change. Non-psychopathic offenders and non-offenders did not differ in their brain activation patterns.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70379/original/image-20150129-22292-ytpuga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The psychopaths showed stronger neural responses when punished for mistakes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-167475890/stock-photo-mri-of-human-brain-tomography-background.html?src=fBAZphjcAWayAEfmpwK6dw-2-113&ws=1">Andrey Burmakin/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>These findings suggest that psychopaths respond abnormally to prediction errors, where they expect reward but receive punishment. Contrary to the view that they are cold as stone, insensitive to punishment and untroubled by it, the findings imply the opposite. The psychopaths appeared more bothered and bewildered to be losing points for choices that had previously been winners, rather than coolly accepting that things had changed.</p>
<p>This work adds to the growing evidence that there is something anomalous about how psychopaths process reward and punishment. </p>
<p>However, it also shares some common limitations of neuro-imaging research. Samples are small and the task presents a pale imitation of real-world punishment. </p>
<p>There is also ambiguity about what the brain activation patterns mean. Does the stronger activation among psychopaths imply greater reaction to prediction errors or a dysfunctional network operating inefficiently? </p>
<p>The researchers suggest that their findings might help prevent and treat psychopathy, but offer no concrete proposals about how that might be achieved. One of the challenges of neuroscientific work of this kind is that the distance from brain dysfunction to psychological treatment and social policy is large. </p>
<p>Whether the heart of the psychopath can be unfrozen remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The psychologist David Lykken once wrote that most violent crime could be prevented by cryogenically freezing all males aged 12 to 28. Although this option might be appealing at times for high school teachers…Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/275912014-06-10T20:28:53Z2014-06-10T20:28:53ZLooking for psychopaths in all the wrong places: fMRI in court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50677/original/sw9jzpdw-1402381846.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People are becoming more likely to believe that high-tech visualising techniques might allow us to see psychopathy in the actual physiology of the brain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetheriot/6186786217/in/photolist-aqGTZT-niwG-sUk8Y-5kpAF6-6SCgyS-2ZKyJ-88vUCB-7A2f5q-96kggg-5DFXnV-4J6pL9-5uFETL-7qPG4L-kjAshW-5vuQhg-3MYT-5U2AQc-e4CcRp-3MZj-8v8DYZ-7zQwgc-aXr9yn-7iG2pk-4PTLMq-5Rjfht-5TMrYz-5Mchw8-5G4EHt-5MxeE7-5GsB5B-36fL9x-5yxm2W-5Nz4pi-4rdZ9E-7si8jt-ShC9j-7N5Pot-61DQLB-4wVAX1-kWfuq-4KH9B2-dLSKTQ-7x6RJG-fzT9Xx-9Xsr6X-6oi5aB-bPbME2-4wjQDd-tmJ6c-5yiug4">JE Theriot/Flickr (resized)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the latest instalment of our series <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/biology-and-blame">Biology and Blame</a></strong> Micol Seigel poses some important questions about the assumptions behind the legal use of fMRI.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Of the current uses of psychiatry in legal settings, the claim that psychopaths can be identified through <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-medical-imaging-magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri-15030">functional magnetic resonance imaging</a> (fMRI) is among the most worrisome. </p>
<p>Psychiatrists who make this claim present their polychrome powerpoints, which, to the rest of us, look like Jackson Pollock in a sunshiney mood, and point to this or <a href="https://theconversation.com/adventures-in-blobology-20-years-of-fmri-brain-scanning-4095">that stripe or blip as proof</a> of a physiological predisposition to carry out dastardly deeds.</p>
<p>No matter that psychopathy is only glancingly referred to in the American Psychiatric Association’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-dsm-14127">Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</a>. (Rumours that the fifth edition, which came out earlier this year, would embrace the terminology explicitly, turn out to have been exaggerated.) </p>
<p>And no matter that the interpretation of such images are in a stage we might generously term “developmental.”</p>
<h2>Two broken tools equal?</h2>
<p>The scientists offering fMRI images admit their data is unconvincing on its own. Their solution is to cross the scans with results from a diagnostic tool based on personal interviews using the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist">Psychopathy Check List-Revised</a>.</p>
<p>As an analytic instrument, the <a href="http://www.jonronson.com/psycho.html">Check List is not much better</a> than the brain scan. It suffers from a lack of specificity, tabulating a series of rather common characteristics – egocentricity, lack of realistic long-term goals, manipulation, dishonesty, impulsivity, grandiose self-righteousness, narcissism, dependence, irresponsibility, bullying, boredom, and promiscuity. </p>
<p>The blurriness of these profiling points can reveal them everywhere or nowhere.</p>
