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Are You A Psychopath?

Topics: Lifestyle & Culture | 4 CommentsBy admin | November 12, 2008

Maybe you should go into finance.


Investment bankers
have all the fun…

No, all my rage has a perfectly rational foundation, thank you very much. For some reason, the recent economic crisis reminded me of the idea floating around back in 2004 that maybe corporate culture was breeding and encouraging actual psychopaths. Thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I keep running into articles that suggest that this is indeed the case. What else could explain the audacity of the inclusion of a $140 Billion windfall tax in the Treasury Department’s economic bailout package? Or the aberrant behavior of individuals in the finance industry described in this lengthy but well-written Portfolio.com piece? The election was a nice distraction, but is anyone out there still even slightly angry? If we turned the tables and went all American Psycho on investment executives, would it be justifiable homicide? Anyway, to answer the original question: if whether or not you’re a psychopath is an area of doubt for you, here’s a quick quiz * . Turns out that I’m 59% empathic, 24% delusional, 64% sociable, and 37% law-abiding. Which raises the question: If I’m 24% delusional, is it possible I only took 76% of the quiz?

*29 questions, and don’t fall for the checkbox trick at the end.

Read Comments

  1. Posted by TeacherPatti on 11.12.08 9:46 am

    Here are my results:

    You scored 75% on empathic, higher than 93% of your peers. 11/100 You scored 2% on delusional, higher than 11% of your peers. 77/100 You scored 67% on sociable, higher than 77% of your peers. 79/100 You scored 57% on law-abiding

  2. Posted by Dojo Nick on 11.12.08 7:40 pm

    I scored 83% empathic, 0% delusional, 81% sociable, and 52% law-abiding. I am completely sane.

  3. Posted by admin on 11.12.08 8:05 pm

    I call cheat. I say you’re both guilty of socially desirable responding. Especially Dojo Nick. You’d have to be a LITTLE bit delusional to visit Dissociated Press more than once. Factoring in the “faking good” element, I give you both an informal 85% on self-esteem. Keep up the good work!

  4. Posted by Dojo Nick on 11.16.08 11:37 pm

    Dissociatedpress.com is my secret addiction. It’s where I learn hip, obscure stuff to get my friends to think I’m cooler than I really am.