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The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality, Vulnerability and Victim Selection

January 2020

In book: Corporate Psychopathy (pp.295-325)

Authors:

Central Queensland University

This chapter will explore the tendency of psychopathic individuals to deceive others, exploit vulnerability and target victims in pursuit of self-gain, examining the implications of this behaviour in the workplace. The evidence relating to the varied mechanisms that provide psychopaths with the ammunition to coerce, abuse and deceive is presented, based on both empirical studies and case reports.

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The Tangled Web: Psychopathic

Personality, Vulnerability and Victim

Selection

Nathan Brooks

The Mask of Psychopathy

The construct of psychopathy is associated with manipulation, feigning of

emotions and the appearance of a veneer of stability, normality and friend-

liness (Hickey, 2010). The ability to defraud, con, cheat and manipulate

people without the slightest concern about their victim or the repercus-

sions of their actions is a central characteristic of psychopathy (Hare,

1999,2003). As Hare states, “a good looking, fast talking psychopath

and a victim who has ‘weak spots’ is a devastating combination” (p. 145).

The ability to rapidly determine the personality styles, emotional states

and intentions of others requires skilled interpersonal perception. Despite

much speculation about the interpersonal skills of psychopaths, there is

a limited understanding of the exploitative strategies used by psycho-

pathic individuals in selecting and targeting victims (Black, Woodworth,

&Porter,2014). Preliminary research investigating these phenomena has

N. Brooks (B)

Central Queensland University, Townsville, QLD, Australia

e-mail: nathan@nathanbrooks.com.au

K. Fritzon et al., Corporate Psychopathy,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27188-6_9

295

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

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296 N. Brooks

suggested that higher levels of psychopathy are associated with a greater

likelihood of detecting vulnerabilities in others (Brooks, Fritzon, Watt, in

press; Wheeler, Book, & Costello, 2009; Wilson, Demetrioff, & Porter,

2008). It has been postulated that psychopathic people are adept at identi-

fying these vulnerabilities, callously taking advantage of weakness, fulﬁll-

ing their need for power, dominance and gratiﬁcation (Hare, 1999). In the

famous novel, The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1989), a fasci-

nating description is provided of the ﬁrst encounter between Dr. Hannibal

Lecter, “a pure sociopath” (p. 13), and young FBI agent Clarice Starling.

In the interaction, Starling seeks to garner the help of Lecter; however, he

seizes the opportunity, viewing the conversation as a game, quick to estab-

lish an advantage over Starling by identifying her weakness—the fear of

being “common”. The relationship between psychopathic personality and

assessing and exploiting vulnerability in others has signiﬁcant implications

for understanding the interpersonal processes associated with manipula-

tion and deceit, the strategies of victim selection and the vulnerabilities

that may predispose individuals to being targeted.

Jonason, Lyons, Baughman, and Vernon (2014) investigated the

propensity of individuals with psychopathy to lie, deceive and cheat in a

large sample of participants (n=447). Psychopathy was assessed using the

Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-III (SRP-III; Paulhus, Hemphill, & Hare,

in press), while narcissism (Narcissistic Personality Inventory; Raskin &

Te r r y, 1988) and Machiavellianism (Mach-IV Scale; Christie & Geis,

1970) were also assessed. To examine deception, the authors utilised a

series of questions that addressed participant deception tendencies over

the past seven days. These included: how many lies the participant had

told, the number of different people lied to, the number of self-gain lies

told, lies told to avoid hurting someone and lies told for convenience.

The Deceptive Mating Tactics Scale (Tooke & Camire, 1991) was used in

the study to examine participant’s intersexual and intrasexual deception.

Results of the study found a positive correlation between both Psychopa-

thy and Machiavellianism in regard to the number of lies told, but not

narcissism. Psychopathy was related to telling lies pertaining to domi-

nance, sincerity and sexual intentions. Individuals with higher levels of

psychopathy were more likely to lie for no reason and have a greater per-

ceived ability to lie (Jonason et al., 2014). Notably, psychopathy was found

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 297

to have a signiﬁcant positive relationship with a greater perceived ability

to lie for both genders; however, this relationship was stronger for females.

The research provided an understanding of the relationship between psy-

chopathy and deception, including the similarities between males and

females with higher levels of psychopathy that engage in deception.

Baughman, Jonason, Lyons, and Vernon (2014) investigated the rela-

tionship between psychopathy, gender and lying, in Canadian undergrad-

uate students (n=462). Psychopathy was assessed using the Short Dark

Triad (SD3; Jones & Paulhus, 2014) self-report measure, which assesses for

traits of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism. The propensity

of participants to lie was evaluated through a series of questions that were

rated on a seven-point Likert scale and included: how often the individ-

ual lies, how often they believed their lies were detected, their emotional

state after lying, the cognitive effort required to lie and who they per-

ceived as believing their lies. Using a regression analysis, results of the

study found that psychopathy was associated with greater positive emo-

tions when lying, while Machiavellianism was related to planning ahead

and constructing a lie. The authors conducted a hierarchical regression

to examine whether the dark triad traits mediated gender differences in

lying. Gender differences in participants emotional state when lying were

partially mediated by the dark triad traits; however, the direct effect was

reduced with the addition of the indirect effects of psychopathy, Machi-

avellianism and narcissism. At the ﬁnal step of the model, psychopathy,

narcissism and Machiavellianism were not found to add signiﬁcant unique

variance, suggesting that these traits partially mediated the relationship but

alone did not signiﬁcantly predict gender differences in lying. The research

by Baughman et al. (2014) provided support for the relationship between

psychopathy and deception; however, due to sampling only students, the

research has limited applicability to understanding psychopathy in other

domains, including custodial and professional contexts.

Research has supported the relationship between psychopathy, lying

and deception (Baughman et al., 2014;Hare,1999; Jonason et al.,

2014). While deception and lying are key characteristics of psychopathy,

manipulation is another trait associated with the personality construct

(Hare, 2003). Manipulation is the deliberate act of attempting to create

a favourable outcome through the calculated use of actions and words

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

298 N. Brooks

(Hare, 1999;Simon,2010). Manipulation often requires an awareness

of another’s values or weaknesses and typically involves the exploitation

of these. Many of the skills used in manipulation require the ability to

understand another’s emotional state. The ability to regulate emotions

and present in a manner that shows an understanding of another’s per-

spective is often referred to as social and emotional intelligence (Goleman,

1995). Emotional intelligence refers to the abilities and skills needed to

manage both the intrapersonal (awareness of own feelings and states)

and interpersonal (ability to interact and understand another) compo-

nents of emotional and social interactions (Goleman, 1995). However,

although emotional intelligence is considered an important attribute for

interpersonal interactions (Baron-Cohen, 2011), some researchers have

suggested that a “darker side” of social and emotional intelligence exits. A

darker emotional intelligence is characterised by exploitative personality

constructs (psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism) using social

and emotional skills for self-gratifying advances and pursuits (Grieve &

Panebianco, 2013; Nagler, Reiter, Furtner, & Rauthmann, 2014;Simon,

2010).

The relationship between the dark triad personalities (psychopathy, nar-

cissism and Machiavellianism) and social and emotional intelligence was

examined in a large sample of 594 community participants (438 females

and 138 males). The study used self-report measures to examine the per-

sonality constructs and social and emotional intelligence and emotional

manipulation (Nagler et al., 2014). Results of the study found that narcis-

sism had a signiﬁcant positive relationship with socio-emotional expressiv-

ity and control and a negative relationship with social and emotional sen-

sitivity (subscales of the Social Skills Inventory; Riggio & Carney, 2003).

