Ashley Et Al - Trail of Successful Psychopath

8/10/2019 Ashley Et Al - Trail of Successful Psychopath

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Babiak, P. & Hare, R.D. (2006). Snakes insuits: When psychopaths go to work.New York: HarperCollins.

Babiak, P., Neumann, C.S. & Hare, R.D.(2010). Corporate psychopathy:Talking the walk. Behavioral Sciences& the Law, 28(2), 174193.

Benning, S.D., Patrick, C.J., Hicks, B.M.et al. (2003). Factor structure of thepsychopathic personality inventory.Psychological Assessment, 15, 340350.

Boddy, C.R. (2011). The corporatepsychopaths theory of the globalfinancial crisis.Journal of BusinessEthics, 102(2), 255259.

Boddy, C.R., Ladyshewsky, R.K. & Galvin,P. (2010). The influence of corporatepsychopaths on corporate social

responsibility and organizationalcommitment to employees.Journal ofBusiness Ethics, 97(1), 119.

Brodie. F.M. (1967). The devil drives: A life of

Sir Richard Burton. New York: Norton.Burton, I. (1893). The life of Captain Sir

Richard F. Burton KCMG, FRGS (Vols.1 and 2). London: Chapman and Hall.

Cale, E.M. & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2002).Histrionic personality disorder andantisocial personality disorder: Sex-

differentiated manifestations ofpsychopathy?Journal of PersonalityDisorders, 16(1), 5272.

Cleckley, H. (1982). The mask of sanity

(6th edn). St Louis, MO: Mosby. (Firstpublished 1941)

Connelly, B.S. & Ones, D.S. (2010). Another perspective on personality:Meta-analytic integration of observers'accuracy and predictive validity.Psychological Bulletin, 136(6), 1092.

Falkenbach, D. & Tsoukalas, M. (2011,May). Can adaptive traits be observedin hero populations?Poster presentedat the Biennial Meeting of the Society

For decades, researchers andsocial commentators have alludedto the successful psychopath.Features associated withpsychopathy such as interpersonalcharm and charisma, fearlessness

and a willingness to take calculatedrisks may predispose to success ina number of professional arenas,such as business, law enforcement,politics and contact sports.A burgeoning body of research istaking strides to examine potentialadaptive manifestations ofpsychopathy. Nevertheless, theexistence of successful adaptationsof psychopathy remains hotlycontested. Can researchers trackdown the elusive successfulpsychopath or will the concept go

down in history as clinical lore?

Best known as a British geographerand explorer, Sir Richard FrancisBurton (18211890) was as fearless

as he was charismatic. Perhaps owing tohis love of adventure, Burton joined thearmy in young adulthood, an outlet thatafforded him many opportunities fortravel and assimilation into unknowncultures (Brodie, 1967). After undertakinga dangerous pilgrimage to Mecca, Burtonsaudacious attitude and passion fordiscovery led him to extensiveexplorations of Syria, India and theAfrican Great Lakes. He was also anaccomplished scholar and activist(Burton, 1893), publishing several books,and established the AnthropologicalSociety of London in 1863. A progressiveindividual, Burton is credited withbringing about the publication of the

Kama Sutra in English. Awarded aknighthood in 1886 by Queen Victoria,Burton was a man of many talents andachievements. Yet, according to somescholars, such as psychologist DavidLykken (2006), Burton exhibitedpronounced traits of successfulpsychopathy, sometimes also calledadaptive psychopathy or high-functioning psychopathy.

Indeed, Burton often travelled theglobe to areas ridden with turmoil thatposed immense danger. After narrowlyescaping a massive planned attack by oneof his enemies, Burton spoke not of fear

but of the flattery he experienced at thenumber of people sent to kill him.Rumoured to have killed a young boyto prevent his discovery while disguised,Burton was often asked about this

incident. Although he denied committingthis act, he described feeling quite jollyabout killing another person. Burton was

also renowned for his insincerity, so muchso that his obituary highlighted his love oftelling tales about himself that had nofoundation in fact. It is therefore perhapsno surprise that some psychopathyscholars identified Burton as possessinga talent for psychopathy (Lykken, 2006,p.11). Others suggested that had Burtonbeen the son of a London butcher insteadof the son of an army colonel hismonstrous talents may have been usedfor criminal purposes (Walsh & Wu,2008, p.139).

