Psychopaths Among Us: Criminals, Winners, or Sometimes Both?

Despite the cinematic portrayal of psychopaths as sex-crazed serial killers, most psychopaths never kill, many lead superficially normal lives, and some become very successful in the "normal" world. Psychopathy is a disorder of personality that is characterized by a few very narrow deficits in learning and their resultant responses to the environment. My class will describe what psychopaths actually are, how they are different from the rest of society, how they operate in society, and under what circumstances they may become very successful in business and other professions. One of the hallmarks of psychopathy is an ability to easily and shamelessly lie. Detection deception, always an important workplace skill, becomes critical with regard to the psychopath. My talk will also briefly address the science of deception detection and provide information about where that active area  of Psychological Science is going and how it may impact the workplace.