Psychopathy was found to have no relationship with socio-emotional

expressivity, but a signiﬁcant positive relationship with socio-emotional

control and signiﬁcant negative relationship with socio-emotional sensi-

tivity. Machiavellianism had a positive relationship with emotional con-

trol and a negative relationship with the other subscales of the SSI. All

three of the dark triad personality types were found to have a signiﬁcant

relationship with emotional manipulation. Moderation analyses revealed

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 299

that narcissism signiﬁcantly moderated the relationship between emo-

tional control and emotional manipulation, suggesting that higher lev-

els of narcissism were associated with greater levels of emotional control

and emotional manipulation (Nagler et al., 2014). Psychopathy was also

found to signiﬁcantly moderate the relationship between emotional con-

trol and emotional manipulation. A moderated relationship was found

between emotional sensitivity and emotional manipulation, with psy-

chopathy moderating this relationship. The results of the study provide

evidence that psychopathy and narcissism were related to the use of social

and emotional intelligence for emotional manipulation (Nagler et al.,

2014). The authors of the study identiﬁed that psychopathy was associ-

ated with emotional manipulation and emotional control; however, the

authors did not investigate whether this relationship was inﬂuenced by

gender and if males and females employed different forms of emotional

manipulation.

Grieve and Panebianco (2013) investigated emotional manipulation

and social and emotional intelligence in males and females. In a study of

243 participants from an Australian university, higher levels of social infor-

mation processing skills, emotional intelligence, indirect aggression and

self-serving cognitive distortions were found to be signiﬁcant predictors of

emotional manipulation by males (Grieve & Panebianco, 2013). Interest-

ingly, although the authors examined psychopathy, this was not found to

be a predictor of emotional manipulation by males. For females, a younger

age, indirect aggression, traits of primary psychopathy, higher levels of

emotional intelligence and lower levels of social awareness were found to

signiﬁcantly predict emotional manipulation. The authors concluded that

although there were overlapping predictors of emotional manipulation

(indirect aggression and emotional intelligence) between the two genders,

emotional manipulation differed as a function of gender, with primary psy-

chopathy (interpersonal traits of psychopathy, rather than behavioural) a

greater predictive factor of emotional manipulation by females rather than

males. The ﬁndings by Grieve and Panebianco (2013) provide support for

primary psychopathy being more dominant and calculated in comparison

with secondary psychopathy. The research provides important ﬁndings for

understanding the relationship between the types of psychopathy, gender

and emotional processing skills in a non-incarcerated sample. However,

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

300 N. Brooks

as the research was conducted on a student sample, further analysis of the

relationship between these constructs in the community is required.

Mechanisms in the Psychopath’s Armoury

People with psychopathic personality traits appear to have the ability to

understand another’s emotions and behaviour, allowing them to manipu-

late and deceive others for self-gain. The manipulation associated with

psychopathy, while ruthless and callous, appears to involve a level of

social and emotional understanding that suggests that individuals with

psychopathy possess the ability to understand the psychological motiva-

tions and desires of others (Babiak & Hare, 2006). Lyons, Healy and

Bruno (2013) investigated the social information processing skills related

to psychopathy. The authors used 26 real-life video clips of emotional lies

(13 truthful and 13 lies) to examine participants (n=150) abilities to

correctly detect lying. Psychopathy was assessed based on the Self Report

Psychopathy Scale-III (SRP-III; Paulhus et al., in press). The researchers

found that males with higher levels of primary psychopathy had a greater

ability to successfully detect lying, in comparison with females. Although

females in the sample had a greater ability to distinguish between lairs

and non-liars, females high on psychopathy and secondary psychopathy

had poorer accuracy at detecting lies (Lyons et al., 2013). The authors

concluded that the ability to detect deception and lying behaviour may

differ between gender and forms of psychopathy. The ﬁnding that males

higher on primary psychopathy were better at detecting deception sup-

ports literature that describes primary psychopathy as more successful and

socially skilled than secondary psychopathy (Cleckley, 1976; Lyons et al.,

2013; Newman, MacCoon, Vaughn, & Sadeh, 2005). The authors con-

cluded that primary psychopathy may be a male adaption of psychopathy

(Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009; Lyons et al., 2013); however, due

to the lack of research investigating psychopathy in females (Hare, 2003),

particularly in relation to the primary and secondary types, a greater body

of research is required to support this conclusion.

The ability of psychopathic offenders to manipulate has been high-

lighted in research based on offenders and criminal justice outcomes. The

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 301

ability to manipulate and deceive people within the criminal justice system

provides evidence that psychopaths are successful at creating confusion and

achieving outcomes in complex and high-stakes situations. Research has

found the psychopathic offenders are successful at obtaining parole and

gaining early release from custody, challenging sentencing verdicts and

denying responsibility for their behaviour (Häkkänen-Nyholm & Hare,

2009;Hare,2003; Porter, ten Brinke, & Wilson, 2009).The ﬁndings from

research by Häkkänen-Nyholm and Hare (2009) and Porter et al. (2009)

indicate that psychopathic individuals manage their image and adjust this

to the criminal justice system for their own personal beneﬁt. Despite

empirical ﬁndings suggesting manipulation of the justice system, this pro-

cess is poorly understood and in need of greater appreciation and research

(Häkkänen-Nyholm & Hare, 2009). The research by Porter et al. (2009)

and Häkkänen-Nyholm and Hare (2009) has important implications for

understanding the ability of individuals with psychopathic traits to suc-

cessfully present a positive image and manipulate others across numerous

settings. The ﬁndings highlight the capacity of psychopathic people to

manipulate and deceive others, explaining why some psychopathic indi-

viduals reach positions of corporate status, likely due to their charming

and manipulate tendencies (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Boddy, 2011; Dutton,

2012;Hare,1999).

The extent to which people with psychopathic traits are capable of

detecting cues from body language and inferring vulnerability is an area

of research that is limited. Several studies have documented the infer-

ence that can be established from observing body language, particularly

walking gait. For example, based on observations of walking gait, Mon-

tepare, Goldstein, and Clausen (1987) found that subjects were able to

identify emotional states of walkers, while another study found that sex-

ologists could determine history of vaginal orgasm based on observing

females walking gait (Nicholas, Brody, de Sutter, & de Carufel, 2008). In

an early study on walking gait conducted by Grayson and Stein (1981),

the authors found that physical attributes could differentiate victims from

non-victims. Most notably, those more vulnerable to victimisation were

prone to have less synchronous movements in comparison with those

less vulnerable to victimisation. This was evidenced by longer or shorter

stride length, non-lateral weight shifts, gestured rather than postural body

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

302 N. Brooks

movements and a tendency to lift feet higher while walking. The associa-

tion between walking gait (abnormal pattern of walking strides, typically

shorter or longer strides) and vulnerability to victimisation has been sup-

ported by research suggesting that walking gait can act as an indicator of

potential victimisation and vulnerability (Murzynski & Degelman, 1996;

Sakaguchi & Hasegawa, 2006).

Wheeler et al. (2009) investigated whether higher levels of psychopathic

traits were associated with accurate victim selection, speciﬁcally determin-

ing a person most vulnerable to victimisation. The authors contended that

due to people with psychopathic characteristics readily victimising others,

psychopathic individuals should possess the skills to perceive cues of vul-

nerability, such as basic emotional states in others (Wheeler et al., 2009).

The authors employed a methodology that videotaped participants walk-

ing down a hallway, then asked the participant through a demographic

questionnaire whether they had previously been victimised and on how

many occasions. Victimisation was deﬁned as being equal to or greater

than bullying behaviour (Wheeler et al., 2009). A total of 12 video clips

(eight females and four males) were used for participants to determine

vulnerability, and of these, four women and two men identiﬁed past vic-

timisation. Psychopathy was assessed by the SPR-III (Paulhus et al., in

press). The study required 47 male students to rate targets in the video

clips based on their vulnerability to victimisation. Results of the study

found a signiﬁcant correlation between subjects body language and previ-

ous victimisation, suggesting that targets who reported past victimisation

had noticeable difference in their walking gait. A signiﬁcant positive rela-

tionship was found between total psychopathy scores and accuracy at iden-

tifying victims. Notably, a signiﬁcant positive relationship was observed

between Factor 1 of the SRP-III and accurate identiﬁcation of victims;

however, a non-signiﬁcant relationship between Factor 2 of the SRP-III

and victim identiﬁcation was found.

