‘Corporate psychopaths’ lead businesses to financial ruin, new research warns. Here are 13 telltale signs

Psychopathy—a neuropsychiatric disorder that features a lack of emotions and empathy, usually resulting in poor behavioral control and antisocial behavior—is often associated with criminality.

But a subtype of psychopaths—dubbed “successful psychopaths”—often go undetected because they’re “better able to control their aggressive, anti-social impulsive inclinations” than typical criminal psychopaths, writes Clive Boddy, a research methodologist at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K. and a pioneer in the field of corporate psychopathy.

Psychopaths are generally charming and intelligent, at first blush and successful psychopaths all the more so. Because of this, they’re able to work “relatively undetected in corporate society,” according to Boddy. Such individuals have also been referred to as “industrial,” “organizational,” “business,” “workplace,” and “executive” psychopaths.

Psychopathic leadership may be discovered in “senior roles in the financial services sector,” which can impact economies and influence “unethical practices found in financial markets,” he writes. Boddy encourages companies to identify these leaders before they “ascend to power” in their institutions.  

“This article arguably adds to critical contemporary views of prevailing capitalism by illustrating the traits, behavior, and outcomes of one of its more infamous 20th century leaders,” he writes, referencing Madoff—one-time chairman of Nasdaq and mastermind of history’s largest Ponzi scheme—whose behavior he explores.

How to identify corporate psychopaths

Boddy uses documented observations of Madoff’s behavior, which he examines via two psychopathy assessments used by psychologists. Among the traits of psychopaths, according to the the assessments:

1. Superficial charm and apparent intelligence
2. Untruthful and insincere nature
3. Cheating personality
4. Totally egocentric personality
5. Has no remorse about how their actions harm other employees
6. Emotionally shallow
7. Unresponsive to personal interactions
8. Sense of uniqueness
9. Sense of entitlement
10. Sense of invulnerability
11. Detached
12. Uncommitted
13. Chaotic sense…