Your boss probably isn't a psychopath. But the traits can help people get fast-tracked.

In part 1 of this series I looked at narcissism: the leader who looks great in the boardroom but whose results are no better than anyone else's. This time the subject is psychopathy, the second of the "dark triad" of traits. It is harder to spot.

A word on the label

The word "psychopath" brings to mind criminals and film villains. The research here is about something more ordinary: psychopathic traits, measured by questionnaire in ordinary working people, which everyone has to some degree. None of what follows is a reason to diagnose a colleague.

The label itself is also under debate. Some researchers now argue that psychopathy is poorly measured and better seen as a range than a single condition, though they agree the traits are real. That is a good reason to talk about traits rather than types.

What the traits look like

Researchers usually describe workplace psychopathic traits in three parts: boldness, meanness and a lack of restraint. Low empathy runs through them, but not in a simple way.

A study of 300 adults, published recently, separated three kinds of empathy: understanding what others feel, feeling it with them, and caring about it. Callousness went with difficulty feeling others' emotions and caring about them. Self-centredness went only with not caring, while the ability to read and share others' emotions stayed intact. My reading is that someone can understand exactly how you feel and still not care, which is part of what makes these traits hard to see.

Charming, but not a team player

The most cited study of psychopathy in business looked at 203 managers and executives chosen by their companies for management development programmes. About 6% scored at a level of psychopathic traits on a structured assessment that only about 1% of a large community sample reached on the same measure. About 4% reached the stricter research threshold for psychopathy.

They were judged in two very different ways. Colleagues rated them well for communication, creativity and strategic thinking: the qualities that look good in a presentation. Yet they scored poorly for management style and teamwork, and their bosses gave them weaker performance reviews.

The study had limits: one assessor scored the main measure, and the companies were not a random sample. It remains a striking picture of how charm and poor performance can sit in the same person.

But your boss probably isn't a psychopath

The popular claim that boardrooms are full of psychopaths does not hold up. A 2019 analysis combined 92 samples on psychopathy and leadership. People with more psychopathic traits were only slightly more likely to become leaders, and slightly less effective once there. Both links were weak. The researchers found some sign that a moderate level of the traits went with the best ratings, with too little and too much both rated lower.

There was a hint of a double standard: women with these traits were rated less effective as leaders, while men were not. The finding rests on only a handful of studies, so it should be treated with caution.

Calm under pressure

People with psychopathic traits can also look cool in a crisis. In a 2026 study of 139 students given a stressful mental arithmetic test, those higher in psychopathy reported less stress and showed a smaller rise in heart rate. The heart-rate finding was the more robust of the two. Narcissism, from part 1, showed a similar pattern for anxiety and blood pressure. My reading is that calm under pressure is often taken as a sign of leadership, which may help both traits get noticed.

Hidden in selection tests

The two traits part company in selection. In a recent study, 104 adults completed a personality test twice: once honestly and once as if applying for a job. When trying to look good, they raised their narcissism scores but lowered their psychopathy scores. The researchers suggest candidates see confidence as an asset and coldness as a risk. The study was small, used a simulated application and mostly young women in Serbia, but it suggests psychopathic traits are harder to see in a selection process than narcissistic ones.

Gossip

Once inside an organisation, the traits may show in how people talk about others. In a study of 516 adults published in 2026, psychopathy was the strongest predictor among the dark traits of how often people gossiped, and of gossip meant to harm others. The study relied on people's own reports and shows a link rather than a cause.

What this is costing you

None of these studies looked at your organisation, so applying them is my own step. Some of these patterns may be familiar where you work:

• the fast-tracked manager who impresses senior leaders and loses good people from their team;
• the promotion decided on a polished presentation, with no word from the people below;
• the colleague whose stories about others are always slightly damaging;
• the calm in a crisis that hides a lack of concern for the people affected.

The cost is rarely visible on the day. It shows up in staff turnover, in damaged trust and in decisions made without regard for the people they affect.

Questions worth asking

A few honest questions show how much this applies to you.

• When you promote someone, how much weight do you give to how they treat colleagues, compared with how well they present?
• Who do you ask about a candidate: their boss, or the people who work for them?
• How does your organisation respond to people who talk others down behind their backs?
• Would you judge a cold, confident leader differently if they were a woman?

What you can do this week

Everything in this section is a suggestion of mine, drawn from the research rather than tested by it. Each one takes minutes and costs nothing.

Suggestion

If you lead a team or sit on a board

• Ask the people below. Before promoting anyone into a leadership role, ask the people who work for them how they are treated.
• Separate presentation from performance. In talent reviews, score how well someone presents and how well their team performs as two separate items.
• Look at who leaves. Check whether one manager's team loses more good people than others.
• Close down damaging gossip. When someone talks a colleague down, ask them to raise the concern directly or through the proper channel.
• Judge men and women the same way. When you assess a confident, unemotional leader, ask whether you would reach the same view if they were of the other sex.

Suggestion

For yourself

• Notice charm without substance. When someone impresses you, ask what you have actually seen them deliver.
• Ask how people treat others. Watch how a new contact treats the people who cannot help them.
• Check your own empathy. In your next difficult conversation, ask yourself whether you understood how the other person felt, and whether you cared.

Suggestion

At home

These are ideas of mine, not tested with children.

• Ask how others felt. When your child tells you about a conflict, ask them how they think the other child felt.
• Praise kindness. Notice and praise moments when your child looks after someone else.

What comes next

Psychopathy is often confused with the third trait in this series, Machiavellianism. On personality tests the two overlap heavily. A 2026 study that tracked 317 people every day for a month found that, in daily behaviour, they looked quite different. Part 3 will look at that difference and at what it means for leaders.

Sources

• Babiak, P., Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2010). Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 28, 174 to 193.
• Landay, K., Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2019). Shall we serve the dark lords? A meta-analytic review of psychopathy and leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(1), 183 to 196. doi:10.1037/apl0000357
• Goodhew, S. C., & Edwards, M. (2025). On the relationship between psychopathic traits and cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and empathic concern. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2025.113445
• O'Riordan, A., Minnigh, T. L., & Costello, A. M. (2026). Examining the association between the dark triad personality traits and cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2026.113420
• Dinić, B. M., & Boskovic, I. Fake good in the dark tetrad: Score changes and relationships with impression management and supernormality. Collabra: Psychology. doi:10.1525/collabra.159930
• Davis, A. C., Vaillancourt, T., & Arnocky, S. (2026). The Dark Tetrad traits differentially predict gossip frequency and motives. Behavioral Sciences. doi:10.3390/bs16091556
• Walczak, D., Rogoza, R., & Jones, D. N. (2026). The (in)distinguishability of Machiavellianism and psychopathy? Discovering the daily dynamics. Journal of Research in Personality. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2026.104710
• Green, A. (2026). Psychopathy: some experts now say it doesn't exist, here's why we may be looking at it all wrong. The Conversation, June 2026.