The Corporate Psychopath: What Does the Research Really Say?

There are many ways to describe a leader; depending on your perspective, they can vary wildly. Employees and fans may praise them as inspirational and enthusiastic, while critics may view them through a much more critical lens.

Ultimately, the way that we view corporate leaders often makes it into public discourse - with their role as highly paid corporate executives often being portrayed in direct contrast with the plight of a struggling workforce. 

In recent years, the perception of corporate executives has reached startling heights - with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being just one of many events where the traits and attributes of a CEO have been called into question.

What does it take to be a successful corporate leader? Keep in mind that if a person has psychopathic traits, that doesn’t make them a psychopath. The ability to influence others and make difficult decisions in the workplace is often an asset for many roles - whether you’re a recent graduate of an online MBA or an experienced leader. 

Let’s explore the research - and what it says about the corporate world and the prevalence of psychopaths. Does the data align with public expectations - and if not, is something else at play?

What Is A Psychopath?

While the words psychopath and sociopath are often ingrained in the public consciousness, the actual definition of what they mean is frequently misunderstood. Firstly - psychopathy is not a formal diagnosis. A smash-up of the Greek terms psyche and pathos, etymologically, psychopathy is quite literally described as a suffering soul. So, what is a psychopath?

Psychopathy describes a range of traits and behaviors that are considered antisocial, such as a lack of guilt, impulsivity, and demonstrating no empathy toward the issues that others face. 

It’s more than just a single instance of such behaviors, though - many people exhibit at least some psychopathic traits (even unintentionally - demonstrating psychopathic behavior is less prevalent.

In the corporate world, psychopaths are described as chameleons - someone who can disguise unpopular choices, such as the poor treatment and lack of consideration of employees, through a veneer of charm and persuasion. However, this charm can sometimes be easily seen, allowing us to glimpse the psychopathic behaviors one demonstrates.

A classic example of a CEO who could be considered psychopathic is former pharmaceutical chief Martin Shkreli. Over more than a decade, Shkreli placed a public visage of someone who was a suave, tasteful professional. In reality, this barely masked his apparent psychopathy.

In 2015, Shkreli’s poor regard for toxoplasmosis sufferers came to life when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of the medication Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 overnight. The lack of guilt about any changes, failure to empathize with patients, and apparent disregard for the public interest (instead, choosing to raise prices to raise substantial sums of money for the company) resulted in what some argue as the most bizarre reveal of a psychopath in corporate America.

How Prevalent Are Psychopaths?

From the way this article describes psychopaths, it may seem like they are infesting the corporate world. In reality, researchers aren’t quite sure of the exact number of psychopaths that exist in the workforce - often because separating people who demonstrate some psychopathic behaviors from those who have mental illnesses such as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) can be extremely difficult.

Research over the years has highlighted highly variable numbers, particularly when estimating the number of psychopaths in both the broader public and the workforce. Over the years, estimates have placed the number of those who demonstrate psychopathic traits as high as 30% - with as many as 1% of people having clinically diagnosed psychopathy.

This number is highly variable, depending on the part of society that you observe. It’s broadly observed that the number of psychopaths is much higher in prisons than in other parts of society, largely attributed to the impulsivity and tendency for law-breaking that psychopaths are so quickly drawn into.

When Research Misleads

Why is it so difficult to understand the true proportion of psychopaths in the workforce? As it turns out, a significant proportion of research into psychopathic behavior has evolved into a witch-hunt on negative behavior in the workforce - and not just in the corporate world.

A study published by researchers in Crime Psychology Review brought the quality of data in psychopathy research to light in 2017 when a now-retracted article asserted that as many as one in five CEOs exhibited psychopathic behavior.

The problem? The data didn’t just cover CEOs - instead, it surveyed a broad gamut of leaders from different industries. This impacted the quality of the research - challenging the causal relationships that were described in the study.

In a classical sense, it’s like a misinterpreted relationship between correlation and causation - a common statistical folly. Consider this: a series of managers run a series of experiments in the workplace to increase productivity. They turn up the lights, closely observe the employees, and the result? Productivity improves.

After leaving, however, the managers reviewed the data to find that productivity had slipped again - as it turns out, the changes to the environment hadn’t made a difference - instead, it had been the close observation by management that had impacted performance. The problem, as Hawthorne Works found out in the 1920s and 1930s, is that statistics is about more than looking at the data available to them. Instead, it’s about breaking things down and thinking about whether the data makes sense.

Making An Informed Decision

Unfortunately, it’s easier than you think to mislead with data. In fact, journalist John Bohannon demonstrated that another field of science, nutrition, was just as vulnerable to disseminating poor-quality research, tricking millions of readers in 2015 into thinking that eating chocolate could lead to weight loss.

As readers who think critically, it’s important to understand that estimations are simply that - estimations. It can be easy to lose your perspective when you get caught in the numbers - rather than accepting and understanding an issue. So what can we do about it?

Perhaps the first thing to note is that while many people demonstrate psychopathic traits, it’s actually very rare to see a psychopath in the workplace. As more than one researcher has noted - sometimes, it can be difficult to discern a psychopath from someone that just has a crap personality.

Secondly, and more importantly, when looking at anything you read online - remember to fact-check. There’s never any harm in validating a source - and you never know, it may just help to stop the spread of misinformation online.