(ominous music)
- [Voiceover] From UFOs to physic powers
and government conspiracies,
history is riddled with
unexplained events.
You can turn back now
or learn the stuff they
don't want you to know.
(ominous music)
Here are the facts.
Workplace bosses are often the
butt of jokes in pop culture.
From the droning Bill
Lumbergh of Office Space
to American Psycho's Patrick Bateman,
the stereotypical boss
is alternately depicted
as a fool, a bore, a tyrant, or a monster.
But is there a grain of
truth to this stereotype?
Is your boss a psychopath?
Here's where it gets crazy.
Possibly, especially if you
work in the office world
amidst executives.
According to British
journalist Jon Ronson,
CEOs are four times more likely
to exhibit psychopathic traits.
So, what exactly is a psychopath?
According to Professor Robert Hare,
the creator of the Psychopathy Checklist,
psychopaths have several
disturbing symptoms.
The most important of these
is a profound lack of empathy
exhibited in a lack of
remorse, a propensity to lie,
a constant desire for
stimulation, and so on.
The average score for
incarcerated male offenders
on this scale is around 23.3 out of 40.
A score around 20 qualifies as moderately
or mildly psychopathic.
Only an estimated 1% of the population
would be rated as highly psychopathic.
That's a score of 30 or more.
But 3% of interviewed managers
appeared to be psychopaths.
With this in mind, it
seems that psychopathy
is more a spectrum than a
clear-cut yes or no decision.
This means that it's completely possible
for someone to be a generally
non-violent psychopath.
So, why is the estimated
rate of psychopathy
so much higher amid executives?
According to some cynics,
a lack of a conscience
may actually be an advantage
in the corporate world.
The grandiose initial
charms of a psychopath
can be confused with vision or confidence.
And as most psychopath seem
to be adept at reading people,
they're also talented at currying favor
with managers and peers,
and, perhaps more importantly,
concealing their true nature from others.
According to industrial
psychologist Paul Babiak,
individuals who are really psychopaths
are often mistaken for narcissists
and chosen by the organizations
for leadership positions.
Babiak believes that while a narcissist
is only self-centered,
the psychopath often
ask, "Is this thrilling?
"Is it a game I can win?
"And does it hurt others?"
Babiak, you see, believes
that a psychopath
actually enjoys hurting other people.
Both Hare and Babiak
rank famous executives,
such as Al Dunlap, Donald Trump and more,
in the ranks of psychopaths.
If these assessments and
their allegations are true,
then we are faced with several
disturbing implications.
Unlike the more impulsive sociopath,
the psychopath can play the human game,
can calculate, plan, and, above all,
work to avoid detection.
To be fair, this doesn't
apply to all bosses.
Could this idea of executive psychopaths
be nothing more than a
sweeping generalization
or is there something
about the corporate world
that encourages and rewards
ruthless, deceptive,
and destructive action?
The next time you hear a
story of a monstrous boss,
ask yourself, "Is there
something this executive
"doesn't want you to know?"
(ominous music)
- Does being wealthy
make you a bad person?
I know, I know.
At first, it sounds
like an unfair question.
There are so many wonderful
people who are poor
or who are wealthy
regardless of what culture they come from.
Warren Buffett, from every report we hear,
is like a saint of some sort.