Similar ﬁndings were reported by Book, Quinsey, and Langford (2007)

in a community and correctional sample. The authors investigated the

relationship between psychopathic personality traits and perceived vul-

nerability in a community (n=60) and correctional sample (n=59).

The authors utilised the Levenson Self Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP;

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 303

Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) to examine psychopathic personal-

ity traits in both the community and correctional setting, while the PCL-R

was used solely to evaluate inmates for psychopathy. The study examined

the ability of participants to read emotional facial expressions, judge vul-

nerability based on videotapes of interpersonal interactions and determine

the assertiveness levels of those in the videotaped interaction. The correc-

tional sample was found to have higher total and primary psychopathy

scores on the LSRP in comparison with the community sample, but no

difference was found for secondary psychopathy traits. Correlational anal-

ysis revealed that psychopathy was not found to be associated with any

deﬁcits in recognition of facial expressions of emotion, suggesting that

psychopathy was associated with greater accuracy at identifying emotions

and emotional intensity. The results also demonstrated that total scores

on the LSRP as well as primary and secondary scores for the measure

were found to have a signiﬁcant positive relationship with accuracy to

rate assertiveness in other people. Although the PCL-R total scores were

not found to be signiﬁcant, Factor 1 of the PCL-R was found to have a

signiﬁcant positive relationship with accuracy in rating assertiveness. The

authors concluded that psychopathy may in fact lead to more accurate

judgements of emotional intensity and vulnerability, suggesting that peo-

ple with psychopathic traits have the ability to perceive and understand

the emotional states of others, yet lack the feeling and response that is

associated with empathy towards others (Blair, Jones, Clark, & Smith,

1997; Book et al., 2007).

Alternative ﬁndings regarding psychopathy and vulnerability were

reported by Black et al. (2014). Utilising a sample of undergraduate

students (n=101), the authors had participants complete a series of

self-report measures (i.e. SRP-III) and view, listen, listen and view, and

read clips of a stimuli target considered to be extremely assertive or

extremely under-assertive based on scores from the Rathus Assertiveness

Scale (Rathus, 1973). In total, 15 clips were developed of different stim-

uli targets describing themselves. Each participant viewed two clips with

video and audio, two audio clips, two video clips and read the details of

two clips, overall exposed to 8 clips. Results of the study revealed that

regardless of assertiveness levels, participants with higher levels of psy-

chopathy perceived targets as being disagreeable, neurotic, depressed and

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

304 N. Brooks

anxious. Overall, higher scorers on psychopathy, narcissism and Machi-

avellianism perceived targets as having low self-esteem, suffering from

negative mood states and being less agreeable. The ﬁndings suggested that

psychopathy and the other dark personalities perceived everyone as being

prone to vulnerability, characterised by weakness and emotionality (Black

et al., 2014). The tendency to perceive everyone as vulnerable to victim-

isation and having an emotional weak point is a unique perspective on

psychopathic victim selection and exploitation. However, as the study was

comprised of undergraduate students who completed a short self-report

measure of psychopathy, it is not clear whether any participants displayed

clinical levels of psychopathy, reducing the generalisation of the ﬁndings.

In contrast, the research by Wheeler et al. (2009) and Book et al. (2007)

suggested that people with psychopathic traits had greater ability to detect

vulnerability and submissiveness in others. The ability to detect vulnera-

bility may explain why psychopathy is common in custodial settings, due

to individuals with psychopathic traits seeking to exploit this vulnerability

(Hare, 1999,2003). This tendency to exploit vulnerability and opportu-

nity may also clarify why some individuals with psychopathy are able to

work in the professional setting and are termed successful (Babiak, Neu-

mann, & Hare, 2010; Dutton, 2012;Hare,1999). However, despite ﬁnd-

ings suggesting that individuals with psychopathic personality are capable

of detecting and exploiting vulnerability, some researchers disagree over

the ability of people with psychopathy to process and understand emotions

(Black et al., 2014; Johns & Quay, 1962). Hastings, Tagney, and Stuewig

(2008) found that psychopathic traits were negatively related to affect

recognition, with a poor ability to recognise expressions of sadness. Long

and Titone (2007) also observed similar results, ﬁnding that participants

with higher level of psychopathy were less efﬁcient at processing negative

emotional states (e.g. fear and sadness) in comparison with other emo-

tions. Conversely, Glass and Newman (2006) and Book et al. (2007)both

found results suggesting that people with psychopathic traits were able to

recognise facial expressions of emotion without having deﬁcits in this area.

In another study, participants with high levels of psychopathic traits were

found to have a partial deﬁcit in responding to distress cues (Blair et al.,

1997). The authors observed reduced arousal responses to distress cues, yet

did not ﬁnd a deﬁcit in perceiving the distress cues. Blair and colleagues

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 305

concluded that these results were due to a deﬁcient emotional response to

distress (lower physiological reaction) in psychopathic individuals, rather

than a deﬁciency in the perception of distress (Blair et al., 1997).This ﬁnd-

ing is consistent with the research by Fecteau, Pascual-Leone, and Théoret

(2008) who suggested that psychopathy may be positively associated with

sensory aspects of the empathy construct (ability to observe and under-

stand the affective/emotional state of an individual), although negatively

related to emotional, state or trait empathy (Fecteau et al., 2008).

Further explanations for the discrepancies in ﬁndings across the research

may be explained by the methodologies employed by the researcher/s

when examining the relationship between psychopathic traits and ability

to recognise emotion. Differentiating psychopathy based on Factor 1 and

Factor 2 traits may account for varied ﬁndings across studies. Book et al.

(2007) found that Factor 1 traits were positively related to the accurate

identiﬁcation of emotional intensity judgements. Similarly, in another

study, total psychopathy scores on the PCL-R were found to be negativity

related to the accurate identiﬁcation of facial expressions of emotions, but

Factor 1 scores were positively related to accuracy in identifying facial emo-

tions (Habel, Kühn, Salloum, Devos, & Schneider, 2002). This suggests

that individuals with psychopathic characteristics may in fact have intact

emotional recognition capabilities; however, this may vary as a function of

the clustering of psychopathic traits and/or the speciﬁc type or subtype of

psychopathy. It also remains possible that other developmental factors con-

sistent with the moderated expression pathway of psychopathy (see Hall

& Benning, 2006) may account for research and individual differences,

with variable such as education, history of trauma, and social integration

and achievement, likely to inﬂuence social and emotional understanding

and ability.

Case Examples of Psychopathic Victimisation

The style and type of victimisation perpetrated by psychopathic individ-

uals can be considerably varied, targeting victims for speciﬁc reasons and

outcomes, or simply due to a greater desire for dominance and control.

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

306 N. Brooks

The following section provides an overview of four separate cases of psy-

chopathic victimisation, with unique motivations, exploitation strategies,

observational skills and outcomes. The cases include two examples of

criminal psychopathy and two related to noncriminal psychopathy (psy-

chopathic individuals residing in the community).

John Jackson

John (name altered) had a long history of incarceration and had established

himself within the prison hierarchy, a person who could resolve issues if

they arose, receiving respect from most inmates and also many prison ofﬁ-

cers. His position amongst the other inmates led Chris, a recently trans-

ferred prisoner, to seek out his assistance due to being fearful for his life.