Burtons life story raises a set offascinating questions that have longpuzzled clinical psychologists andpsychiatrists (see Hall & Benning, 2006,for an informative review). Do successfulpsychopaths people who possess the coretraits of psychopathic personality but whoachieve marked societal success in one ormore domains really exist? Indeed, somescholars have argued that the very conceptof successful psychopathy is an oxymoronbecause by definition, to be afflicted witha personality disorder (e.g. psychopathy)one must have pathological symptoms thatcause impairment in multiple domains ofones life (Kiehl & Lushing, 2014).

The questions hardly end there. Ifsuccessful psychopaths exist, how dothey differ from psychopaths in jailsand prisons? Do certain occupations andavocations serve as magnets or niches forsuccessful psychopaths? Are successfulpsychopaths also at elevated risk forcriminal behaviour? How do we definesuccessful psychopathy in the first place?Can a psychopath be considered successfulif he or she achieves success in a singledomain of life (e.g. occupational, financial)or multiple? Or is simply evading arrest orlegal entanglement sufficient?

Until recently, these questions were

almost exclusively the stuff of clinical loreand speculation. But times, and attitudes,change. Despite a great deal of interest inthe dark side of leadership (Hogan et al.,1990) and interpersonal behaviour more

references

resources

questions

Hall, J.R. & Benning, S.D. (2006). Thesuccessful psychopath. In C.J.Patrick (Ed.) Handbook of psychopathy(pp.459475). New York: Guilford.

www.psychopathysociety.org

Successful psychopathy could be seenas an oxymoron because psychopathy isa mental disorder and thereforecharacterised by impairment. Do youagree? Why or why not?

In operationalising successfulpsychopathy, should we think of successas a single dimension or are theremultiple underlying dimensions?

A

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On the trail of the elusivesuccessful psychopathSarah Francis Smith, Ashley L. Watts and Scott O. Lilienfeld


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broadly, research suggests there mayalso be a bright side to some dark triadpersonality traits (Judge et al., 2009).

Indeed, psychopathy, along with narcissismand Machiavellianism (the other twomembers of this triad), appear to predictboth positive and negative socialoutcomes, including short-termoccupational success (e.g. leadership:Judge & LePine, 2009). This academicresearch is mirrored by a burgeoningpopular literature surrounding the conceptof successful psychopathy (see box Snakesin suits?).

But how much of this is hype and howmuch is rooted in science? Over the past10 to 15 years, a growing cadre ofresearchers including those in ourlaboratory team have begun to makeinroads into this question.

A fine-grained analysisOften mistakenly equated with serialkillers or violent criminals, psychopathsare characterised by a distinctiveconstellation of affective, interpersonal

and behavioural features. As describedby psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley (1941)in his classic book The Mask of Sanity,

psychopathy comprises suchcharacteristics as superficial charm,dishonesty, narcissism, lack of remorse,lack of empathy, unreliability and poorforethought. Although Cleckley regardedpsychopaths as pathological, he notedthat they exhibit at least some adaptivecharacteristics, such as social poise,venturesomeness and an absence ofirrationality and anxiety. In fact, Cleckleywrote of a psychopathic business manwho, save for the occasional extramaritalaffair and drinking spree, exploited hisinterpersonal charm and risk-taking topropel him to occupational success.

A more fine-grained examination ofthe concept of psychopathy may furtherour understanding of the potentialadaptive manifestations of a disorderso often viewed as invariably sinister.Although psychopathy was originallyconceptualised as a global orunidimensional condition, factor analysesrevealed that the most widely used

psychopathy measures, such asthe interview-based PsychopathyChecklist-Revised (PCL-R: Hare,1991) and the self-reportPsychopathic Personality

Inventory-Revised (PPI-R:Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005),are underpinned by at least twobroad dimensions. In the case ofthe PPI-R (Benning et al., 2003;but see Neumann et al., 2008, foran alternative factor structure)these higher-order factors aretermed Fearless Dominance andSelf-Centered Impulsivity (onePPI-R subscale termedColdheartedness does not loadhighly on either factor). The firstof these factors consists of manyof the affective and interpersonal

features associated withpsychopathy, such as physicalfearlessness, social boldness,

superficial charm and a relativeimmunity to anxiety. In contrast, the

second of these factors consists primarilyof the behavioural features associated withpsychopathy, such as impulsivity,

recklessness and a propensity towardantisocial acts.

