Is Your Boss A Psycho? One In Five Corporate Leaders Are Psychopaths, Study Finds

Our prisons are filled with people with psychopathic traits - but boardrooms around the world are actually just as bad, a new study has found.

Roughly one-fifth of corporate professionals have ‘extremely high’ levels of psychopathic traits - the same level found in prisons.

That compares with 1% among the general population.

Psychopaths - according to the standard Hare Psychopathy Checklist - are charming, impulsive, and fail to take responsibility for their behaviour.

They’re not necessarily murderers - but they’re good at looking after themselves, and not good at looking after others.

Researchers Bond University in Australia and the University of San Diego examined 261 professionals in supply chain management - and found that 21% had ‘clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits’.

‘Too often companies look at skills first and then secondly consider personality features,’ says Nathan Brooks of Bond University.

‘Really it needs to be firstly about the candidate’s character and then, if they pass the character test, consider whether they have the right skills.’