Chris had been getting threatened, intimidated and physically assaulted

by a few prisoners who appeared to have strong anger and hostility towards

him. He was struggling to cope; feeling a sense of despair and out of des-

peration approached John to ask for his help in dealing with the issue.

John listened to Chris’s concerns and considered his request, agreeing to

assist Chris with one condition. The condition was that if he resolved the

problem for Chris, then as a favour, Chris would allow him to engage in

sexual acts with him. It would be one-off deal and John would be able

to have sexual gratiﬁcation, something that he was rarely able to engage

in while incarcerated. Chris was confronted by the deal, presenting him

with a dilemma, continue to suffer the victimisation by the other inmates

and risk his life, or suffer a brief period of discomfort and engage in sex

with John. Reluctantly, he agreed to John’s condition. John delivered on

his promise to Chris, speaking with the inmates that had been standing

over and intimidating him, leading to this behaviour ceasing and Chris

being able to feel safe in the custodial environment. Chris met John’s term

and engaged in the sexual acts that John had requested.

After he had completed his agreement with John, Chris believed that

everything was resolved and that his time in custody would continue inci-

dent free. Unfortunately for Chris, this was not the case, and as time

went on, he heard whispers and was told information by other fellow

prisoners that greatly distressed him. The pieces of the puzzle began to

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 307

fall in place for Chris, painting an alarming and horrifying picture. It was

revealed that John had masterfully orchestrated the whole situation, tar-

geting Chris and exploiting him for sex. John had requested that some of

his fellow prisoners harass Chris, intimidate him and make him fearful.

While this occurred, John welcomed Chris in casual interactions, remain-

ing open and conveying his approachability. Chris took the bait and John

successfully manipulated Chris into agreeing to engage in sexual acts with

him. The case of John Jackson highlights the complexity of psychopathic

exploitation. From a distance patterns or warning signs may be observable,

yet when a victim is resource deprived, emotional, and unable to iden-

tify alternative solutions, the likelihood of vulnerability and victimisation

signiﬁcantly increases.

Reggie Jones

Numerous psychologists and psychiatrists had assessed Reggie (name

changed) as psychopathic. He was exceptionally interpersonally skilled,

a talented communicator—despite limited education, manipulative,

charming, fearless and ruthless. His offending was considerably deviant

and exploitative, raping several women through a combination of oppor-

tunistic encounters and targeted offences where he waited inside residences

for victims to return home. His offending behaviour and personality dis-

position were best viewed under the guise of a sexual psychopath (Porter

et al., 2001).

The severity and nature of Reggie’s offending resulted in him spending

the majority of his living life in custody, incarcerated for in-excess of

40 years. Despite being small in stature, although physically ﬁt, Reggie’s

exploits did not cease when he was incarcerated. He was continuously

subject to allegations while in custody, regularly accused of victimising

other prisoners through sexual assaults, while dividing custodial ofﬁcers,

and establishing his position in the prison hierarchy. His tendency to prey

on younger and vulnerable prisoners resulted in Reggie spending extended

periods in isolation, at one stage ordered to a 10-year period in maximum

security, isolated to a single cell and deprived of contact with other inmates.

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308 N. Brooks

Reggie was sexually deviant and his behaviour was driven by power,

control and a desire for sexual gratiﬁcation. He was astute in identifying

weaknesses and vulnerabilities in others, claiming that “emotions make

people weak”, able to identify weakness in people based on the “things they

say”. Reggie believed that women in particular were weak and easy victims,

advising that a “scorned ” woman was a vulnerable person, suffering from

the loss of a relationship, burdened by self-doubt and emotion, and seeking

comfort. Despite having spent several decades in custody, he believed that

violence was a last resort and that it was not hard to intimidate someone, as

simple as walking over to someone, getting close and “laughing at them”.

According to Reggie, victimisation was not complicated, and it was about

planting the idea and allowing the rest to follow. He stated, “you laugh at

someone, it gets them thinking, makes them wonder, makes them worried.”

Even though Reggie had spent the majority of his life in custody, his

insights into victimisation highlight how subtle behaviour can be more

powerful than overt actions in victimising someone.

Sam Vaknin

Sam Vaknin was the subject of the 2009 documentary I, Psychopath,pro-

duced by ﬁlm director Ian Walker. The documentary chronicles Vaknin’s

claims that he is in fact a psychopath. Vaknin, the author of the book,

Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, undertakes a series of assessments

investigating his personality. During the course of the documentary, sev-

eral issues arise, including, the validity of Vaknin’s proclaimed Ph.D. and

the bullying which he perpetrates towards the ﬁlm director behind the

scenes when the camera is turned off.

According to the ﬁlm, Vaknin was born to migrant parents and had

a modest upbringing. He was a gifted child, of considerable intellect,

believed to have an IQ of 185. The documentary reported that he com-

menced university at 11 years of age and was taken on by one of Israel’s

richest businessmen, and at 21 years old, he was travelling around the

world in a private jet for business. He then went on to ﬁnd success as a

“dot.com” entrepreneur before being charged and sentenced to imprison-

ment in 1995 for securities fraud.

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 309

During the course of the ﬁlm, Vaknin is assessed by psychologist Dr.

Belinda Board and Professor Niels Birbaumer. Dr. Board completes a con-

sultation with Vaknin and assesses him on the Million Clinical Multiaxial

Inventory (MCMI), determining that his proﬁle is more reﬂective of a psy-

chiatric patient, rather than indicating psychopathy or narcissism. Vaknin

is not deterred by Dr. Board’s results, instead seeking further opinion and

assessment. He is next examined by Professor Birbaumer, who completes

a series of assessments with Vaknin to examine his personality features and

response to emotional stimuli. The ﬁndings reveal that Vaknin displays

neuropsychological deﬁcits in response to testing, and through a clinical

interview, Professor Birbaumer determines that Vaknin has a total score

of 18 on the Psychopathy Checklist Revised: Screening Version (PCL-

R:SV); meeting the threshold to be considered as having a psychopathic

personality.

Arguably one the most startling aspects of the documentary are the

explanations that Vaknin regularly offers on psychopathy. For example,

when discussing his perceptions of psychopaths, Vaknin states the follow-

ing:

The vast majority of psychopaths, like an iceberg are under the water and

like an iceberg they are inert, they do nothing, they are just there. They

torment their spouse by being unempathic, but they don’t beat her or kill

her. They bully co-workers, but they don’t burn the ofﬁce. They are not

dramatic, they are pernicious. Most psychopaths are subtle, they are more

like poison than a knife, they are more like slow working poison than

cyanide.

Vaknin’s opinion provides one explanation (possibly from a psycho-

pathic perspective) as to why many psychopathic individuals may be able

to reside in the community, functioning as noncriminal psychopaths. This

appears consistent with many expert views on noncriminal psychopathy,

contending that psychopathic people in the community operate on the

moral fringes, rather than perpetrating violent and overt acts of crime

(Babiak & Hare, 2006; Boddy, 2011; Fritzon, Bailey, Croom, & Brooks,

2016; Hall & Benning, 2006;Hare,1999). Considerably more troubling

is Vaknin’s detailed account of the physiological impact that bullying has

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310 N. Brooks

on victims, providing this explanation to ﬁlmmaker Ian Walker during

the midst of conﬂict between the pair. Vaknin states:

Your body was ﬂooded instantly by adrenalin and its relatives like nore-

pinephrine. Now when these hormones evade the blood stream, your brain

reacts, it shuts down certain centres and activates others, this is called a stress

reaction or a stress syndrome. Then when the abuse recedes, the adrenalin

levels begin to drop. As they drop the entire system goes into mayhem.

The heart that received the adrenalin shock and pounded about 30% faster

has to readjust. Blood pressure drops precipitously, and you move from

hypertension to hypotension. Many systems in the body go haywire within

a session of bullying and especially after the session is over. So what bullies

usually do is they start and stop, start and stop, that achieves the maximum

physiological arousal and the maximum stress syndrome – and this is the

great secret of bullying, never over do it, small doses, the victim will do the

rest.

