When it comes to a typical psychopath, the fit and polished Patrick Bateman from the novel American Psycho may come to mind, but according to one expert, the number of women with the neuropsychiatric disorder may be much higher than previously thought.
Psychopaths are generally considered to lack empathy and guilt, exhibit antisocial behavior, lie frequently, and are ruthless, narcissistic, and manipulative.
“Psychopaths seek money, power and control,” says Dr Clive Boddy, of Anglia Ruskin University, who is an expert on psychopaths in the corporate world.
While the idea of psychopaths as violent, antisocial criminals has given way to a more nuanced view – with Boddy among those to argue that they are often found in big business – the idea that they are mostly male has remained.
“The behavior of female psychopaths seems to be subtle enough and less obvious than male psychopaths and therefore they are not recognized as much,” said Boddy.
“A small but growing body of evidence describes female psychopaths as tending to express violence verbally rather than physically, with the violence being of a relational and emotional nature, more subtle and less obvious than that experienced by male psychopaths expressed,” he noted, adding that could include spreading rumors and lies for personal gain.
Boddy said one problem was that part of the assessment used to identify psychopaths — known as the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) — was skewed toward identifying the disorder in men.
This, he said, was because while the first part of the assessment looked at how emotionally aloof, selfish, uncaring and manipulative a person was, the second part – covering the psychopathic lifestyle – focused on violence and antisocial behaviour.
“The secondary element, and the measures for it, were largely based on studies of criminals who were in prison at the time and were psychopathic – so the feeling is among researchers these days that those measures are just not suitable for identifying female psychopathy. “
There have also been fewer studies looking at psychopathy in women than in men, he said, and assessors may be reluctant to label women as psychopaths.
Some estimates have suggested that there may be a 10:1 ratio of male to female psychopaths, but Boddy’s work, using only the first part of the LSRP, has suggested that the numbers vary widely.
“It’s almost one to one,” Boddy said, although he noted that large-scale studies of randomly selected adults would be needed to get a more definitive picture.
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Boddy, who will be giving a talk on female psychopaths at the Cambridge Festival next month, said that while an estimated 1% of men are psychopaths, the diagnosis placed at one end of a spectrum.
“Estimates [using the first part of the LSRP suggest] there is about 23% of men who, while not categorically psychopathic, have enough of the traits to be problematic for society,” he said.
Boddy’s own research, based on surveys of white-collar workers, suggested that such traits were not uncommon in women. “About 12% to 13% of women have enough of those traits to be potentially problematic,” he said.
Recognizing psychopathy in women and men was important, Boddy said, not least because such individuals can have a huge impact in the workplace, with employees being sidelined, mistreated and bullied. Moreover, he noted, enterprises led by such individuals can lose direction, and this can affect how people view large organizations.
“They see the greed, untruth and ruthlessness of those at the top and it undermines democracy and the rule of law,” he said.
Boddy advocated that screening be applied to job applicants to help protect employees.
“Especially the higher you go in terms of seniority – therefore you have more power and control – the more those kinds of screening tests and psychometric tests are needed,” he said.