This two-factor structure bearsimportant implications for the potentiallysuccessful manifestations of psychopathy.In particular, Fearless Dominance may belinked primarily to adaptive behaviour,whereas Self-Centered Impulsivity andColdheartedness may be linked primarilyto maladaptive behaviour (Fowles &Dindo, 2009).

The non-criminal psychopathDespite traditional views of psychopathyas purely maladaptive, some authors haveproposed that certain features of thedisorder can predispose to success inarenas characterised by physical or socialrisk, such as business, law, politics, high-contact or extreme sports, lawenforcement, firefighting, and front-linemilitary combat (Skeem et al., 2011).Nevertheless, for decades, research onpsychopathy focused almost exclusivelyon largely unsuccessful individuals,especially incarcerated males. It was notuntil the 1970s that researchers began toexamine potentially adaptive

manifestations of the condition.These early investigations centred oncommunity samples. The pioneering workof psychologist Cathy Widom, then atHarvard University, was one of the firstattempts to examine psychopathy outsideof prison walls. Straying from the typicalinmate sample, Widom (1977) attemptedto draw potentially psychopathicparticipants from the Boston community,attracting them with an enticingnewspaper advertisement:

Psychologist studying adventurouscarefree people whove led excitingimpulsive lives. If youre the kind of

person whod do almost anything fora dare

and a later version read:Wanted charming, aggressive,

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 507

successful psychopathy

for the Scientific Study ofPsychopathy, Montreal, Canada.

owles, D.C. & Dindo, L. (2009).Temperament and psychopathy.Current Directions in Psychological

Science, 18(3), 179183.urnham, A. (2007). Personality

disorders and derailment at work:The paradoxical positive influence ofpathology in the workplace. In J.Langan-Fox et al. (Eds.) Research

companion to the dysfunctional

workplace. Northhampton, MA:Edward Elgar.

Goodwin, D.K. (2013). The bully pulpit.New York: Simon & Schuster.

Hall, J.R. & Benning, S.D. (2006). Thesuccessful psychopath. In C.J.

Patrick (Ed.) Handbook of psychopathy(pp.459475). New York: Guilford.

Hare, R.D. (1991). The Hare PsychopathyChecklist-Revised. Toronto: Multi-

Health Systems.Hicks, B.M., Markon, K.E., Patrick, C.J.,

et al. (2004). Identifying psychopathysubtypes on the basis of personalitystructure. Psychological assessment,16(3), 276288.

Hogan, R., Raskin, R. & Fazzini, D. (1990).

The dark side of leadership. In K.E.Clark & M.B. Clark (Eds.) Measuresof leadership. West Orange, NJ:Leadership Library of America.

Jonason, P.K., Slomski, S. & Partyka, J.

(2012). The dark triad at work: Howtoxic employees get their way.Personality and Individual Differences,

52(3), 449453.Judge, T.A. & LePine, J.A. (2007). 20 The

bright and dark sides of personality:

Implications for personnel selection inindividual and team contexts. In J.Langan-Fox et al. (Eds.) Researchcompanion to the dysfunctional

Sir Richard Francis Burton a successfulpsychopath?


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carefree people who are impulsivelyirresponsible but are good at handlingpeople and at looking after number

one. (p.675)

Once recruited, participants providedbiographical and psychiatric informationas well as criminal history. In Widomsstudy, a full 65 per cent of the sample metcriteria for sociopathy, an informal termsimilar to psychopathy. Several ofWidoms participants held jobs ofsignificant ranking, such as businessmanagers and investment bankers.Nevertheless, much of the samplereported arrest records and engagementin criminal or antisocial behaviours.

Ultimately, Widoms sample wascomposed not of especially successfulindividuals but rather of troublemakers

who had largely escaped the detection ofthe legal system. Still, it was one of the firstefforts to examine psychopathy beyondiron bars. More recently, researchers havecontinued to use Widoms advertisement-based recruitment paradigm to attract non-incarcerated individuals with pronouncedlevels of psychopathic traits fromcommunity or undergraduate samples(e.g. Miller et al., 2011; Miller et al., 2013).

