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124 SNAKES IN SUITS
of course; almost all new employees do. However, psychopaths do so
with very little intent of actually delivering a work product to the
company commensurate with the salary they receive. Also, their
emotional poverty does not support allegiance or loyalty to the company
or their coworkers, although they can speak the necessary
words to indicate intense loyalty to the firm. Their personas might be
compared to the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store.
The Dark Triad
Among the personalities that present problems for society in
general and for the corporate world in particular are narcissism,
Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (including its less severe
variant, subclinical psychopathy), sometimes referred to collectively
as the dark triad.
As described by researchers Nathanson, Paulhus, and
Williams, “Those high in narcissism are characterized by
grandiosity, entitlement, and a sense of superiority over
others. . . . Such individuals are arrogant, self-centered, and consistently
self-enhancing. . . . Individuals high in Machiavellianism
are characterized by cynicism and the manipulation of others....
these individuals exploit a wide range of duplicitous tactics to
achieve their self-interested goals. . . . Those high in subclinical
psychopathy are characterized by cold emotion, interpersonal
manipulation, impulsive thrill-seeking, and a tendency to engage
in antisocial behavior.... Even those who have avoided being arrested
tend to engage in dangerous and often illegal behaviors
with little concern for the consequences.”
In a series of studies, Paulhus and his colleagues have shown
that of the members of the dark triad it is subclinical psychopathy
that is most strongly related to a variety of socially deviant behaviors,
including cheating, plagiarism, self-reports of misbehavior,
bullying, and drug use. [In this case, subclinical psychopathy
is measured by the Self-Report Psychopathy-III Scale (SRP-III;
Paulhus, Hemphill & Hare, in press).] This is not surprising, given