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Psychopaths are commonly characterised by a lack of empathy and guilt (Representaional)

While it was commonly believed that most psychopaths are men, an expert suggests there might be way more women psychopaths than we thought. Recent studies indicate that male psychopaths may be overrepresented compared to females, at a ratio of 6 to 1. Dr Clive Boddy, a professor at Anglia Ruskin University specialising in corporate psychopathy, challenges this ratio, suggesting it could be as low as 1.2 to 1, potentially five times higher for females.  

“People generally attribute psychopathic characteristics to males rather than to females,” Dr Boddy said in a report. “So even when females display some of the key traits associated with psychopathy – such as being insincere, deceitful, antagonistic, unempathetic and lacking in emotional depth – because these are seen as male characteristics they may not be labelled as such, even when they should be,” he added.

Psychopaths are commonly characterised by a lack of empathy and guilt, engaging in antisocial behaviour, frequent lying, and demonstrating traits of ruthlessness, narcissism, and manipulation. “Psychopaths are after money, power and control,” said Dr Boddy. 

“The behaviour of female psychopaths seems to be subtle enough and less obvious than male psychopaths and therefore they’re not recognised as much,” Dr Boddy said.

“A small but mounting body of evidence describes female psychopaths as prone to expressing violence verbally rather than physically, with the violence being of a relational and emotional nature, more subtle and less obvious than that expressed by male psychopaths,” he added.

Dr Boddy also pointed out a problem with a test for psychopathy, the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale (LSRP). He mentioned it seems to be more geared towards men. The first part looks at emotional detachment, selfishness, lack of empathy, and manipulation. But in the second part, which checks for the psychopathic lifestyle, the emphasis is on violence and antisocial behaviour, creating a gender-specific bias in psychopathy assessments. “The secondary element, and the measures for it, were largely based on studies of criminals who were in jail at the time and psychopathic – so the feeling is, among researchers these days, that those measures are just not suited to identifying female psychopathy,” he said.

Dr Boddy mentions that female psychopaths use deceit and seduction more than male psychopaths to gain social and financial advantages. He said, “Female psychopaths, while not as severely psychopathic or as psychopathic as often as males are, have nevertheless been underestimated in their incidence levels and are therefore more of a potential threat to business and society than anyone previously suspected. This has implications for the criminal justice system because current risk management decisions involving partners and children may be faulty. It also has implications for organisational leadership selection decisions because female leaders cannot automatically be assumed to be more honest, caring and concerned with issues such as corporate social responsibility.” 

Dr Clive Boddy has been studying the influence of psychopaths in the workplace since 2005. He is a leading academic in the field, having published extensively on corporate psychopathy. His research focuses on toxic leadership, specifically examining how corporate psychopaths affect employees, organisations, and society.