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Are CEOs and Entrepreneurs psychopaths? Multiple studies say “Yes”

Are CEOs and Entrepreneurs psychopaths? Multiple studies say “Yes”

Last updated on: October 1, 2013 at 11:19 pm by Desh Kapoor

Are CEOs and Entrepreneurs psychopaths? Multiple studies say “Yes” 2013-10-01T23:19:57-05:00 Desh Kapoor

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Either it is the sign of our times, where success is almost akin to mental sickness, or our generation has a rather unfair share of mentally sick individuals. Because some of the findings on the world of business seem rather strange.

A news research study by Australian School of Business at the University of NSW suggests that psychopathic tendencies can also make for good entrepreneurs. The behavior of psychopaths and entrepreneurs is not very different. Their modus operandi seems seems very similar in how they handle things.

“Psychopaths commit an offence, go to prison, then come out and commit the offence again, because they fail to learn from the prison experience,” said PhD student Benjamin Walker. “Our study showed the novel result is that participants high in entrepreneurial intentions showed the same pattern.”

This particular research comprised 605 participants across three laboratory studies. Mr Walker and Professor of Business Psychology Chris Jackson found that people with either psychopathic or entrepreneurial intentions persisted through adversity in a risk-taking task in a very similar way.

But this study is not the only one which suggests that entrepreneurs or those at the helm in business have psychopathic tendencies. Even British journalist Jon Ronson has discussed similar findings in his latest book discussing the psychopathic tendencies of the CEOs.

British journalist Jon Ronson immersed himself in the world of mental health diagnosis and criminal profiling to understand what makes some people psychopaths — dangerous predators who lack the behavioral controls and tender feelings the rest of us take for granted. Among the things he learned while researching his new book, “The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry”: the incidence of psychopathy among CEOs is about 4 percent, four times what it is in the population at large.

In another study psychologist and Executive coach Paul Babiak found that One in 25 Business leaders are psychopaths.

One in 25 bosses may be psychopaths — a rate that’s four times greater than in the general population — according to research by psychologist and executive coach Paul Babiak.

Babiak studied 203 American corporate professionals who had been chosen by their companies to participate in a management training program. He evaluated their psychopathic traits using a version of the standard psychopathy checklist developed by Robert Hare, an expert in psychopathy at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

There was a time when successful and rich people were known by the amount of charity they did for the society. But it seems that as the stock markets rule the world of business and what the CEOs do every day and every month, traits insincerity, lack of truthfulness and lack of remorse and shame become second nature.

Traits of psychopathsdefined below.

The following characteristics of a psychopath, defined by Hervery M. Cleckley in 1941 in the bookMask of Sanity include:

Superficial charm and average intelligence.

Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.

Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations.

Unreliability.

Untruthfulness and insincerity.

Lack of remorse or shame.

Antisocial behavior without apparent compunction.

Poor judgement and failure to learn from experience.

Pathological egocentricity and incapacity to love.

General poverty in major affective reactions.

Specific loss of insight.

Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations.

Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, and sometimes without.

Suicide threats rarely carried out.

Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated

Featured Image Credits: Flickr / Stephen McCulloch

Related articles from External Sites

Behavioural Sciences

Business

Australian School of Business

Hare Psychopathy Checklist

University of British Columbia

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