Greed is good? Student disciplinary choice and self-reported psychopathy (original) (raw)
While the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) has gained increasing attention as a measure of noncriminal psychopathy, absent has been research involving samples including business people. This study investigated the validity of the PPI with such a population by examining the association between psychopathic traits and moral decision-making among MBA students. Sixty-six MBA students were assessed using the PPI, the MACH-IV (a measure of Machiavellianism), the Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Only PPI Machiavellian Egocentricity was associated with level of post-conventional moral reasoning. MACH-IV Machiavellianism was a stronger predictor of the Subjectivist ethical position than were PPI subscales. However, a combination of MACH-IV Machiavellianism and four PPI scales accounted for 46% of the variance in Subjectivism. Results suggested that Machiavellian Egocentricity and Machiavellianism are distinct constructs. Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger (2003)’s two factor model of the PPI was also supported. In general, the findings provided further validation for the PPI as a tool for assessing psychopathic traits among “mainstream” individuals, including business people.
Journal of business ethics, 2024
Since the beginning of business research and teaching, the basic assumptions of the discipline have been intensely debated. One of these basic assumptions concerns the behavioral aspects of human beings, which are traditionally represented in the construct of homo economicus. These assumptions have been increasingly challenged in light of findings from social, ethnological, psychological, and ethical research. Some publications from an integrative perspective have suggested that homo economicus embodies to a high degree dark character traits, particularly related to the construct of psychopathy, representing individuals who are extremely self-centered and ruthless, without feelings of remorse or compassion. While a growing body of research notes such a similarity on a more or less anecdotal basis, this article aims to explore this connection from a more rigorous perspective, bridging insights from psychological, economic, and business research to better understand the potentially dark traits of homo economicus. The analysis shows that homo economicus is not simply some kind of psychopath, but specifically a so-called subclinical or Factor 1 psychopath, who is also referred to as a "corporate psychopath" in business research. With such an analysis, the paper adds an additional perspective and a deeper psychological level of understanding as to why homo economicus is often controversially debated. Based on these insights, several implications for academic research and teaching are discussed and reflected upon in light of an ethics of virtue and care.
Empathy and psychopathic traits as predictors of selection into business or psychology disciplines
Australian Journal of Psychology, 2019
The attraction, selection, and attrition model posits that individuals actively self-select into vocational and educational environments based on their personality traits and values. The present study investigated whether pre-existing empathy and psychopathic personality trait differences in newly enrolled first year undergraduate students predicted selection into psychology and business vocational pathways respectively. Method: An online self-report survey collected data on levels of psychopathic traits and empathy from 380 newly enrolled first year business and psychology undergraduate students to examine whether these pre-existing personality traits could predict academic discipline attraction and selection. Results: Binary logistic regression analysis partially supported the proposed hypotheses. Cognitive empathy, gender, and social desirability scores were found to be significant predictors of student discipline, with females, those with higher cognitive empathy and lower social desirability scores more likely to be attracted and selected into a psychology rather than a business degree. Small to moderate effect size differences were observed, with psychology students reporting significantly higher cognitive empathy (d = 0.53) and lower interpersonal psychopathy (d = 0.27) than business students. Conclusions: Findings highlight specific personality trait differences present between newly enrolled business and psychology students and the importance of these pre-existing differences in student vocational decision-making. It is anticipated that findings may assist vocational and career counsellors in guiding prospective students in the direction of a vocational pathway that is best suited to their personality, as this is likely to result in increased student satisfaction and selfesteem whilst reducing student attrition.
Psychopathic Personality Traits in Students Entering Helping Professions
2019
Psychopathy is often misrepresented as a sign of criminality and deviance. However, current literature suggests that psychopaths make up approximately one-fifth of the general population. Some people use these characterological traits to their benefit in positions of leadership. In this study, students from a Christian university in the Pacific Northwest were selected to participate in a survey, based upon their chosen major (Business, Psychology, and Religion). It was hypothesized that Business students would have the highest total levels of psychopathy and religion majors would show the lowest levels of psychopathy. Since religion often serves as a protective factor, it is further predicted that religion will mitigate the effects of psychopathy, and will be negatively correlated with psychopathic traits. Multiple one-way ANOVAs and Tukey post hoc tests were used to determine which degrees had statistically significant differences, and a correlational study examined the possibility of religion as a mitigating factor. Results indicated that Religion students had the highest levels of primary psychopathy as well as overall psychopathy levels, whereas Business students had the highest PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY TRAITS iv levels of secondary psychopathy. It was also determined that primary and secondary psychopathy had no significant relationship to one another, and that total psychopathy levels had no significant differences between age and gender. The implications of this study show the potential for individuals with more psychopathic personality traits to enter prosocial leadership roles, such as clergy, and the benefit of pre-employment personality screening.
