The top 10 jobs that attract psychopaths

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LKL
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06 Jan 2013, 6:47 pm

All of these jobs are positions of social authority and trust. It's probably not the job - it's the side benefits of the job that are attractive to sociopaths.



Tequila
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06 Jan 2013, 7:03 pm

LKL wrote:
All of these jobs are positions of social authority and trust. It's probably not the job - it's the side benefits of the job that are attractive to sociopaths.


I am very glad that at least someone said clergy. It was long overdue, and would have been even more positive to those kind of abusive personalities in the past (Catholic priests!). Also consider jobs like mental health orderlies (all that power over people who can't speak out), teachers and overnight staff in remote boarding schools and so on.



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07 Jan 2013, 12:31 am

LKL wrote:
All of these jobs are positions of social authority and trust. It's probably not the job - it's the side benefits of the job that are attractive to sociopaths.


Exactly. Even jobs like security guards, bouncers, police and low-to-mid management where they have the power to make people do what they say and harshly punish those who don't.



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10 Jan 2013, 3:38 pm

lol doesn't surprise me at all.. but yea politician should be 1.. though Alex Jones popped into my head first when I was reading this :P

btw got a 13 out of 33.. ha.. hey, manipulative powers can be useful... :twisted:


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Jayo
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11 Jan 2013, 4:19 pm

LKL wrote:
All of these jobs are positions of social authority and trust. It's probably not the job - it's the side benefits of the job that are attractive to sociopaths.


Yeah, but sometimes I don't know about social authority being the only motivating factor - it is almost always coupled with money and prestige (or relative fame) and people don't earn a ton of money being a teacher (special ed or otherwise), or orderly or nursing functions or those "benevolent" professions where people ostensibly don't go into it for lucrative reasons. Same deal applies to clergy as I said earlier. Plus in those professions you have to report to a more stern authority like principal/headmaster or director or whatever which would not suit a psychopath well. Compared to sales or corporate finance or media jobs where they have more room to charm and con their way with authority. Just doesn't have the same office politics dynamics as the benevolent professions.



BlueMax
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11 Jan 2013, 5:27 pm

Not everyone has the connections or resources to become a psycho/sociopathic doctor or lawyer, so they get the position they CAN and control people there.



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11 Jan 2013, 5:55 pm

My score was a 9 out of 33. Chefs are known to be tempermental and so are surgeons so it makes sense to some degree that these professions attract sociopaths. I do not mind a sociopathic surgeon if he happens to be a great surgeon and I would want to be his patient and not have to work with him. Same goes for a chef, I would like to eat food made by an excellent, but tempermental chef, but not have to work with him or for him/her.

Men are more direct that is true and women are often catty and sneakey, etc.


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LKL
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12 Jan 2013, 1:12 am

9 out of 33 here, too. I can usually turn off my emotions in a stressful situation, at least until it's over; I pay for it later, though. And my morality doesn't lapse in the interim.



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12 Jan 2013, 2:08 am

^^^
:wtg: you sound like the kind of stand-up guy i'd want in my corner, even as you'd be making tracks to get away from me :oops:



MCalavera
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12 Jan 2013, 6:11 am

I got 8/33.



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16 Jan 2013, 11:16 am

So many psychopaths and sociopaths in upper management. I did alright in management and even sales (account management) in an incredibly AS friendly sector but always stumbled when I got to that level. Refusing to play along can cost a lot of career development.



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17 Jan 2013, 3:16 am

journos like the ones that chase various celebrities

news of the wold was full of them

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad

http://books.google.com/books?id=EMyAJP ... &q&f=false



opal
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17 Jan 2013, 9:12 pm

I got an 8.

I agree there are heaps of psycopaths in management roles. It's worse when they are HR manager though. 8O



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29 Jan 2013, 6:02 pm

Jayo wrote:
You know, I'm surprised that clergy is on this list...yeah, sure, you might tend to think of pedophile priests as being psychopaths - but how do you explain the fact that being a clergyman pays very little, and psychopaths are highly attracted to MONEY, and lots and lots of it??!? With something like lawyer, CEO, or sales, they fulfill their obscene desire but not in church.


power is more important to them than money....they want the money IN ORDER to have POWER....it is a means to an end.



Jayo
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02 Feb 2013, 3:17 pm

slave wrote:
Jayo wrote:
You know, I'm surprised that clergy is on this list...yeah, sure, you might tend to think of pedophile priests as being psychopaths - but how do you explain the fact that being a clergyman pays very little, and psychopaths are highly attracted to MONEY, and lots and lots of it??!? With something like lawyer, CEO, or sales, they fulfill their obscene desire but not in church.


power is more important to them than money....they want the money IN ORDER to have POWER....it is a means to an end.


Oh yeah, what was that famous quote from Scarface (Al Pacino)? :wink:



MrKnowItAll
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07 Feb 2013, 9:03 pm

auntblabby wrote:
i was a civil servant for 2 decades but i scored a 1 out of 33 on the psychopathy test because i said "rules were made to be broken."


I bet if the test asked you to choose between that and "Sometimes principles and common sense trump rules" you would have chosen the latter. Or if the statement was "It's not illegal if you don't get caught." your answer would have separated you from sociopaths.