The psychopathic heroBuilding on Widoms work, some

researchers havehypothesised that featuresrelated to psychopathy,such as fearlessness, maypredispose individuals toheroic behaviour. In fact,David Lykken (1995, p.29)speculated that the heroand the psychopath may betwigs off the same geneticbranch.

Numerous intriguingexamples supporting thisconjecture can be found inthe popular media. Take

Jeremy Johnson, aprominent businessman andmillionaire from St. George,Utah. Following the 2010earthquake that devastatedHaiti, Johnson staged hisown rescue mission.Piloting his personalaircraft, Johnson evacuatedchildren from the area anddelivered much-neededsupplies to the shatteredcountry. These heroic actswere not unusual forJohnson, who was known

for sending his ownhelicopter on rescuemissions to retrievestranded hikers in his home

state. Alas, there is more to

the story. A pure hero no longer, Johnsoncurrently faces 86 criminal charges such asconspiracy, money laundering, fraud and

the theft of $275 million from unwittingcustomers through fraudulent credit cardcharges. Although intriguing, stories suchas Johnsons are only anecdotal, sosystematic research is called for.

Some investigators have responded tothis call by examining psychopathic traitsamong individuals who hold occupationsthat afford frequent opportunities forheroic behaviour. In one interesting study(Falkenbach & Tsoukalas, 2011),members of potentially heroicoccupations, namely, law enforcement andfirefighting, scored higher on the FearlessDominance factor of the PPI than didincarcerated offenders. Still, because theseintriguing findings relied on occupation asa proxy for heroism, they are open toseveral interpretations.

More recently, Smith et al.(2013) examined the relation betweenpsychopathy, again assessed using thePPI, and heroism. To assess heroism, theyadministered a questionnaire to assessesthe frequency with which individualsengage in a variety of heroic behavioursthat are reasonably common in daily life,such as assisting a stranded motorist,administering CPR to a collapsed

individual, and breaking up a fight inpublic. Participants also completed ameasure of altruistic behaviour subdividedinto two subscales, altruism towardcharities and altruism toward strangers.Smith and colleagues reported a positiveassociation between certain psychopathictraits, on the one hand, and heroicbehaviour and altruism towards strangers,on the other. More specifically, the FearlessDominance component of psychopathywas most related to heroism and altruismtoward strangers, suggesting thatpredisposition towards fearlessness anda willingness to take risks may contribute

to heroism. In a second part of the study,Smith et al. (2013) examined therelationship between psychopathy anda more objective indicator of heroism war heroism among the US presidents.

workplace. Northhampton, MA:Edward Elgar.

Judge, T.A., Piccolo, R.F. & Kosalka, T.(2009). The bright and dark sides ofleader traits. The Leadership Quarterly,20(6), 855875.

Kiehl, K. & Lushing, J. (2014). Psychopathy.

In Scholarpedia. Retrieved fromhttp://scholarpedia.org/article/psychopathy

Lilienfeld, S.O., Patrick, C.J., Benning,

S.D. et al. (2012). The role of fearlessdominance in psychopathy: Confusions,controversies, and clarifications.Personality Disorders: Theory, Research,

and Treatment, 3(3), 327340.Lilienfeld, S.O., Waldman, I.D., Landfield,

K. et al. (2012). Fearless dominance

and the US presidency.Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology,

103(3), 489505.Lilienfeld, S.O. & Widows, M.R. (2005).

Psychopathic Personality Inventory

Revised: Professional manual. Lutz, FL:Psychological Assessment Resources.

Lykken, D.T. (1982, September).Fearlessness: Its carefree charm anddeadly risks. Psychology Today,pp.2028.

Lykken, D.T. (1995). The antisocialpersonalities. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Lykken, D.T. (2006). Psychopathicpersonality: The scope of the problem.

In C.J. Patrick (Ed.) Handbook ofpsychopathy. New York: Guilford.

Miller, J.D., Jones, S.E. & Lynam, D.R.(2011). Psychopathic traits from theperspective of self and informantreports: Is there evidence for a lackof insight?Journal of abnormal

psychology, 120(3), 758764.Miller, J.D. & Lynam, D.R. (2012). An

examination of the PsychopathicPersonality Inventorys nomological

Snakes in suits?