Dave

The case of Dave is documented by Dr. Paul Babiak (1995) in the paper

titled When Psychopaths go to work: A Case Study of an Industrial Psy-

chopath. Babiak provides a detailed overview and analysis of Dave, a newly

employed individual within an organisation who has created considerable

conﬂict and divided many co-workers. The initial description of Dave at

thetimeofemploymentwas:

Dave was in his mid-thirties, a good looking well spoken professional,

married for the third time with four children. He had a degree from a large

university and had been hired into a newly created position during a hiring

surge. Dave interviewed well, impressing his prospective boss as well as the

department director with his creative mind, high energy level, and technical

expertise. Routine reference checks seemed positive as did a security check.

(pp. 177–178)

Having started out positively, Dave was quick to create problems in

the organisation, critical of his co-workers, demanding staff were ﬁred,

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 311

engaging in verbal tirades towards colleagues, leaving during the middle

of meeting, plagiarising work material and failing to meet deadlines. After

three months, his supervisor Frank called a meeting with Dave, outlin-

ing his concerns, particularly his inability to get along with co-workers,

unwillingness to complete work and inappropriate emotionality. Dave

was surprised by Frank’s comments, denying that there was a problem and

suggesting that some aggression was necessary to achieve outcomes. Frank

continued to monitor Dave’s performance and despite many co-workers

being troubled by Dave, others found him humorous, entertaining, ﬂir-

tatious, creative and bright. Dave formed unusual friendships within the

business, ﬁnding allies in different levels and positions; these included a

middle-aged staff assistant, a secretary, a number of executives and a young

female security guard. However, Frank’s concern about Dave came to a

culmination when he discovered evidence of misconduct that he believed

violated the companies policies and had to be actioned. The account of

this is as follows:

Frank discovered that Dave had been using company time and materials

to start his own business. After collecting enough physical evidence to

undertake disciplinary action, Frank went to his own boss [the director] for

support, only to ﬁnd out that Dave had been complaining to him about

Frank since he joined the company. After hearing the other side of a lot

of stories, the director realised that Dave was distorting the truth to make

Frank look bad and gain sympathy for himself. Convinced that Dave was a

liar and possible thief, the executive went to the president and vice president

only to discover that Dave was well regarded by them and considered a high

potential employee. They told him to leave Dave alone! Within a couple of

weeks a reorganisation took place; Frank ended up in a new function and

Dave was promoted. (pp. 180–181)

Upon becoming involved in the matter, Babiak (1995) assessed Dave on

the PCL-R:SV, scoring him 19 (above cut-off threshold), while his score

on the PCL-R was 29.4, suggesting Dave had a psychopathic personality.

In Babiak’s review of the case, he determined that Dave’s ability to climb

the corporate ladder and successfully achieve an advantage over his co-

workers was due to a series of factors: (1) establishing a network of useful

and powerful relationships; (2) avoiding situations and meetings where

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312 N. Brooks

maintaining multiple façades was difﬁcult; (3) creating conﬂicts which led

to distraction and prevented co-workers from sharing information about

him; (4) abandoning co-workers who were no longer useful once he had

established a level of power; and (5) neutralising critics and detractors

by raising doubts regarding their competence and loyalty. Babiak also

believed that inadequate management, unstable cultural factors and the

changing nature of the organisation further served to provide cover for

Dave’s psychopathic behaviour.

Understanding Psychopathic Manipulation

and Victimisation in the Workplace

Organisations are diverse and layered systems, encompassing people of

different socio-economic backgrounds, educational standards and inter-

personal skills. As noted by Babiak (1995), corporations can be chaotic,

comprised of unstable cultural factors, rapidly changing and balancing

an elusive dynamic between individual and corporate needs. Organisa-

tions and businesses commonly exercise signiﬁcant power, inﬂuence and

control over others both within and at a broader societal level (Shank,

2018). This combination of power and chaos is perfect scenario for psy-

chopathic individuals who are able to adapt to a system comprising of

both signiﬁcant vulnerability and limitless opportunity. Although there

are several dimensions to psychopathic personality, there appears to be

two central elements to psychopathic manipulation and victimisation in

the workplace, the ﬁrst being a crafted persona conveying competence and

charisma, and the second concerns astute observational and interpersonal

skills.

Crafted Persona

The act of self-presentation and impression management plays a piv-

otal role in the management of one’s immediate environment (Goff-

man, 1959,1967;Paulhus,1998). Babiak and Hare (2006) proposed

that the psychopathic individual is adept at managing the three faces of

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 313

their personality. The authors suggested that a personality comprises of

three pathways/components, with these pathways/components inﬂuenc-

ing both personality expression and others interpretation of the personality

or individual. The ﬁrst component of the personality is characterised as

the internal or private personality. The private personality consists of our

own thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, values, drives and emotions, com-

monly referred to as “me” (Babiak & Hare, 2006). The second pathway

for personality is the persona; which related to what we want others to see

and associate with us. The persona is an edited version of our private self,

with some individuals more conscious of how they may appear and able to

make considered attempts to convey a speciﬁc impression or appearance

(Babiak & Hare, 2006; Goffman, 1959,1967). The persona reveals selec-

tive details and traits about a person, commonly a controlled or deliberate

attempt (whether conscious, unconscious or socially inﬂuenced) to inﬂu-

ence how others judge or see us. The third component of the personality

is the attributed personality or reputation, an element of personality that is

externally determined and subject to limited control or inﬂuence (Babiak

&Hare,2006). The attributed personality comes from others perceptions

of our personality, interpreted based on what we say and do and coupled

with others views and biases that may inﬂuence this interpretation.

The three faces of personality are of particular importance when con-

sidering psychopathy. The private personality of the psychopath is some-

thing that can only be postulated, likely characterised by a grandiose self-

centeredness and a desire for self-gain and gratiﬁcation. However, the

persona of psychopathic individuals, like a “chameleon” is often crafted

or adapted to their environment, portraying the traits and features that

are perceived as being socially expected of that situation or interaction. As

Mathieu (2016) states, “the difference between psychopathy in the business

world and general psychopathy is the suit ”, explaining that the behaviour

is the same except “it comes in a more expensive and well-spoken package”

(p. 3). Psychopathic individuals are astute learners; for example, in the

case of John Jackson as aforementioned, John had undertaken extensive

psychological treatment with no behavioural change, although improved

social understanding, informing, “treatment taught me how to push their

buttons, get what I want ”. By understanding that faults and weakness exist

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314 N. Brooks

in individuals and systems, psychopathic people are ﬂexible in the engage-

ment style, may often alter appearance, profess to having knowledge or

skills relevant to the setting, and convey a veneer of credibility and com-

petence. According to Cleckley (1941), “his rational power enables him to

mimic directly the complex play of the human living ” (p. 383). Through a

crafted image, selective language, instrumental lies and modelling sincer-

ity, psychopathic individuals attempt to portray the “perfect” persona.

When considering psychopathy in corporate settings, it would not be

amiss to suggest that the ideal CEO proﬁle is of “an extraverted charismatic

individual who shows no sign of emotion under stressful circumstances, who

is goal-oriented, aggressive with the competition, and able to sell anything to

anyone and who will be able to take drastic actions when needed. Coupled

with nice clothes, the charming smile, the expensive watch and the promise

of bringing more money or wealth to the company” (Mathieu, 2016,p.3).

