Why is Wall Street full of psychopaths?

A surprisingly high number of financiers have an “unparalleled capacity for lying,” according to a new, unsettling report that’s rattling the industry

One out of 10 Wall Street employees is a clinical psychopath, estimates Sherree DeCovny in CFA Magazine [pdf for purchase], compared with one out of 100 people in the general population. That statistic is “shocking,” says Sam Ro at Business Insider, and, while it doesn’t mean Wall Street is crawling with ax-wielding serial killers (see American Psycho), the extreme character traits outlined in DeCovny’s report are certainly prevalent — and often admired — in the industry. Here, a guide to Wall Street’s madness:

What are the symptoms of Wall Street psychopaths?
They “generally lack empathy and interest in what other people feel or think,” writes DeCovny, who bases her report on interviews with several trade psychologists. Financial psychopaths are capable of displaying “an abundance of charm, charisma, [and] intelligence,” but also possess an “unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.”

How does it affect their work?
In extreme cases, financial psychopaths become compulsive gamblers, driven by “the chemical rush of serotonin and endorphins” that accompanies gambling, writes Alexander Eichler at The Huffington Post. Of course, “an appetite for risk can seem like a positive business trait on Wall Street, where big gambles sometimes lead to big rewards.” But when bets go bad, psychopaths “dig themselves into a deeper hole and deny any wrongdoing or failure,” DeCovny says. Financial psychopaths lie to others — and themselves — about the extent of their problem, and “commit forgery, fraud, theft, and embezzlement to support their habit.”

Rest here…

~

4closureFraud.org