2020
In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the successful psychopath: An individual who manages to achieve occupational success despite exhibiting core psychopathic traits such as callousness. Several studies suggest this phenomenon is underpinned by a specific configuration of adaptive psychopathic traits that may facilitate positive behaviour in combination with protective variables such as education. In addition, research indicates that psychopathic personalities may be further enabled in occupational domains by specific facial cues pertaining to their underlying personality traits. The present study examined these assertions in a two-part cross-sectional design. Part 1 assessed the extent to which self-report psychopathy (as a function of education) predicted professional success in an occupational sample of 161 participants. In part 2, a convenience sample of 131 participants selected their preferred leaders from male- and female-face pairs communicating high and lo...
Apt to be unethical: functional psychopathy in organizations
International Journal of Human Sciences Research, 2023
In this article, we carry out a theoretical analysis on how the person with characteristics similar to those of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) has the social skills to thrive in an individualistic and greedy society. We show that the ability to adopt unethical behaviors can be crucial for these people to appear as assertive, capable, and accomplishing professionals. They are not only able to achieve individual results but, above all, to lead teams aimed at achieving the ambitious goals of their organizations. Such individuals are known as functional psychopaths. From a psychological point of view, a large part of the indicators related to functional psychopathy seems to be associated with changes in the regulatory function that emotions play a part in the human decisionmaking process. Functional psychopathy represents a challenge for organizational managers and staff in human resources sections. Furthermore, the evaluation processes, primarily based on organizational results, are not very sensitive to differentiate between (1) lack of empathy and courage; (2) selfishness and zeal; and (3) manipulation and leadership. It can be concluded that only more sophisticated, laborious, and costly processes could be sensitive enough to identify those people and their perverse work strategies during the selective and evaluative processes in the business environment. So, they are all around us, and, given the cultural orientation of companies toward individualism and greed, they are probably here to stay.
2008
Many studies have reported that economics and business students have been more apt to act in selfinterested ways when compared to their counterparts in other academic fields. It is our contention that past studies have not shed light on the underlying psychological differences which might be leading to this difference in behavior. We put forth evidence that certain business majors are correlated with a marked increase in levels of narcissism and decreased levels of empathy, as measured by psychological personality tests.
Journal of Research in Personality, 2013
We examined the three key dimensions of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), Fearless Dominance (FD), Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI), and Coldheartedness, to obtain a comprehensive view of the implications of the trait components of psychopathy for economic decision-making. 210 university undergraduates completed four economic tasks and five personality instruments with the aim of ascertaining the correlates of different factors of psychopathy. FD, SCI, and Coldheartedness were associated with distinct behavioral responses and personality scores: Coldheartedness and SCI were predictive of economic selfishness, whereas FD was largely uncorrelated with behavioral tasks. Implications for the conceptualization of the factor structure of psychopathy are presented, and a phenotypic approach to psychopathic traits confluent with the recently proposed dimensional restructuring of personality disorders is discussed.
Do psychopathic traits predict professional success?
Journal of Economic Psychology, 2018
Does psychopathy predict professional success? Psychopathy and professional success are multidimensional constructs, and thus certain elements of psychopathy may be related more strongly to certain elements of professional success. Also, psychopathic traits, comprising self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance, and coldheartedness, may not predict professional success above and beyond the Big Five. We investigated whether self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance, and coldheartedness predicted professional satisfaction (satisfaction with salary, with promotion, and with career) as well as material success (annual salary, number of promotions, and professional standing) in an occupational sample (N = 439). Selfcentered impulsivity was inversely related to professional satisfaction, whereas fearless dominance was positively related to professional satisfaction and material success. Coldheartedness was related to neither of them. Adding the Big Five, as well as participant gender and time in job, as predictors revealed that extraversion and selfcentered impulsivity predicted professional satisfaction, whereas only extraversion predicted material success; fearless dominance was no longer a significant predictor of material success. Taken together, self-centered impulsivity was negatively linked, whereas fearless dominance was positively linked, to professional success. The findings highlight the differential contribution of impulsiveness-versus fearlessnessrelated elements of psychopathic traits to professional satisfaction.
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2018
This paper deals with the "dark triad" personality and its components (Machiavellianism, narcissism, subclinical psychopathy) on economics & management student population in Croatia and Slovakia. Dark Triad represent important HRM area in which is trying to understand the "dark" side of human functioning which has potentially harmful impact on organization functioning and performance. Population of economics & management students is important in the context of HRM because of their future high potential to generate dysfunctional organizational behaviors, when they will be organizational employees, especially on management positions. The goal of this research was to gather the data about dark triad personality phenomenon, make the comparisons between Croatian and Slovak sample, present the potential organizational impact of employees with dark characteristics in organizational context and show the implications for HRM. For measurement of the dark triad components (variables) it is used questionnaire measurement that adopts the standardized short dark triad measurement instrument of Jones & Paulhus. Results of the Croatian students are compared with the results of Slovak students, and basically also with Canadian student sample. The basic results showed that 6% Croatian and 0.5% of Slovak economy & management students showed full dark triad profile, also there are found very significant statistical differences in the Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopathy variables between the Croatian and Slovak samples, i.e. these characteristics were statistically higher in Croatian sample.