Malte Mueller/GettyImages
- Senior corporate leaders have been numbered among those who tend to show psychopathic traits.
- The standard screening test for potential psychopaths is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.
- Read the list below to see the potential signs of adult psychopathy according to the checklist.
Many of the traits we seek in leaders, such as fearlessness, dominant behavior, and immunity to stress, are found in psychopaths.
Indeed, psychopaths are found in greater proportions among CEOs. Between 3% and 21% of CEOs are probably psychopaths, according to a 2016 study by Bond University psychologist Nathan Brooks. In 2021, Fortune found that 12% of corporate senior leaders in the United States showed psychopathic traits. In fact, most people display some symptoms of psychopathy — superficiality, glibness, promiscuity, etc. — and that does not make you a psychopath.
According to CNBC, while one out of five business leaders may show psychopathic tendencies, a certain “degree of nonconformity and unconventionally” can help drive innovation.
The standard screening test for potential psychopaths is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. In the test, a clinician interviews a potential sociopath and scores them on 20 criteria, such as “promiscuous sexual Behavior” or “impulsivity.” On each criterion, the subject is ranked on a 3-point scale: (0 = item does not apply, 1 = item applies somewhat, 2 = item definitely applies). The scores are summed to create a rank of zero to 40. Anyone who scores 30 and above is probably a psycho.
The test is meant to be done by a professional psychologist but if you really want to take it yourself — or make a layperson’s guess at your boss’s psychological makeup — keep scrolling:
United Artists
(Answer: For sociopaths, the answer to this question is yes.)
Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images
(Psychopaths do.)
Incase/Flickr
(Psychopaths can’t endure periods of the doldrums.)
Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio Pictures
(Psychopaths don’t care about the truth.)
DreamWorks
(Psychopaths often believe they can pull the strings of the dupes around them.)
Monogram Pictures
(Psychopaths don’t feel bad when they do bad things.)
Paramount
(Psychopaths show a lack of emotions when an emotional reaction is appropriate.)
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
(Psychopaths just don’t care when bad things happen to other people.)
GlebK / Wikimedia, CC
(Psychopaths prefer not to work for a living. They feel it is easier to take stuff from other people.)
Columbia Pictures
(Psychopaths find it difficult to keep themselves in check.)
TriStar Pictures
(Psychopaths like one-night stands.)
20th Century Fox
(As children, psychopaths often have a history of cruelty to others.)
Andrew Milligan / PA Archive/Press Association Images
(Psychopaths prefer schemes over life or career goals.)
Andrew Winning/Reuters
(Psychopaths are very, very impulsive.)
Disney
(Psychopaths aren’t big on doing the right thing.)
Reuters/Bobby Yip
(When you’re a psycho, it’s always someone else’s fault.)
20th Century Fox
(Psychopaths have an inability to commit to, or repeatedly betray, long-term relationships.)
Blue Underground
(Psychopaths start young.)
Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
(Even when psychopaths catch a break — like being let out of prison on probation — they tend to screw up.)
Rockstar
(Psychopaths differ from normal criminals because they don’t really care which type of laws they break — they’ll break any of them, under the right circumstances.)
How did you do?
If you scored more than 30 (i.e. you answered “somewhat” or “definitely” to most of these questions) then you might be a psychopath. If you scored lower than that, you are likely not a psychopath.