Does your job attract psychopaths? An article on Business Insider listed down the top 10 professions with the most psychopaths, and another 10 that attracts the least people with personality disorders.
But first, let’s take a look at the definition of a ‘psychopath’ in that article:
‘Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial char, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality.’ (original source)
Dictionary.com provides a shorter description:
‘A person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests asamoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.’
As such, persons with psychopathic tendencies are more attracted to jobs that offer them positions of power, and allow them to be emotionally detached from their surroundings. A book by Kevin Dutton, ‘The Wisdom of Psychopaths’, lists down the following occupations as the top favourites among those with this particular personality disorder:
1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (TV/Radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergyperson
9. Chef
10. Civil servant
Professions that are least popular among psychopaths are, for example, nurse, teacher, care aide, and therapist. Why? If you’re in any of those fields, you’d know that they require sensitivity, a good emotional human bond – basically you’d have to be in touch with your feelings. Since psychopaths show a lack of emotions and the ability to empathize, they’d stray away from the afore mentioned professions.
So, are you safe from psychopaths…or is your job turning you into one? Here’s a psychopathy test…just in case!
