Working for a Psychopath: High IQs Allow Senior Managers to Mask Psychopathic Tendencies

Could you be working for a psychopath? New research has found that people with psychopathic tendencies who have IQs can mask their symptoms by manipulating tests designed to reveal their personalities. The findings raise the possibility that large numbers of risk-takers can conceal their level of psychopathy as they rise to key managerial positions.

The idea for the study was first born when a researcher noticed that while percent of the population was categorized as psychopaths, that figure rose to three percent in the case of business managers.

"I thought that intelligence could be an explanation for this, and it could be a problem if there are increased numbers of psychopaths at a high level in business," said Carolyn Bate, the researcher who carried out the study, in a news release. "The figure could be more than three percent, because if people are aware they are psychopathic they can also lie-they are quite manipulative and lack empathy. This could have a detrimental effect on our everyday lives."

Bate assembled 50 participants in order to test her theory. She examined their IQ levels using a standard procedure, and then the volunteers completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which tests whether a person has either Factor One or Factor Two psychopathic tendencies. Then, Bate used the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) method and attached electrodes to the fingers of participants in order to gauge their reactions to images on a computer screen, including pictures of crying children, people being threatened and scenes of natural disasters. A person with Factor One psychopathic tendencies, the sort more likely to become a business manager, would display little emotional response; a Factor Two psychopath could demonstrate a heightened response due to excitement.

In the end, Bate found that it was only those with lower levels of intelligence who displayed expected levels of excitement. Those with higher IQs were more likely to have little or no reaction to the images, despite the fact that they reportedly had no psychopath tendencies according to the test that was given earlier.

The findings reveal that those with higher IQs have sufficient intelligence to fake their emotional response. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to detect their condition.

"Perhaps businesses do need people who have the same characteristics as psychopaths, such as ruthlessness," said Bate. "But I suspect that some form of screening does need to take place, mainly so businesses are aware of what sort of people they are hiring.

The findings are published in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology.