So Fallon put his family members, including himself, under the machines. And as he was flipping through the pile of his family's scans, he saw one that looked identical to the killers he'd been studying.
He thought the lab technicians had played a joke on him, slipping a psychopath's scan into the pile with his family. They assured him that this was no joke. The psychopathic markers were all there.
The parts of the brain that regulate conscience, emotional empathy and inhibition were turned off. It was my name. He laughed it off. He still didn't believe it. He'd never been a violent guy. He was married with kids. He had plenty of friends, and a successful career. But when he got home and told his wife about it, she said to him: "It doesn't surprise me. On and on. All the people close to me, including psychiatrists who I'd worked with for years who really knew me well.
They all said — except for my mother, who said, 'No, you're a nice boy' — everybody else said, 'Wwe've been telling you for decades, for years, that you do psychopathic things. He'd been emotionally unavailable, reckless, manipulative, getting by on charm and what he calls "cognitive empathy" — the ability to understand what others are feeling, without actually feeling it himself.
Assessments by his colleagues were what really convinced him. His brain scans, genetic markers and behaviours all pointed toward borderline psychopathy. If a cold-blooded killer is formed through both nature and nurture, Fallon's nature suggested he was capable of terrible things. Perhaps a lack of childhood trauma had prevented him from acting on his violent instincts, he thought. Some bosses are arrogant, rude, overbearing, overly demanding, don't act with integrity -- they're the kind of people we hate to work for.
But not psychopaths. According to research , primary psychopaths the worst kind lack empathy. They're cool-headed and fearless. They don't get affected by things that cause most people to feel stressed, fearful, or angry -- they coolly analyze the situation and find ways to flourish.
Which means a bad boss environment "may reward and retain exactly the kind of people who are likely to perpetuate abusive cultures," the researchers write. Psychopaths not only thrive under abusive bosses, they're much more likely to get ahead of their peers. Does that mean that every person who seems to thrive under an abusive boss is a psychopath? S ome people do their best regardless -- or even in spite -- of the way they are treated. Maybe you've already picked out the psychopath in your workplace.
And there's no way you can avoid that person. That's OK. As Eric Barker writes , pay attention to what people do, not what they say. That's the best way to know if you're being manipulated.
Also, work hard to create win-win scenarios. Most of us want to "win. Find ways that both of you can win, and psychopaths are much more likely to work with you than against you. And don't forget to do what emotionally intelligent people do: Empathize with and adapt to the people around you.
You can almost never control the way other people act, but you can always control how you respond. Top Stories. Top Videos. Are children poor liars? Do you think you can easily detect their lies? Developmental researcher Kang Lee studies what happens physiologically to children when they lie. They do it a lot, starting as young as two years old, and they're actually really good at it. Lee explains why we should celebrate when kids start to lie and presents new lie-detection technology that could someday reveal our hidden emotions.
Jim Fallon.
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