How charming and charismatic is your boss?

The Daily Mail in the UK released a study showing one out of every 25 company executives is a psychopath but their charm and social interaction skills hide this condition.

New York psychologist Paul Babiak led the study to find out how many psychopaths could be in huge companies. Details of the study finding will be shown in Are You Good Or Evil?, a Horizon documentary to be aired on BBC2 next Wednesday.

"Their natural tendency is to be charming. Take that charm and couch it in the right business language and it sounds like charismatic leadership," said Dr. Babiak.

To determine the statistics of psychopaths in the workplace, Dr. Babiak designed a 111-point questionnaire with the University of British Columbia's Professor Bob Hare, a world-renowned psychopathy expert and an adviser to the FBI.

The study also found corporate movers and shakers are four times more likely to be psychopaths than the general population. Some of the reasons their psychopathic tendencies may not be obvious at work are favorable environmental factors, such as positive upbringing at home or a happy childhood. Without helpful factors, a psychopath could potentially turn into a serial killer.

The study cited "Horrible Bosses," a film starring Kevin Spacey to illustrate how some bosses are inclined to be callous, inconsiderate, and insensitive of others' feelings.

"Psychopaths really aren't the kind of person you think they are. In fact, you could be living with or married to one for 20 years or more and not know that person is a psychopath," Dr. Babiak noted.

"Part of the problem is that the very things we're looking for in our leaders, the psychopath can easily mimic. Their natural tendency is to be charming. Take that charm and couch it in the right business language and it sounds like charismatic leadership."

The study further revealed that psychopaths actually do not give stellar performances at work, but they more than make up for their weaknesses with their charm, which works on both their superiors and subordinates.

"The higher the psychopathy, the better they looked - lots of charisma and they talk a good line. But if you look at their actual performance and ratings as a team player and productively, it's dismal. Looked good, performed badly," said Prof. Hare.

"A psychopath can actually put themselves in your skin - intellectually, not emotionally," Prof. Hare added.

"So how do you tell the high-power, high-talent MBA student from the lying, cheating, deceitful, manipulative psychopath? That's very, very hard to do," said Dr. Babiak.

Studies of psychopaths who have committed murder reveal that psychopaths show abnormalities on brain scans. In the orbital cortex directly above the eyes and at the front of the temporal lobe which houses the amygdale, signs are supposed to show when emotional responses are tested. These areas are either damaged or unresponsive to emotional stimulus among psychopaths.