Dealing With A Psychopath? This Trick Will Catch Them Out

There’s a surprisingly large number of psychopaths in the workplace - and they’re expert manipulators.

It’s believed that around 3-4% of senior positions in business are occupied by psychopaths, as opposed to 1% in the population as a whole.

But there is a trick to dealing with them, a new study has found.

Psychopaths - and other manipulators with ‘dark triad’ traits such as being narcissistic - are best at dealing with people in person, where they can ‘switch on the charm’.

If you want to catch them out, communicate by email instead - or any other online means, rather than face-to-face negotiation.

The finding is based on volunteers - some of whom had ‘dark triad’ traits – negotiating deals with other volunteers both online and offline.

Lead author Michael Woodworth of the University of British Columbia said, ‘The results of this study are pretty clear–once you remove non-verbal cues such as body language from the equation, the ability to smoke out narcissists and psychopaths becomes easier.

‘We can also conclude that it is very likely that the qualities that allow these people to successfully charm, manipulate, intimidate or exploit others appear to require a live, in-person audience.