These Are the Top 10 Jobs Where You’re Most Likely to Meet a Psychopath.
If your idea of a psychopath is a psychopath who roams the streets at night deciding who will be his next murder victim, you might be in for a surprise. Psychopaths live in today’s society.
They hold jobs, have relationships, and have families. Your next-door neighbor might be one of them, or your boss, or even your partner.
What is a Psychopath?
A psychopath is classified as having no feelings or conscience and lacking empathy. They are seen as callous, manipulative, and often acting immorally to get their way. Psychopaths are said to have “killer instincts,” whether they kill or not.
So how do these sets of characteristics translate into work?
Well, surprisingly, some jobs actually require certain psychopathic tendencies. These so-called killer instincts can be very useful in some roles.
When you consider that psychopaths tend to be risk-takers, impulsive, and fearless, you can see how these traits might be desirable in certain jobs.
Kevin Dutton, an Oxford University psychology researcher and author, has spent years studying the psychopathic brain and compiled a list of jobs where you’re most likely to encounter someone with psychopathy.
Here are his top 10 jobs:
- CEO
What better job than running a company where you’re beholden to no one but yourself? You have absolute control and power over your employees, can fire them at will without remorse, treat your workers with contempt, and yet have no one to answer to.
It’s no surprise that CEOs are number one on our list of the top 10 jobs with the most psychopaths.
- Lawyer
Tell a joke about a lawyer and you’ll rely on the joke to portray them as a liar or a cheat. Basically, a lawyer will do anything to get their client off the hook, and that includes working magic in a split second.
- Media (TV/Radio)
You have to think you’re pretty important to be on TV or radio, and who isn’t a psychopath with deep-seated narcissistic tendencies? Of course, not everyone on TV and radio is a psychopath, but if someone starts showing Diva traits, beware.
- Salesperson
Salespeople have to sell you a product without actually caring whether you need it or not. Those who care about whether you’re wasting your money will never get their way, but those who don’t, and who have psychopathic tendencies, will sell you anything to get ahead in the game.
- Surgeon
It’s no surprise that surgeons are on the list because they make the difference between your loved ones’ survival or death, it’s practically divine, and they know it.
In fact, many surgeons say that showing emotion hinders them from performing well, because they operate like a cold, emotionless machine, and showing emotion would slow them down.
- Journalist
Telling people your opinions and expecting them to listen and take them as fact makes you a bit of a narcissist. You have to be charming and clever to pull it off, three factors that are known to be linked to psychopathy.
Just seeing your name in a newspaper is enough to satisfy the ego of someone who doesn’t have psychopathic tendencies, so imagine what it does to those who do?
- Police Officer
Being in a position of power, where you are literally the law, is like honey to a bee when it comes to psychopaths. They can get away with anything because they have a badge to hide behind and no one will believe them even if they are reported.
- Clergy
This is another area where the weight of the church can hide a psychopath. Psychopaths are drawn to institutions where they can hide in plain sight, abusing their victims and where they have the size of the organization to back them up, if necessary.
- Chef
Working in a high-pressure environment such as a professional kitchen requires a tough personality. Psychopaths can be found here because they get on with the task at hand, not caring about their colleagues, they just want the job done to their high and precise specifications.
- Civil servants
If you can’t picture the normally shy civil servant going into a psychopathic rage, think back to the British serial killer and civil servant Dennis Nelson who murdered at least 12 young people.
Remember also that Dennis Rader, otherwise known as BTK, was a civil servant who murdered 10 people. Working in civil service jobs allows people with mental disorders to hide in plain sight and go unnoticed.
Is your job listed in the top 10? Do you think you have met someone with a mental disorder in your workplace?