Unfortunately, this type of proﬁle or perception of a successful CEO shares

many similarities to the characteristics of psychopathic personality, with

differences only distinguished by an astute observer. At the surface level,

differentiating a psychopathic person from a suitable CEO would be chal-

lenging, requiring sound assessment and meticulous interview processes

and encompassing integrity testing and moral reasoning tasks. Failure to

do so would mean that assessments and judgements of character and com-

petence would be based on impressions and preferences, likely resulting

in problematic outcomes (Babiak & Hare, 2006).

One of the central issues of relying on ﬁrst impressions to determine

competence, trustworthiness and character is that people’s evaluations of

others are inherently ﬂawed and error-prone (Baker, Porter, ten Brinke,

& Udala, 2015). For example, research has shown that facial symme-

try, attractiveness, larger eyes, higher eyebrows, rounder faces and “baby-

facedness” are associated with greater signalising and perceptions of trust-

worthiness (Baker et al., 2015; Bar, Neta, & Linz, 2006; Bull & Rumsey,

1988;Bull&Vine,2003; Todorov, 2008; Todorov, Baron, & Oosterhof,

2008). Several studies have found that parole boards, psychologists, men-

tal health practitioners and legal professionals detected lies at less than or

at chance levels (Ekman & O’Sullivan, 1991; Shaw, Porter, & ten Brinke,

2013; Vrij & Mann, 2001), while more emotionally intelligent individuals

were worse at detecting deception (Barker, ten Brinke, & Porter, 2012). In

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 315

another study, a mock-jury rendered a guilty verdict for an untrustworthy-

looking defendant compared to a trustworthy-looking one based on fewer

pieces of evidence (Porter, ten Brinke, & Gustaw, 2010), highlighting the

implications of faulty judgements and decision-making related to assessing

a person’s character.

Intuitive judgements on a person’s character are problematic, and gener-

ally, humans are unable to determine the correct information upon which

to base their conclusions. Studies suggest that within approximately 100

milliseconds of meeting someone, established ﬁrst impressions are formed,

and once formed, these ﬁrst impressions become solidiﬁed (Babiak &

Hare, 2006; Baker et al., 2015; Bar et al., 2006; Porter & ten Brinke,

2009; Willis & Todorov, 2006). The observer focuses on any subsequent

information that supports this initial impression, ﬁltering out and selec-

tively ignoring details that contradict this early impression. Therefore,

only preferential information that is supportive of this ﬁrst impression is

considered (Babiak & Hare, 2006), suggesting that people we like at ﬁrst

meeting become more likeable, and those we do not like remain that way

(Babiak & Hare, 2006). This ﬁlter system works to the advantage of those

with psychopathy, who present as conﬁdent, socially poised, charming

and charismatic regularly at ﬁrst meeting (Hall & Benning, 2006;Hare,

1999). The problem with a ﬁltering system that dictates the formation

of/and determines a person’s character is that if the persona of that person

is misjudged at the time of the ﬁrst impression then problems can arise

(Babiak & Hare, 2006). Porter and ten Brinke (2009) coined the term,

Dangerous Decision Theory (DDT), to account for instantaneous impres-

sions of character, determined by details such as facial appearance. These

impressions result in broad assumptions about a person based on irrelevant

information, leading a person to make conclusions related to trustworthi-

ness, personality and character and credibility. The authors believed that

in high-stakes cases or situations (i.e., jurors determining guilt), incorrect

and irrelevant details were commonly used to make judgements and deci-

sions, often resulting in “tunnel vision”, reﬂective of a selective focus on

detail, noticing only preferential information and ignoring the rest.

DDT highlights the ﬂaws in human perception and character judge-

ment. These ﬂaws have considerable implications for understanding psy-

chopathic manipulation and victimisation. In essence, humans place value

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316 N. Brooks

on traits such as conﬁdence, charm, humour, fearlessness and material

goods (e.g. trendy clothing and expensive accessories), features that are

easily inﬂuenced and vulnerable to exploitation. Psychopathic individuals

are skilled at wearing the right mask, being the wolf in sheep’s clothing or

walking the walk (Babiak et al., 2010; Cleckley, 1941;Hare,2003). How-

ever, as capable as a psychopathic person may be in crafting a persona,

in time cracks in character will emerge and the private inner personal-

ity and intentions will leak through. Nonetheless, the greatest challenge

to identifying what is beneath the crack in the mask is in overcoming

established and solidiﬁed character judgements, which even in the face of

contradictory information remains ﬁrm and are rarely easily altered.

Observational and Interpersonal Skills

Devoid of a desire to ﬁnd acceptance and belonging amongst co-workers,

psychopathic individuals are quick to meet as many people within an

organisation as they can, gathering as much information and understand-

ing as to the value of each person they encounter. By determining the value,

role, and utility of each individual, the psychopathic person is able to iden-

tify whom to allocate their time and attention to. Value is commonly iden-

tiﬁed based on a person’s position in the organisational hierarchy (position

power), access to information (knowledge power), control over resources

(resource power) and technical abilities (expert power) (Babiak & Hare,

2006). Through observation and interaction, psychopathic individuals

identify the core players within an organisation, analyse the interaction

and communication between co-workers and through interpersonal inter-

actions determine the personality styles (strengths, weakness, assertiveness

and submissiveness) of potentially useful colleagues. According to Babiak

and Hare (2006) during the early stages of employment, the psychopathic

individual sets about planning their success, establishing the pawns, par-

tisans, patrons, patsies and police. By categorising co-workers into useful,

irrelevant, and prohibiting, the psychopathic person is able to identify

weak points within the organisation, obstacles to overcome, potential allies

and suitable victims.

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 317

An important ﬁrst step is to identify the “pawns” within a business,

those that can be easily manipulated and also provide needed resources

and information such as money, contacts, inﬂuence and expertise (Babiak

&Hare,2006). Pawns become primary targets, with the psychopathic per-

son seeking to convey their honesty and integrity, developing a friendship

and expressing their loyalty towards individuals that ﬁt this role (Babiak,

1996). A pawn serves as a momentary person of value for a psychopathic

individual, often assisting in the pursuit of establishing a relationship with

a “patron”, an inﬂuential person within the organisation, commonly an

executive or person of seniority. Forming a relationship with a patron is of

considerable importance, with the aim of being taken “under their wing”

and “mentored” (Babiak, 1996;Babiak&Hare,2006). Once this patron-

age is established, an alliance is formed, and with the patron on their side,

the psychopathic individual is protected and their games and manipu-

lation become difﬁcult to overcome. Ultimately for pawns and patrons,

the outcomes of supporting the psychopathic individual are adverse, often

most costly for the patron, who is a high-power and high-status individ-

ual (Babiak, 1996). Commonly patrons become the “patsies”, the “fall

person” who is blamed for mistakes, poor practices or particular indis-

cretions. Superseding the patron is the whole purpose of the game, with

pawns assisting the psychopathic individual in this quest (Babiak, 1996;

Babiak & Hare, 2006).

Balancing the interaction between pawns and patrons requires psycho-

pathic individuals to carefully manage relationships with “partisans” and

“police” in the organisation. Partisans are considered to be co-workers who

are often oblivious, disengaged, dealing with their own personal issues or

with limited goals and ambitions. These low utility people rarely present as

a barrier or obstacle for the psychopathic person, instead the psychopath

avoids contact or interaction with partisans as they serve little purpose

(Babiak & Hare, 2006). By far the greatest obstacle to the psychopath is

the organisational police and the detractors, those responsible for main-

taining order and control, or people who have a grievance with the psy-

chopathic person. These individuals may see through the psychopathic

manipulation or attempt to place rules and regulations around the psy-

chopaths conduct. The police keep oversight of business matters and deal

with any complaints or behaviour issues, commonly holding positions

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318 N. Brooks

related to human resources, auditing or quality control (Babiak, 1996;

Babiak & Hare, 2006). Psychopathic individuals will strive at all costs

to avoid coming to the attention of police, while often creating chaos

for detractors such as creating doubts about their competence or loyalty

to the business. It is not uncommon for psychopaths to make efforts to

manipulate those in policing positions within an organisation, such as in

the case of Dave who targeted a young female employee working in secu-

rity. Even establishing relationships with secretaries that work for people

in policing positions can serve as a further method of gaining information

and remaining a step ahead of any sanctions.