<p>So, take one inconclusive diagnostic test, cross it with another inconclusive diagnostic test, and … honest science would agree you have nothing at all. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25619824?uid=3737536&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104133560837">one group of researchers puts it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the medical and psychological understanding of psychopathy itself is an empty vessel, a characterization of behaviors without stable symptoms, a disease without a cause.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet the champions of fMRI diagnosis continue to forge ahead, and in an era in which neuroscientific explanations are offered <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/neuroscience-under-attack.html">for every arena of human experience</a> (success in business, for instance, political leanings, and sexuality), their arguments are gaining ground. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50673/original/xyxm5q8y-1402380937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Psychopathy researchers assume people in prison did heinous things and that most heinous things land their agents in prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/10490113913">Thomas Hawk/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People are more and more likely to believe that psychopathy is a disorder inscribed upon the body. And that high-tech visualising techniques might allow us to see psychopathy in the actual physiology of the brain.</p>
<h2>An alarming similarity</h2>
<p>To a historian such as myself, this claim sends off little alarm bells, recalling 19th-century criminal anthropologists such as Italian legal scholar <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso">Cesare Lombroso</a>, who conducted research in prisons and mental asylums to determine the physical characteristics of criminal types. Mapping cranial shapes and sizes, he claimed to find congenital, hereditary, and unavoidable evidence of criminality.</p>
<p>Lombroso has long been in ill-repute thanks to the overly-biological focus of his assumptions and the circularity of his research design: he studied prisoners to draw conclusions about crime. </p>
<p>So even if there had been clear patterns of bumps and bones of the skull, his science could not determine whether they were evidence of criminal types, or traits of the poor and working people in the district of the jail — or even qualities acquired inside, as adaptations to imprisonment itself.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the problem of research location is something modern psychopathy research shares with its 19th-century precedents: proponents of psychopathy as a coherent diagnosis have all researched in prisons or focus on incarcerated subjects. </p>
<p>This is a methodological misstep, to put it mildly. Researchers assume psychopaths are concentrated in prisons, run experiments in prisons, and then conclude that psychopaths are concentrated in prisons. </p>
<h2>A tautological definition</h2>
<p>Indeed, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook?currentPage=all">one of the most-cited definitions</a> of psychopathy is actually:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the condition of moral emptiness that affects between fifteen to twenty-five per cent of the North American prison population… </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is what logicians call a tautology – a circular proof, a statement that substitutes premise for conclusion.</p>
<p>Again, some scientists recognise this problem. <a href="http://www.hare.org/scales/pclr.html">Robert Hare</a>, the author of the famous checklist, for example, wrote a book called <a href="http://www.snakesinsuits.com/">Snakes in Suits</a> about psychopaths in corporate boardrooms. But many researchers continue merrily to scan those ever-available brains behind bars.</p>
<p>Using the prison as site for research, psychopathy researchers embrace and ignore one overwhelmingly distracting, toxic assumption: that the criminal justice system works. </p>
<p>Their research assumes people in prison did heinous things (that they are guilty) and that most heinous things land their agents in prison (that the balance of miscreants are caught). </p>
<p>What if prisons actually mainly house the poor, the mentally ill, the addicted, and over-policed black and brown youth? What if the majority of prisoners is in for crimes of poverty or as casualties of the drug war – or both? </p>
<p>If the truly evil are not in prison, why is neuropsychiatry looking for them there? And can we trust its conclusions in a court of law?</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>This is the fourth article in our series <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/biology-and-blame">Biology and Blame</a></strong>. Click on the links below to read other pieces:</em></p>
<p><strong>Part one – <a href="https://theconversation.com/genes-made-me-do-it-genetics-responsibility-and-criminal-law-27395">Genes made me do it: genetics, responsibility and criminal law</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Part two – <a href="https://theconversation.com/irresponsible-brains-the-role-of-consciousness-in-guilt-27432">Irresponsible brains? The role of consciousness in guilt</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Part three - <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychiatrys-fight-for-a-place-in-defining-criminal-responsibility-27514">Psychiatry’s fight for a place in defining criminal responsibility</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Part five - <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-shouldnt-addiction-be-a-defence-to-low-level-crime-27520">Why shouldn’t addiction be a defence to low-level crime?</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Part six – <a href="https://theconversation.com/natural-born-killers-brain-shape-behaviour-and-the-history-of-phrenology-27518">Natural born killers: brain shape, behaviour and the history of phrenology</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Part seven - <a href="https://theconversation.com/put-down-the-smart-drugs-cognitive-enhancement-is-ethically-risky-business-27463">Put down the smart drugs – cognitive enhancement is ethically risky business</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Micol is a member of Decarcerate Monroe County, a local prison activist group, and the national grassroots abolitionist organization Critical Resistance.</span></em></p>In the latest instalment of our series Biology and Blame Micol Seigel poses some important questions about the assumptions behind the legal use of fMRI. Of the current uses of psychiatry in legal settings…Micol Seigel, Associate Professor in American Studies & History, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.