The folks over at Alternet did a very in-depth piece on the 10 careers that have the most psychopaths working in them.
And while it’s a very interesting study, I’m betting that off the top of your head you can probably name a whole bunch of them just based on your own personal experience.
While you think about it here’s some of the criteria they used and a little background on the results…
Just 1 percent of the overall population qualifies as psychopaths; in prison, that number skyrockets to 25 percent. Robert Hare developed the Hare Psychopathy Checklist in the 1980s, and it’s since become a tool widely used for assessing and diagnosing the condition. Contrary to popular notions, lots of psychopaths aren’t raging lunatics or violent criminals; in fact, most of them get along perfectly well in society.
One percent seems kind of low doesn’t it? But going by the pure definition of a psychopath I suppose it could make sense.
Kevin Dutton, an Oxford psychologist and the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success, believes that psychopathy can actually be advantageous in some careers. Using (not the most scientific) survey, he compiled a list of careers in which psychopaths are overrepresented. Mostly, they’re fields where the hallmarks of psychopathy allow people not just to get by but to thrive and succeed. (It’s been suggested more than once, for example, that corporate psychopaths caused the most recent financial crisis.)
In keeping with Dutton’s findings, here’s a list of the top 10 careers with the most psychopaths working in them. There are some surprises — the biggest of which is that politician isn’t number one.
10. Civil servant
9. Chef
8. Clergy
7. Police Officer
6. Journalist
5. Surgeon
4. Salesperson
3. Media (TV/radio)
2. Lawyer
1. CEO
Some of those aren’t real big surprises are they?
And while the list itself is fascinating, Alternet really digs into the hows and whys of each profession and I’d highly suggest that you check the whole article out to learn even more about the psychopaths working amongst us.
Psychopath image by Shutterstock