Perhaps in response to recent economic and social disasters,such as the United States housing market crash in 2008, theEnron scandal and Bernie Madoffs Ponzi schemes, theconcept of successful psychopathy has become the subjectof increasing interest to researchers and the general publicalike. Scores of academic and trade books feature thesuccessful or pseudo-successful psychopath, charming hisor her (usually his: see Cale & Lilienfeld, 2002, for a reviewof sex differences in psychopathy) way through life, business

deals and romantic relationships. Some of these recenttomes include Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work(2007, HarperCollins) by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare andThe Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in Life from Saints, Spies,and Serial Killers by Kevin Dutton (2012, Macmillan).

More recently, a few individuals have outed themselvesas successful psychopaths by chronicling their psychopathicpath to victory in such autobiographical pieces as Confessionsof a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight (2013,Sidgwick & Jackson) by M.E. Thomas, an anonymousallegedly successful lawyer and academic, and ThePsychopath Inside: A Neuroscientists Personal Journey intothe Dark Side of the Brain (2013, by University of Californiaat Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon (2013, Penguin).

Also in the limelight are business psychopaths, with

countless media pieces boasting such catchy titles asBad bosses: The psycho-path to success? (CNN:tinyurl.com/pdgz6r3) and Capitalists and other psychopaths(New York Times: tinyurl.com/qgjnmao).


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Drawing on personality ratings completedby expert historians, statistical algorithmswere used to extract psychopathy levels for

each of the US presidents. Conceptuallyreplicating the findings in the first part ofthe study, the Fearless Dominancecomponent of psychopathy was positivelyassociated with presidential war heroism.The presidential war heroes includedTheodore Roosevelt and Zachary Taylor,who also scored well above the mean onFearless Dominance. These findings,although promising, need to be extendedto other samples, especially those markedby high levels of occupational heroism.

The psychopathic presidentThese same psychopathic traits, suchas interpersonal dominanceand persuasiveness, may beconducive to acquiringpositions of power,particularly in the leadershipdomain. Moreover, thesetraits may predict successfulleadership among politicalfigures (Hogan et al., 1990).Indeed, Lykken (1995)speculated that suchinfluential individuals as USPresident Lyndon B. Johnson

and Brigadier General Charles(Chuck) Yeager, widelyknown as the first pilot tobreak the sound barrier,possessed certain personality featuresassociated with psychopathy, such asboldness and adventurousness.Nevertheless, few studies have put thisnotion to a systematic test.

In an attempt to examine the relationsbetween psychopathy and presidentialleadership, Lilienfeld, Waldman et al.(2012) asked 121 presidential biographersand other experts to rate 42 US presidents,up to and including George W. Bush, on

their pre-office personality traits, such asextraversion, disagreeableness, and lack ofconscientiousness. The authors comparedthe presidential personality ratings withthe results of several large-scale polls of

presidential performance by well-knownhistorians (e.g. the 2009 C-SPAN Poll ofPresidential Performance, the 2010 Siena

College Poll) and objective indicators ofpresidential performance (e.g. re-election,winning an election by a landslide,initiating new legislation). Estimatesof presidents psychopathic traits wereobtained by using previously validatedformulas for predicting these traits fromnormal-range personality dimensions.The experts ratings of each presidentspsychopathic traits displayed moderateto high inter-rater agreement. Thismethodology, although not flawless, iswell-suited for rating past presidentialfigures, as meta-analytic evidence suggeststhat informant ratings are strong predictorsof behaviour, often more so than are self-

reports of personality(Connelly & Ones,2010).

Lilienfeld,Waldman et al.(2012) found thatFearless Dominancewas significantlyassociated not onlywith historiansratings of overallpresidentialperformance, but

with independentlyrated leadership, publicpersuasiveness,communication ability

and willingness to take risks. Additionally,Fearless Dominance was associated withinitiating new legislation, winningelections by a landslide, and being viewedas a world figure. Interestingly, FearlessDominance was even associated positivelywith assassination attempts, perhapsbecause bolder presidents tend to rufflemore feathers. Theodore Roosevelt,variously nicknamed The Lion, TheHappy Warrior, and The Dynamo of

Power, scored highest on FearlessDominance, while his immediatesuccessor, President William H. Taft,sometimes called The Reluctant President,brought up the rear on this trait. Although

the differences among presidents in theirpsychopathy levels must be qualified bythe fact that they derived from only a few

informants for each leaders, they are oftenbroadly supported by historical evidencefrom multiple sources. For example, ina recent book on Roosevelt and Taft, TheBully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, WilliamHoward Taft, and the Golden Age of

Journalism, Princeton presidential historianDoris Kearns Goodwin (2013) highlightedthe stark differences in personality andleadership style between these two chiefexecutives.

