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Psychopaths are not only more daring to start, but also more daring to finish with. They continue to take risks even when pumped with fear.
- Devastating fearlessness may well be descended from courage. It may well habituate through repeated exposure to danger. But there are some individuals who claim it as their birthright, and whose basic biology is so fundamentally different from the rest of ours as to remain, both consciously and unconsciously, completely impermeable to even the minutest trace of anxiety antigens
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Men with a specific triumvirate of personality traits—the stratospheric self-esteem of narcissism; the fearlessness, ruthlessness, impulsivity, and thrill-seeking of psychopathy; and the deceitfulness and exploitativeness of Machiavellianism—can actually do pretty well for themselves out there in certain echelons of society
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Psychopathy was positively associated with in-house ratings of charisma and presentation style: creativity, good strategic thinking, and excellent communication skills
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The psychopath has no difficulty dealing with the consequences of rapid change; In fact, they thrive on it. Organizational chaos provides both the necessary stimulation for psychopathic thrill seeking and sufficient cover for psychopathic manipulation and abusive behavior.
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Psychopaths are masters at keeping their cool under pressure. They are also ruthless; They might also be better at controlling their emotions than others when the stakes are high and backs are against the wall.
- In any kind of crisis, the most effective individuals are often those who stay calm—who are able to respond to the exigencies of the moment while at the same time maintaining the requisite degree of detachment.
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Psychopaths have high emotional intelligence. They are better than non-psychopaths at recognizing emotion .
- Psychopaths are far more convincing at feigning emotions than were non-psychopaths
- The problem for psychopaths lies not in emotional recognition per se, but in the dissociation between its sensory and affective components: in the disconnect between knowing what an emotion is and feeling what it’s like.
- The capacity to decouple cold sensory empathy from hot emotional empathy has advantages in areas where a degree of detachment must be preserved between practitioner and practice.
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What the expert acquires mentally (willpower, decisiveness, fearlessness) through experience, psychopaths have from the start.
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Leadership Traits and Psychopathic Traits have a lot in common
| Leadership Traits | Psychopathic Traits |
|---|---|
| Charismatic | Superficial Charm |
| Self-Confidence | Generosity |
| Ability to Influence | Manipulation |
| Persuasive | Con artistry |
| Visionary thinking | Fabrication of intricate stories |
| Ability to take risks | Impulsivity |
| Action oriented | Thrill-seeking |
| Ability to make hard decisions | Emotional poverty |
- Society at large is becoming less violent and more psychopathic. Psychopathy is becoming second nature as it becomes the norm.
- The next generation is characterized by a new breed of individual with little to no conception of social norms; no respect for the feelings of others and little regard for the consequences of their actions.
- Empathy is at a decline within society; Narcissism is on the rise. People are becoming self-centered, competitive, confident and individualistic
- If imagination stimulates empathy for non-psychopaths, then the decline of reading also plays into this.
- Psychopaths become more successful, and thus psychopathy slowly becomes the norm.
I think that society is going to have to get very psychopathic indeed for us to start living up to how we were, say, back in the Middle Ages. And, from a purely practical point of view, that level of manifestation is simply not
attainable.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find that subtle fluctuations in personality or interpersonal style have been occurring over the past few decades. But the mores and etiquette of modern civilization are far too deeply ingrained in us, far too embedded within our better natures, to be subverted by a swing, or what’s probably more likely, a nudge, toward the
dark side.
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When the stakes are high and backs are against the wall, it’s a psychopath you want alongside you. But if there’s nothing to play for and you’re on an even keel, forget it. Psychopaths switch off, and take just as much time getting the show on the road as the rest of us.
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Psychopaths, it appears, far from being callous and unemotional all the time, can actually, in the right kind of context, be more altruistic than the rest of us