Groundbreaking research presented at the Australian Psychology Society Congress in Melbourne this week reveals that one in five corporate workers may have the disorder — as many as in the prison population.
Forensic psychologist Nathan Brooks found that psychopathic traits are common in the upper echelons of the corporate world, with a prevalence of between 3 and 21 percent (the latter in a study of supply chain professionals).
Interestingly, it used to be believed they felt no fear, but it turns out they appear to feel fear, but not be able to recognize threats:
Neuroscientists have long attributed this behaviour to a general lack of fear – but according to a new study, psychopaths might not be as fearless as once thought.
Researchers have found that these individuals may actually experience this emotion, but fall short in their ability to recognize and respond to threats.
So their amygdala appears to not develop the pathways which tell them “don’t do that.” However the pathways which say, “bad things are about to happen” remain, at least in most cases. I knew one guy who I believe was a pure psychopath growing up. My impression of him at the time was that he simply did not look for future consequences, which at the time I attributed to him being kind of stupid.
It makes you wonder if the manipulative aspect to the psychopath is a result of not seeing how that will affect future relationships. If you can’t recognize that manipulating someone will destroy the relationship, and you have no ability to see any other consequence, you become a machine that is capable of anything in pursuit of a goal. Probably why they thrive in corporate America.
It also raises the question of whether leaders who insist on importing millions of Muslims into their nations would test positive for this exact same trait. The only other option is they know exactly what their actions will lead to.