IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v64y2018icp130-139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do psychopathic traits predict professional success?

Author

Listed:
  • Eisenbarth, Hedwig
  • Hart, Claire M.
  • Sedikides, Constantine

Abstract

Does psychopathy predict professional success? Psychopathy and professional success are multidimensional constructs, and thus certain elements of psychopathy may be related more strongly to certain elements of professional success. Also, psychopathic traits, comprising self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance, and coldheartedness, may not predict professional success above and beyond the Big Five. We investigated whether self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance, and coldheartedness predicted professional satisfaction (satisfaction with salary, with promotion, and with career) as well as material success (annual salary, number of promotions, and professional standing) in an occupational sample (N = 439). Self-centered impulsivity was inversely related to professional satisfaction, whereas fearless dominance was positively related to professional satisfaction and material success. Coldheartedness was related to neither of them. Adding the Big Five, as well as participant gender and time in job, as predictors revealed that extraversion and self-centered impulsivity predicted professional satisfaction, whereas only extraversion predicted material success; fearless dominance was no longer a significant predictor of material success. Taken together, self-centered impulsivity was negatively linked, whereas fearless dominance was positively linked, to professional success. The findings highlight the differential contribution of impulsiveness- versus fearlessness-related elements of psychopathic traits to professional satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Eisenbarth, Hedwig & Hart, Claire M. & Sedikides, Constantine, 2018. "Do psychopathic traits predict professional success?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 130-139.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:64:y:2018:i:c:p:130-139
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2018.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016748701730315X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joep.2018.01.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christiane Nieß & Hannes Zacher, 2015. "Openness to Experience as a Predictor and Outcome of Upward Job Changes into Managerial and Professional Positions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yan Yi Lance Du & Klaus J. Templer, 2022. "The Happy Subclinical Psychopath: The Protective Role of Boldness in Successful Psychopathy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1143-1168, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iris Kesternich & Bettina Siflinger & James P. Smith & Franziska Valder, 2022. "Relationship Stability: Evidence from Labor and Marriage Markets," CEBI working paper series 22-20, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    2. Tamilla Triantoro & Ram Gopal & Raquel Benbunan-Fich & Guido Lang, 0. "Personality and games: enhancing online surveys through gamification," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-10.
    3. Eva Asselmann & Elke Holst & Jule Specht, 2022. "Longitudinal Bidirectional Associations between Personality and Becoming a Leader," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1167, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Sunday Adekunle Aduloju, 2020. "Personality Traits and Performance of Salespersons among Insurance Companies in Nigeria," Academic Journal of Economic Studies, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 6(3), pages 127-138, September.
    5. Tamilla Triantoro & Ram Gopal & Raquel Benbunan-Fich & Guido Lang, 2020. "Personality and games: enhancing online surveys through gamification," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 169-178, September.
    6. Fernández-Mesa, Anabel & Llopis, Oscar & García-Granero, Ana & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia, 2020. "Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 602-612.
    7. Innocenti, Stefania & Golin, Marta, 2022. "Human capital investment and perceived automation risks: Evidence from 16 countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 27-41.
    8. White, Joshua V. & Harms, P.D. & Borgholthaus, Cameron J. & Tuggle, Christopher S., 2023. "I’m not the executive that I used to be: Understanding causes and consequences of personality change in the upper echelons," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Uyuğ Şengün Damlasu & Tuğrul Tuğba, 2023. "Exploring the Relationship between Organizational Cultures, Openness to Experience and Work Engagement," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 2108-2118, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:64:y:2018:i:c:p:130-139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.