The psychopathic businessmanIn the past decade, the topic ofpsychopathy in business settings hassimilarly attracted increasing attention.Although such influential authors asHervey Cleckley, David Lykken, PaulBabiak and Robert Hare have describedvivid case examples of ruthless butprosperous businessmen who exhibitedmarked features of psychopathy, formalresearch on the implications ofpsychopathy in the workplace hasbeen lacking until recently.

Recent work indicates thatpsychopathy is related to the use ofhard negotiation tactics (e.g. threats

of punishment: Jonason et al., 2012),bullying (Boddy, 2011), counterproductiveworkplace behaviour (e.g. theft byemployees: OBoyle et al., 2011), and poormanagement skills (Babiak et al., 2010).Although these results suggest thatpsychopathy has a marked dark side inthe workplace, there may be more to thestory. Some authors have speculated thatsome psychopathic traits, such as charismaand interpersonal dominance, maycontribute to effective leadership andmanagement, at least in the short term(Babiak & Hare, 2006; Boddy et al., 2010;Furnham, 2007). Nevertheless, questions

remain regarding the long-termeffectiveness of such traits, with somesuspecting that psychopathic traits tendeventually to be destructive.

Recent research tentatively supports

network. Personality Disorders: Theory,Research, and Treatment, 3, 305326.

iller, J.D., Rauscher, S. Hyatt, C.S. et al.(2013). Examining the relationsamong pain tolerance, psychopathictraits, and violent and non-violentantisocial behavior.Journal of

Abnormal Psychology.doi:10.1037/a0035072

eumann, C.S., Malterer, M.B. &Newman, J.P. (2008). Factor structure

of the Psychopathic PersonalityInventory (PPI): Findings from a largeincarcerated sample. Psychological

Assessment, 20, 169174.O'Boyle, E.H., Jr, Forsyth, D.R., Banks,

G.C. & McDaniel, M.A. (2012). Ameta-analysis of the dark triad and

work behavior: A social exchangeperspective.Journal of AppliedPsychology, 97(3), 557579.

Santosa, C.M., Strong, C.M., Nowakowska,

C. et al. (2007). Enhanced creativity inbipolar disorder patients.Journal of

Affective Disorders, 100(1), 3139.Skeem, J.L., Polaschek, D.L., Patrick, C.

J. & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2011).Psychopathic personality bridging thegap between scientific evidence and

public policy. Psychological Science inthe Public Interest, 12(3), 95162.

Smith, S.F., Lilienfeld, S.O., Coffey, K. &Dabbs, J.M. (2013). Are psychopaths

and heroes twigs off the samebranch?Journal of Research inPersonality, 47(5), 634646.

Walsh, A. & Wu, H.H. (2008).Differentiating antisocial personalitydisorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy.Criminal Justice Studies, 21, 135152.

Widom, C.S. (1977). A methodology forstudying noninstitutionalizedpsychopaths.Journal of Consulting andClinical Psychology, 45(4), 674683.

Theodore Roosevelt nicknamed The Lion


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the view that psychopathy can bea double-edged sword in businesssettings. For example, data using the

PCL-R show that psychopathicindividuals are viewed as goodcommunicators, strategic thinkers andinnovators in the workplace (Babiak etal., 2010). More recently, unpublishedresearch from our own lab has furtherelucidated the potential dualimplications of psychopathy forworkplace behaviour and leadership.In a sample of 312 North Americancommunity members, subdimensionsof psychopathy, as measured by thePPI-R, were differentially related toleadership styles andcounterproductive workplacebehaviour. Specifically, FearlessDominance was positively associatedwith adaptive leadership styles andminimally related to counterproductiveworkplace behaviour and maladaptiveleadership styles. In contrast, Self-CenteredImpulsivity was positively related tocounterproductive workplace behaviourand negatively associated with adaptiveleadership styles. In addition, individualshigh on Fearless Dominance held moreleadership positions over their lifetimethan did other individuals.

