Book Review: Snakes in Suits

 This article is reprinted with permission from the December 1, 2006 edition of the New York Law Journal. © 2006 ALM Properties Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.

Friday December 1, 2006
New York Law Journal p. 2, col. 3
Copyright 2006 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, by Paul Babiak Ph.D. and Robert D. Hare Ph.D.
ReganBooks, New York, N.Y. 336 pages, $26.95
Reviewed by Phil Schatz

 Psychopaths are a form of intra-species predator and ordinary people are their prey. Charming, charismatic, intelligent, creative, and believable on the surface, psychopaths are chronic liars and remorseless manipulators who lack even basic empathy. Remarkably capable of diagnosing and manipulating other people’s weaknesses, skilled psychopaths are able to fool even experienced clinicians.Victims are unceremoniously dumped when their usefulness is over, left in an uncomprehending daze of self-doubt and, frequently, financial ruin. If caught and jailed, he (or she) shows no remorse and blames the victim.

The touchstone trait of the psychopath is a lack of conscience. This trait may be biological, as some studies have shown that the psychopaths’ limbic system, the emotional center of the brain, is wired differently. Psychopaths are incapable of empathy or guilt, in any aspect of their lives, and are loyal to no one but themselves.

 How common is psychopathology? According to Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare in their new book ‘Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work,’ about 1 percent of the population falls solidly within the diagnostic range for full-blown psychopathology. The number of genuine psychopaths in businesses and corporations is higher, up to 3.5 percent. Another 10 percent of the population shows enough psychopathological tendencies to present problems to society.

 Despite the chatty, pop-psychology structure and tone of the book, these figures are probably reliable. Dr. Hare is the leading authority in the diagnosis of psychopathology with over 35 years of teaching and lecturing on the subject. He is the author of the test used by criminal justice and healthcare professionals around the world, the ‘Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised.’ His prior book, ‘Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us’ is well-regarded. Dr. Babiak is an organizational psychologist with a particular interest in improving the operations of business organizations.

 The book focuses on the problem of psychopathology in the corporate setting. Psychopathic individuals are substantially more common in business organizations, particularly in leadership positions, than in the general public. The book is premised on the convictions that psychopaths do work in modern corporations, that some of them are quite successful by modern definitions of success, and that their malevolent effects on their employers and coworkers are frequently invisible. The purpose of the book is to explain why the modern corporation is an attractive environment for psychopathic individuals and to help organizations and coworkers understand, and avoid, the destruction that psychopaths can cause.

 Why are psychopaths more common in corporations than elsewhere? The authors suggest several reasons. Rapid business growth and frequent reorganizations have led to instability and freedom that psychopaths find exciting. Many of the psychopaths core qualities — charm, egocentricity, manipulativeness and lack of reserve — are similar to the modern model for effective leadership. The psychopath’s emotional poverty is mistaken for coolness under fire, the ability to keep feelings in check, and the ability to make hard decisions.

Frequent downsizing and reduced oversight have made it easier for psychopaths to get hired and avoid detection as they rise up the corporate ladder. Psychopaths thrive in ‘affinity groups’ — religious, political or social groups, including corporate organizations — because they can easily trade upon the collective trust by mimicking the values and language of the group.

As a cynic would ask, why should the corporation care? The recent documentary ‘The Corporation’ suggested that the modern corporation, as an entity, meets the diagnostic criteria for psychopathology.

Some modern proponents of unrestrained, laissez-faire capitalism are, essentially, arguing that it is the corporations duty, not merely its right, to act without the restraints of empathy and conscience. This broader issue is not discussed, although the authors dispute that most corporations act like psychopaths. The authors do, however, contend that corporations are better off without individual psychopaths, who lack any loyalty to the corporation or its workers. If they don’t steal directly from the company, they engage in high-risk, unethical conduct that can cause substantial damage to the company in the longer run.

 What can the corporation do to avoid the problem? The authors provide several useful suggestions both to corporations and to coworkers as to how to avoid and deal with psychopaths in the workplace.

For corporations, the first and most important recommendation is to establish screening practices that confirm each and every piece of information on resumes. Psychopaths are notorious liars and their resumes contain jobs never held and degrees never earned at companies and colleges that never existed. In addition, the corporation must educate and train its interviewers to identify problem candidates. Psychopaths have no social anxiety and perform well in interviews, and they can make solemn upfront declarations of integrity without batting an eye. Interviewers who rely on gut feelings are worse than useless. Interviewers should take detailed notes, and there should be an increase in number and types of interviewers (a psychopath assesses people based on perceived status and will treat an underling quite differently from a coworker or superior) to flush out inconsistencies and avoid superficial misjudgments.

 For individuals, the advice is elementary: learn about the condition; avoid labeling others — but recognize that there do exist people with no conscience, and be on guard; know yourself and your vulnerabilities; and, if you think you are involved with a psychopath, seek help. This is good advice.

Although psychopaths are not so common that everyone should panic, they are common enough that everyone should be knowledgeable about this personality disorder and keep alert to its signs, before they are victimized.

 ’Snakes in Suits’ is a good place to start. Such knowledge will also prevent errant judicial responses such as the Canadian case where the advertising executive was convicted of defrauding the government out of $1.5 million over a five-year pattern of forgeries and deceptions, memory lapses after capture, and uncooperative and unrepentant responses to his prosecution. He was sentenced to teaching ethics to business students, presumably on the assumption that the exposure was punishment enough. The defendant is presumably still laughing.