What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to highlight the exploitative traits of psychopathic individuals, particularly in leadership roles and their impact on exploitation.

February 25, 2026

The exploitative psychopathic personality: a conceptual outline

Key Points

The aim is to highlight the exploitative traits of psychopathic individuals, particularly in leadership roles and their impact on exploitation.
Conducted a literature search in Google Scholar and a personal database of over 4,000 papers.
Identified and reviewed 30 relevant studies linking psychopathy to various forms of exploitation.
Focused on psychopathic traits applicable in management and leadership contexts.
Highlighted potential links between psychopathy and environmental exploitation, workforce mistreatment, and human trafficking.
Discussed the varied forms of exploitation associated with psychopathic individuals, including illegal drug distribution and coercive pornography.
Emphasized the need for further research on personality traits in the context of exploitation.

Abstract

Purpose This short conceptual paper aims to alert future contributors of research papers concerning exploitation to the uniquely exploitative nature of psychopathic people, including in their management and leadership roles. The paper offers guidance to researchers in the field of economic exploitation and inequality, suggesting that they should not overlook the personality-based explanations for such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach A search within the search engine “Google Scholar” for papers linking psychopathy to exploitation and exploitativeness was made in August 2025. This revealed five relevant papers. To achieve methodological robustness and ensure a comprehensive search was undertaken, a similar search was conducted within one of the current author's own databases, which contained 4,143 papers. This author is an acknowledged world leader in corporate psychopathy research, and keeps up to date with the relevant literature, and so this database should contain the most relevant papers. Twenty-five additional papers were thus identified and are discussed herein. Findings Potential and actual links between psychopathy and varied forms of exploitation, such as environmental exploitation, workforce mistreatment, exploitation of host populations within tourist destinations, illegal drug distribution, human trafficking, coercive pornography production, and gambling, are discussed. Areas for further research are suggested. Practical implications People with psychopathic personalities may be involved in a wide variety of exploitative activities, perhaps in conjunction with other antecedents of exploitation. Future research should take this association into account in designing further studies concerning exploitation. Originality/value In an academic environment where personality can be downplayed in favour of group and organisational dynamics, this paper reminds academic research colleagues of the important role the psychopathic personality can play in all forms of exploitation.

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