What careers do psychopaths gravitate towards most? The top ten may not come as much of a surprise (hello, we’ve seen American Psycho), but it’s still pretty creepy.
The folks over at Alternet conducted a pretty thorough study on which professions psychopaths are most found in, and our job is on the list. Should we check ourselves into a psych ward now? Or wait until it’s too late? We’re gonna have to think on that.
The full list is as follows:
10. Civil Servants
9. Chef
8. Clergy
7. Police Officer
6. Journalist
5. Surgeon
4. Salesperson
3. Media (Television/Radio)
2. Lawyer
1. CEO
Makes sense that a money-grubbing CEO may have a few issues in the mental department. However, there are a few things to keep in mind. According to Alternet,
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.
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.)
Ok so maybe it’s not that bad. If being a psychopath is going to get you ahead in your career and grant you more money than you can dream of, we’re fine with it.