Conclusion

The corporate setting, like the criminal justice systems, has several systems

in place to protect against deceit and exploitation; however, despite these

barriers, psychopathic individuals are able to successfully navigate chal-

lenges and achieve personal pursuits (Babiak, 1995; Häkkänen-Nyholm

&Hare,2009;Porteretal.,2009). Research has demonstrated that psy-

chopathic personality is associated with several outcomes in relation to

manipulation and deception, including: a greater propensity to tell lies

related to dominance, conveying sincerity and masking sexual intentions

(Jonason et al., 2014); the experience of positive emotions, or a “duping

delight” when lying (Baughman et al., 2014); the use of social and emo-

tional skills for self-gain and gratiﬁcation, reﬂective of a “darker side” to

emotional intelligence (Grieve & Panebianco, 2013; Nagler et al., 2014);

the ability to identify submissiveness, assertiveness and proneness to vic-

timisation (Book et al., 2007; Wheeler et al., 2009); and a demonstrated

pattern of gaining early release from custody and having the severity of

offences reduced in legal proceedings (Häkkänen-Nyholm & Hare, 2009;

Porter et al., 2009). The research suggests that manipulation and deceit

are prominent traits associated with psychopathic personality, with psy-

chopaths often successfully duping others, creating chaos and confusion,

and triumphing at a cost to others. The case of John Jackson highlighted

the complexity of psychopathic victimisation, while author and subject

of the ﬁlm I, Psychopath—Sam Vaknin—provided a concerning account

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9 The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality … 319

of the knowledge that some psychopaths have regarding human emotions

and vulnerabilities.

Unlike the criminal justice system where assessment and oversight is

common practice, corporate environments can be vast and varied. The

issue of psychopathy in the workplace and preventing disruption and

victimisation is ultimately related to the structures, process and systems

within an organisation. The research on psychopathy in the business sec-

tor suggests that one of the major shortcomings relates to the recruitment

process of employees, with many misconceptions about what constitutes

success and a suitable candidate (Babiak, 1995;Babiak&Hare,2006;

Boddy 2011; Mathieu & Babiak, 2016). As highlighted by Mathieu (2016,

p. 1), “we judge how successful people are by external cues: how they dress, how

conﬁdent they are, how ‘driven’ they seem to be”, having a poor awareness of

character and the operational attributes of success (such as long-term pros-

perity rather than immediate results). Psychopathic individuals are capable

of adjusting their presentation to match the environment or conditions,

a problematic issue for recruiters, who place value on conﬁdence, charm,

charisma, fearlessness and vision, traits characteristic of psychopathy. Fur-

thermore, the research by Porter and ten Brinke (2009) emphasises the

downfalls of human judgement of character, described by DDT, indicat-

ing that decisions are based on the inaccurate information, characterised

by biases and “tunnel vision”.

In high-stake contexts (i.e. interviewing for a job), the recruiters and

the candidate each try to read one another, with recruiters making obser-

vations based on appearance, response style, response content and gen-

eral demeanour and candidates carefully attempting to portray a positive

impression and convey their suitability for the job (Baker et al., 2015).This

method of recruitment, although well intentioned, highlights many of the

aforementioned issues associated with determining likeability, suitability

and trustworthiness based on initial impressions. There is also a lack of

consideration for deceit and manipulation in this process, failing to antic-

ipate individuals who have astute observation skills, willing to present a

façade of competence and openly lie. For psychopathic individuals, the

recruitment process often provides insight into the inner workings and

systems of a company, with an absence of assessment, referee checks or

Fritzon, Katarina, et al. Corporate Psychopathy : Investigating Destructive Personalities in the Workplace, Palgrave

Macmillan US, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bond/detail.action?docID=6001339.

Created from bond on 2020-02-19 19:46:01.

320 N. Brooks

follow-up interviews, suggestive of lax processes and organisational over-

sight, a company vulnerable for exploitation. Once hired, psychopathic

individuals then commence the process of identifying victims, devising

strategies for victimisation and ﬁnding “weak points” within the business

(Babiak & Hare, 2006). Preventing or managing victimisation by psy-

chopaths has signiﬁcant challenges if psychopathic personality traits are

not accurately identiﬁed at the screening or beginning stages. Whether in

business or in custody, it is only a matter of time until problems arise, and

the complexity and the extent of these issues result in chaos and disruption.

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Implementation of CCCP in Dissecting Classifications of Non- Criminal, Corporate and Criminal Psychopathy Journal of Psychology and Neuroscience

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2020

Ella Noorian

Psychopathy is one of the pivotal personality disorders in forensic psychology yet there has been little research conducted so far for understanding this destructive personality disorder. There are three different classifications of non-criminal, criminal and corporate psychopaths in each society. In addition, the severity of the psychopathy level in each category is assessed based on a combination of the outcome of assessment measure (s) and the classification of clinical criteria of psychopathy (CCCP). The CCCP includes cruelty-sadism, social-adjustment, disinhibition, and capacity. Cruelty and disinhibition criteria have streams of mild, moderate, severe, while social adjustment is classified into poor, integrated, or adept groups. Capacity is also divided into four categories of criminally-inclined, unremarkable, accomplished, and criminally-inclined/ accomplished. Furthermore, manifestation of these four criteria in psychopathy reflects in categorizing the severity of psychopathy levels in three different groups of clinical (least extreme), pervasive (moderate), and pathological (most extreme) psychopaths. In sum, in order to apply criteria to each case, first step involves proper assessment of each case by measurements scales. The second step involves application of CCCP to each case in line with available clinical information and their assessment. The last step is implementing risk management and treatment strategies depending on the severity level of each case. Although, there is no permanent cure for this controversial psychological disorder, there are suggested treatment strategies that can lessen the severity of traits in different psychopathy classifications. Therefore, future research should continue in order to shed light on different strategies and treatment plans for this debilitating psychological disorder.

Rasgos oscuros de personalidad en estudiantes de Derecho y Medicina en universidades mexicanas

Article

May 2025

Los individuos con rasgos oscuros pueden funcionar en sociedad, aunque afectando negativamente su entorno. Algunos autores asocian tal personalidad con la búsqueda de poder y estatus y en algunas profesiones. Por ello, el presente estudio explora tales rasgos en estudiantes de Derecho y Medicina de universidades mexicanas, así como sus posibles diferencias en cuanto a su carrera, sexo, edad y semestre estudiado, usando para ello el Inventario de Personalidad Corporativa (CPI-R) en español. Los resultados mostraron valores medios en audacia y crueldad, y bajos en el dominio interpersonal en todos los grupos, con diferencias estadísticamente significativas en esta última escala y, con ello, en la total, hallándose puntuaciones mayores entre los estudiantes de Derecho, y en particular en los varones. A la vez, las puntuaciones en el dominio interpersonal fueron platicúrticas en los citados participantes varones y en los de Derecho, en tanto que las de audacia indicaron un sesgo positivo en las mujeres de Medicina. No hubo correlación de las escalas con la edad ni el semestre, pero tendió a ser negativa y estadísticamente significativa, con p < 0.05, en los estudiantes de Derecho en el dominio interpersonal y la crueldad. Un segundo grupo de análisis mostró bajas puntuaciones en el comportamiento antisocial, así como diferencias estadísticamente significativas con puntuaciones más altas en los estudiantes varones y de Derecho, en línea con los análisis previos según la carrera. Las puntuaciones fueron moderadas en cuanto a la búsqueda de emociones, la presión hacia los otros, la persuasión y el aplomo. Dados los resultados mixtos en los ajustes del modelo para los análisis factoriales y la diferencia en el tamaño de los grupos, se sugiere efectuar estudios adicionales del fenómeno. Recibido: 27/11/2023Aceptado: 28/08/2024