Although preliminary, these findings

raise intriguing questions about the variedimplications of psychopathic traits in thebusiness world. Charisma, fearlessness,and willingness to take calculated businessrisks may predispose to business andleadership success. In contrast, certainfeatures associated with psychopathy, suchas impulsivity and lack of empathy, may dothe opposite.

ControversiesDespite and perhaps partly becauseof the growing interest in successfulpsychopathy, the concept has been

embroiled in increasing scientificcontroversy (Hall & Benning, 2006).Some researchers have questioned therelevance of adaptive features topsychopathy, maintaining that becausepsychopathy is a disorder, the conceptof the successful psychopath is logicallycontradictory. In response, proponentsof the successful psychopathy construct,including our laboratory team, point outthat individuals with some seriouspsychological conditions, such as bipolardisorder, can achieve remarkable successin certain creative endeavours, such asart, music and science (Santosa et al.,

2006).In addition, the relevance of Fearless

Dominance to psychopathy has recentlycome under fire. In a meta-analytic

(quantitative) examination of the constructvalidity of the PPI-R across multiplestudies, Miller and Lynam (2012) criticisedFearless Dominance for its lack of relationto violence and antisocial behavior, and forits positive linkages to healthy personalitytraits, such as low neuroticism.Nevertheless, classic clinical writings onpsychopathy (e.g. Cleckley, 1941) andsubtyping research (e.g. Hicks et al., 2004)

have historically alluded to the existenceof two faces of psychopathy, one primarilyassociated with psychological health andadaptive functioning, and anotherassociated with maladaptive features suchas impulsivity and antisocial behaviour(Lilienfeld, Patrick et al., 2012). Hence, thea priori exclusion of adaptive functioningfrom the nomological network ofpsychopathy seems overly restrictive andcontraindicated by both a rich body ofclinical literature and controlled research.Such exclusion would also leaveunresolved the crucial question of whyso many people, including business and

romantic partners, find psychopathssuperficially alluring and appealing. Tounderstand what makes psychopaths tickinterpersonally, we almost certainly needa better grasp on the social implications oftheir adaptive characteristics.

Future directionsThe existence and nature of successfulpsychopathy continue to be flashpoints ofscientific controversy and debate, largelybecause a host of questions remainunresolved. For example, themultidimensional structure of

psychopathy raises questions about whichpsychopathic traits are most related toadaptive outcomes. It seems plausible thatthe interpersonal and affective features of

510 vol 27 no 7 july 2014


Ashley L. Wattsis a graduate student in theDepartment of Psychology,Emory [email protected]

Scott O. Lilienfeldis Professor in theDepartment of Psychology,

Emory [email protected]

Sarah Francis Smithis a graduate student in theDepartment of Psychology,Emory University, Atlanta,Georgiasarah.francis.smith@emory.

edu

psychopathy are more adaptive thanthe behavioural ones. Additionally,these features may interact statistically

to propel individuals into divergentoutcomes. It is also possible that therelation between psychopathicfeatures, such as Fearless Dominance,and life success is curvilinear,meaning that such features maypredispose to success in moderate,but not extremely high, doses. In fact,at very high doses of these traits,adaptive fearlessness may merge intomaladaptive recklessness, althoughevidence for this intriguing possibilityis lacking. Furthermore, competingconceptualisations of successfulpsychopathy exist. It is unknownwhether successful psychopathy ismerely a milder or subclinical form of

the disorder or whether other variables,such as intelligence, effective impulsecontrol, good parenting or social classmoderate or channel the expression ofpsychopathy into adaptive avenues (Hall& Benning, 2006).

Finally, research examiningoccupations and avocations that mayattract psychopathic individuals is sorelyneeded. For example, high-risk professionssuch as the military, law enforcement andextreme sports may be particularly

desirable to individuals who are fearlessand enjoy risk-taking (Lykken, 1982).Research targeting these and otherprofessions may help us to betterunderstand the controversial and oftenelusive successful psychopath.


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Ashley Et Al - Trail of Successful Psychopath

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