More women might be psychopaths than we think, new study suggests

The conventional belief that psychopathy predominantly manifests in men is being challenged by recent research suggesting a significant presence of female psychopaths. DrClive Boddy, an expert in corporate psychopathy at Anglia Ruskin University, contests the commonly cited ratio of male to female psychopaths in a new study, suggesting a potentially significant underestimation of female psychopathy prevalence, as reported by the Guardian.

Challenging gender stereotypes in psychopathy

Contrary to popular perception, Dr Boddy argues that psychopathic traits, such as insincerity, deceitfulness, and lack of empathy, are not exclusively male characteristics. He suggests that societal gender biases may lead to the under-recognition of female psychopathy, even when these traits are exhibited by women.

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“People generally attribute psychopathic characteristics to males rather than to females,” Dr Boddy said in areport. “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 labelled as such, even when they should be,” he added.

Psychopaths are typically characterised by a lack of empathy, engagement in antisocial behavior, frequent lying, and displays of ruthlessness and manipulation.

“The behaviour of female psychopaths seems to be subtle enough and less obvious than male psychopaths and therefore they're not recognised as much,” Dr Boddy said.

“A small but mounting body of evidence describes female psychopaths as prone to expressing violence verbally rather than physically, with the violence being of a relational and emotional nature, more subtle and less obvious than that expressed by male psychopaths,” he added.

DrBoddy notes that female psychopaths employ tactics of deceit and seduction with greater frequency compared to their male counterparts in order to attain social and financial benefits.

He said, “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 organisational leadership selection decisions because female leaders cannot automatically be assumed to be more honest, caring and concerned with issues such as corporate social responsibility.”

(With inputs from agencies)