Study: Female psychopaths are surprisingly common

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom — While the word psychopath usually conjures up images of knife-wielding attackers and masked assailants for most people, not all psychopaths are serial killers. The vast majority simply blend in with the rest of society, all the while masking their cold and calculating true nature. Now, new research set for presentation at Cambridge may just disprove yet another psychopath falsity. Most depictions and popular examples of psychopaths in the media are male, but the study argues female psychopaths are up to five times more common than currently believed.

Dr. Clive Boddy, an expert in corporate psychopathy from Anglia Ruskin University, is set to present his findings at the Cambridge Festival. While current estimates tell us male psychopaths outnumber females by roughly six to one, Dr. Boddy believes prior studies have failed to properly identify female psychopaths. This is in large part due to solely basing profiles around criminal and male psychopaths.

Dr. Boddy posits the characteristics of female psychopaths are quite different from males. He also notes gender bias likely plays a role in the under-reporting, as society tends to ignore perceived male traits when they’re displayed by women.

According to his latest research, the real ratio of male-female psychopathy may be roughly 1.2:1, or up to five times higher than previously estimated. He reached this conclusion by using measures of primary psychopathy, or excluding psychopathy’s antisocial behavioral characteristics and instead concentrating on its core elements.

Referencing research pertaining to corporate psychopaths and how they operate in high-achieving roles in workplaces, Dr. Boddy explains female psychopaths tend to be more manipulative than males, use different techniques to create good impressions, and use deceit and sexually seductive behavior to gain social and financial advantages more often than male psychopaths.

“People generally attribute psychopathic characteristics to males rather than to females. So even when females display some of the key traits associated with psychopathy – such as being insincere, deceitful, antagonistic, unempathetic and lacking in emotional depth – because these are seen as male characteristics they may not be labeled as such, even when they should be,” Boddy says in a media release.

“Also, female psychopaths tend to use words, rather than violence, to achieve their aims, differing from how male psychopaths tend to operate. If female psychopathy expresses differently, then measures designed to capture and identify male, criminal, psychopaths may be inadequate at identifying female non-criminal, psychopaths,” he continues. “Female psychopaths, while not as severely psychopathic or as psychopathic as often as males are, have nevertheless been underestimated in their incidence levels and are therefore more of a potential threat to business and society than anyone previously suspected.”

“This has implications for the criminal justice system because current risk management decisions involving partners and children may be faulty. It also has implications for organizational leadership selection decisions because female leaders cannot automatically be assumed to be more honest, caring and concerned with issues such as corporate social responsibility.”

Dr. Boddy’s talk is scheduled for Saturday, March 16th at ARU’s campus in East Road, Cambridge, and will also be available to attend virtually.