‘You can tell a victim by the tilt of her head as she walks’: psychopathic personality and social–emotional processing

Article

Full-text available

May 2020

Much contention and speculation exists regarding the emotional and social skills associated with psychopathic personality, including the idea of a predatory perception. Perpetrators such as Theodore Bundy have made claims to determining victim vulnerability by simple body cues, however, support for these assertions has been limited. The current study examined the relationship between psychopathic personality and social and emotional processing. The study utilised a quasi-experimental design along with self-report measures to examine psychopathy in a community sample (N = 115) of males and females. To examine psychopathy and social information processing, a series of Mixed Design ANOVA’s were conducted to examine the effect of psychopathy on character recall. Psychopathy was found to significantly predict recall of the unsuccessful character, however, did not predict recall of character gender or emotion. Two hierarchical regressions analyses were conducted to examine emotional intelligence and empathy. Psychopathy was found to be a significant negative predictor of empathy, however, did not significantly predict emotional intelligence. Implications for the current study lie within advancing the empirical understanding on psychopathic personality and victim vulnerability.

Problem personalities in the workplace: Development of the corporate personality inventory

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2016

The notion that individuals with psychopathic personality characteristics exist in the corporate world is both a logical extension of the estimated community prevalence rates of the disorder, as well as a scientific hypothesis based on the observation that a number of the characteristics of the disorder 9.1 Introduction 139 9.2 Aim 143 9.3 Method 143 9.3.1 Participants 143 9.4 Measures 144 9.4.1 Participant Demographics 144 9.4.2 Paulhus Deception Scales: Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding 144 9.4.3 Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised 145 9.4.4 Corporate Personality Inventory 145 9.5 Results 146 9.5.1 Descriptive Statistics 146 9.5.2 Factor Structure of the Corporate Personality Inventory 147 9.5.3 Discriminant and Concurrent Validity 152 9.5.4 Criterion Validity 152 9.6 Discussion 154 9.7 Limitations and Future Directions 156 References 159 Appendix: Corporate Psychopathy Inventory Items 161 could convey an advantage within this context (Crant & Bateman, 2000; Kets de Vries & Miller, 1985). However, very little literature has actually tested the validity of the hypothesis, despite the proliferation of the idea in media portrayals and semi-academic publications (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Boddy, 2011b; Dutton, 2012). Given that psychopathy in its criminal manifestation has been shown to predict aggression and violent behaviour, the assumption has been that in a business setting those individuals with the disorder will be responsible for fraud (Blickle, Schlegel, Fassbender, & Klein, 2006), workplace bullying (Caponecchia, Sun, & Wyatt, 2012) and poor management (Babiak, Neumann, & Hare, 2010). Smith and Lilienfeld (2013) have, though, recently posited a ‘double-edged sword’ hypothesis, citing examples from studies that have shown positive characteristics including being a strategic thinker, being creative or innovative and successful leadership (Babiak et al., 2010; Lilienfeld, Waldman, Landfield, Watts, Rubenzer, & Faschingbauer, 2012). The present study seeks to further clarify the distinction between positive and negative manifestations of psychopathic personality characteristics in a corporate sample. The aims of the study include the development of an assessment tool to measure psychopathic personality traits in a business setting, as well as the elucidation of how these characteristics correlate with other validated measures relevant to psychopathy assessment.

Validating the B-Scan Self: A self-report measure of psychopathy in the workplace: B-Scan Self

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2016

The surging interest in corporate psychopathy has underscored the need for a reliable and valid measure of psychopathic features that is suitable for research in organizational settings. The B-Scan Self is a new self-report measure of corporate psychopathy that was developed with Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) as a framework. Validity studies, using two independent Mechanical Turk samples, were designed to examine its factor structure and validity. Results indicated that B-Scan Self facets were internally consistent and unidimentional and strongly related to another self-report measure of psychopathy (SRP-III). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a reliable fifteen facets and four-factor model consistent with the PCL-R four-factor model of psychopathy. Furthermore, B-Scan Self facets were positively correlated with the Dark Triad of personality traits and negatively correlated with FFM traits of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. More importantly, B-Scan Self facets presented the same pattern of correlations with FFM traits as the SRP-III and different patterns than the two other Dark Triad measures. Although this constitutes the first validation study of the B-Scan Self and more research is needed, we believe that these results are encouraging and that the B-Scan Self provides an opportunity to study psychopathic features through the measure of work-related behavior.

Catching liars: Training mental health and legal professionals to detect high-stakes lies

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2013

Although the ability to detect deception is critical in many professional contexts, most observers (including professional lie-catchers) are able to identify deceivers at the level of chance only. Further, almost all studies of deception detection have used low-stakes deception scenarios in determin- ing deceptive behavior and training effectiveness. We evaluated the effec- tiveness of a comprehensive, empirically based full-day training workshop in improving the ability of 42 legal and mental health professionals to detect extremely high-stakes emotional lies. Their ability to discriminate sincere and insincere pleaders was measured at baseline and post-training. Overall, accuracy increased significantly from M = 46.4 to 80.9%. We cau- tiously suggest that training professionals to apply empirically validated methods to deception detection can increase their ability to correctly discriminate between liars and truth-tellers. Strategies to facilitate the detection of deception via the development of training programs are discussed.

Liar liar pants on fire: Cheater strategies linked to the Dark Triad

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2014
PERS INDIV DIFFER

The present study (N = 462) examined the relationship between the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and deception in domain-general and domain-specific contexts. As predicted, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were linked to the propensity to lie in different contexts, including mating and academic dishonesty. Psychopathy was related to experiencing more positive emotions associated with lying and Machiavellianism was associated with increased amount of cognitive effort associated with deception. Sex differences in deception were partially mediated by individual differences in the Dark Triad traits. Our findings have important implications for the interpersonal strategies employed by those high on the Dark Triad.

Snakes in suits when Psychopaths go to Work

Article

Apr 2017

Suvro Raychaudhuri

Risky business: Incorporating informed deception detection strategies in violence risk assessments.

Article

Jan 2015

Studies in Machiavellianism B2 – Studies in Machiavellianism

Article

Mar 1973

Corporate psychopaths: Organisational destroyers

Book

Apr 2011

C.R. Boddy

This chapter looks at employees as a key resource in an organisation and explains how the productivity of this human resource can be helped or hindered by organisational rules and procedures, supervisors, managers and other constraints. It defines organisational constraints and then outlines why Corporate Psychopaths can affect them. The chapter discusses the findings from an empirical investigation into whether the presence of Corporate Psychopaths in an organisation influences the level of organisational constraints within it. It concludes that Corporate Psychopaths do influence the level of organisational constraints, by a large factor. As corporate psychopathy increases within an organisation, so does the level of organisational constraints. The implications for human resource selection and management policies are discussed in terms of the potential for screening employees for psychopathy.

The Social Psychology of Facial Appearance

Article

Jul 1989

Several years ago Coleman (1981) reported that in 1979 one of the many international cosmetics companies had an annual sales figure of

2.38 billion, nearly 1.25 million sales representatives, and over 700 products, the majority of these being for the face. Cash and Cash (1982) noted that in 1979 U.S. consumers spent over

4 million on cosmetic products. They stated that, “Although this practice would seem to be a fascinating aspect of human behavior on the basis of its generality and resilience, social-behavioral scientists have largely ignored the phenomenon so plainly (or pleasingly) in front of their eyes.”

The Tangled Web: Psychopathic Personality, Vulnerability and Victim Selection

Abstract

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