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PSYCHOLOGY

Why Bad Guys Win at Workby Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

NOVEMBER 02, 2015

“Not all psychopaths are in prison – some are in the board room,” Robert Hare famously said

during his aptly titled lecture, The Predators Among Us.

Psychopathy is one of three “dark triad” traits, the other two being narcissism and

Machiavellianism. It should be noted that, unlike clinical personality traits, these traits are

normally distributed in the population – e.g., you can score low, average or high – and

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perfectly indicative of normal functioning. In other words, just because you score high

doesn’t mean that you have problems, either at work or in your personal life. And despite th

antisocial implications of the dark triad, recent research has highlighted a wide range of 

career-related benefits for these personality characteristics.

Psychopathic individuals are generally more dishonest, egocentric, reckless, and cruel thanthe population average. Machiavellianism is somewhat more related to superficial charm,

interpersonal manipulation, deceit, ruthlessness, and impulsivity. People who score highly

on this trait are morally feeble and likely to endorse the idea that “the end justifies the

means” or agree that “it is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there.”

Narcissism relates to unrealistic feelings of grandiosity, an inflated – though often unstable

and insecure – sense of self-worth, and a selfish sense of entitlement coupled with little

consideration for others. As the term, and the legend of Narcissus, suggests, narcissistic

individuals are so self-indulged that they may end up drowning in their own self-love – this

makes it harder for them to focus on others. Narcissists are often charming, and charisma is

often the socially desirable side of narcissism: Silvio Berlusconi, Jim Jones, and Steve Jobs

personified this.

In a recent study on representative German businesses, narcissism was positively linked to

salary, while Machiavellianism was positively linked to leadership level and career

satisfaction. These associations were still significant even after controlling for the effects of 

demographics, job tenure, organization size, and hours worked.

Previously, an impressive 15-year longitudinal study found that individuals with

psychopathic and narcissistic characteristics gravitated towards the top of the organizationahierarchy and had higher levels of financial attainment. In line with those findings, accordin

to some estimates, the base rate for clinical levels of psychopathy is three times higher amon

corporate boards than in the overall population. This is also consistent with earlier

conceptualizations of psychopathy among businessmen. In his classic 1940’s book The Mas

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of Sanity, Hervey Cleckley noted that the psychopathic businessman works industriously an

appears rather normal, except for his periodic sprees of “marital infidelity, callousness, wild

drinking, and risk-taking”.

So why do these bad guys win?

In part, because there is clearly a bright side to their dark side. As found in a study examinin

the overlap between positive and negative personality characteristics, extraversion, openne

to new experience, curiosity, and self-esteem are generally higher among dark triad

personalities. In addition, dark triad traits tend to enhance competitiveness, if only by

inhibiting cooperation and altruistic behaviors at work. In addition, studies have shown tha

psychopathic and Machiavellian tendencies facilitate both the seduction and intimidation

tactics that frighten potential competitors and captivate bosses. This explains why

individuals with these personality characteristics are often great actors, as well as succeedin

in (short-term) sexual relationships.

Yet it is important to understand that all these individual gains come at the expense of the

group.

Although there is clearly an adaptive element to the dark triad – which explains why bad gu

often win – their success comes at a price, and that price is paid by the the organization. In

evolutionary terms, dark triad personality characteristics constitute the essence of the

freeriding. And the more polluted or contaminated the environment – in a political sense – t

more these parasitic personalities will thrive.

Not surprisingly, a number of studies have linked the dark triad to higher incidents of 

bullying. Moreover, meta-analytic studies have shown significant associations between the

dark triad and counterproductive work behaviors (theft, absenteeism, turnover, sabotage,

etc.). In an impressive analysis of all the scientific studies published between 1951 and 2011

Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were all positively linked with

counterproductive work behaviors and poor organizational citizenship, and Machiavellianis

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and psychopathy were also negatively linked to actual job performance (as opposed to caree

success). As reviews have highlighted, “Ponzi schemes, internet fraud, embezzlement, insid

trading, corruption, and malfeasance” can all be attributed to dark triad personality traits.

But as the saying goes, everything is better in moderation (except of course moderation). Fo

example, studies have shown that an intermediate – rather than low – level of Machiavellianism predicts the highest level of organisational citizenship, perhaps because

Machiavellian individuals are politically savvy and good at networking and managing

upwards. In another study that examined military leadership, the best leaders displayed the

bright-side features of narcissism while inhibiting its dark-side traits: they were high in

egotism and self-esteem but low in manipulativeness and impression management.

So perhaps one may think about dark-side tendencies as overused strengths – tendencies th

are fairly adaptive and conducive of short-term success, but may nonetheless lead to

problems in the long term, especially if one is not aware of them. That is, the dark side

represents the toxic assets of our personality. You can certainly turn them into career

weapons, but the group will generally lose the more you win. Furthermore, when the prima

goal is to ensure that a group or organization outperforms its rivals, it will be generally

advantageous to minimize the incidence of dark triad leaders. Personality is an important

career lubricant, but dark-triad traits are effective at the individual rather than group level.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, a

Professor of Business Psychology at University College London, and a faculty member at

Columbia University.

This article is about PSYCHOLOGY

Why Bad Guys Win at Work

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Pemmaraju Snehil 7 hours ago

How do non pyscopath people handle these elements in organization and not get affected/disturbed by the

?

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