Charisma might be one factor that differentiates so-called “successful” psychopaths from their unsuccessful counterparts, according to new research published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
“Successful psychopathy is a highly controversial subject because psychopathic personality traits are related to concepts such as interpersonal manipulation, antisocial behavior, and criminality — which are hardly thought to be characteristic of success,” said study author Emma-Clementine O. Welsh, a PhD student at The State University of New York at Binghamton.
“Nonetheless, some psychopathic individuals manage to achieve occupational success in the form of power, wealth, or status, as well as criminal success (i.e., committing crimes or other unethical acts without being caught or punished). Psychopathic individuals are often unpleasant, callous, or abrasive, however, some psychopathic individuals exude charm, charisma, and confidence. We wanted to understand how psychopathy can be conducive to successful outcomes, and determine if charisma plays a role in obtaining those outcomes.”
In the study, 315 individuals recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform completed a battery of scientific surveys, including an assessment developed by the researchers called the Psychopathic Success Inventory. The inventory measured how often participants got away with deviant behaviors as well as their occupational success — such as their rank, salary, degree of freedom, and achievements at their workplace.
Welsh and Professor Mark F. Lenzenweger, her coauthor and laboratory head, found that those who scored higher on measures of psychopathic traits tended to also score high on an assessment of charismatic leadership. In addition, more psychopathic individuals were more likely to report a greater ability to influence people compared to less psychopathic individuals.
Charisma did not appear to moderate the association between psychopathic traits and occupational success. But Welsh and Lenzenweger found that charisma did moderate the association between psychopathic traits and success in the form of evading detection and evading punishment. In other words, the relationship between psychopathic traits and successfully getting away with deviant behaviors was stronger among those with higher charisma.
“A critical finding of the study was that there is a positive association between psychopathy and charisma, such that psychopathic individuals can display some of the same qualities that characterize charisma. This means someone with psychopathic traits might also be engaging, charming, smooth-talking, confident, or persuasive – regardless of their intentions,” Welsh told PsyPost.
“The other major takeaway from this study is that psychopathic individuals who are very charismatic may be able to get away with and avoid punishment for ‘bad behaviors’ (such as cheating on romantic partners, lying, abusing work privileges, or criminal activity) more often than psychopathic individuals who are less charismatic.”
The findings held even after controlling for other factors such as pathological narcissism, age, sex, and education level. But the study — like all research — includes some limitations.
“This study is the first of its kind and it needs to be replicated,” Welsh said. “Additionally, the results are based entirely upon self-report ‘paper and pencil’ methods. Future studies in this domain should use laboratory-based methods such as behavioral tasks or computerized tests to strengthen the results and conclusions that can be drawn from them.”
“While psychopathy and charisma are related personality domains, the findings of this study DO NOT suggest that charismatic individuals are or must be psychopathic or vice versa,” Welsh added. “Our study only suggests that there is overlap between the two personality constructs, and this only is true of some people.”
The study, “Psychopathy, charisma, and success: A moderation modeling approach to successful psychopathy“, was authored by Emma-Clementine O. Welsh and Mark F. Lenzenweger.
