# Boring psychopaths **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844 "2012-04-04T19:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/21 "2012-04-06T13:45:04Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I recall reading somewhere that about 5% of corporate CEOs are psychopaths. No idea how that was determined. I’m really surprised that number is so low, the difference between a normal psychopath and successful upper level manager is the money they are paid to do it… This link says that 10% of managers are corporate psychopaths, I’m quite certain CEO’s would have a higher percentage. Ok, perhaps not, but perhaps the managers they employ: [http://robertmijas.com/blog/the-corporate-psychopath-and-the-window-of-empathy/](http://robertmijas.com/blog/the-corporate-psychopath-and-the-window-of-empathy/) ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/22 "2012-04-06T13:46:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > This is a concept I once heard Howard Chaykin mention. He was talking about a particular comic book writer’s take on the Joker, saying he had turned him into a psychopath. Someone asked what was wrong with that, and Chaykin replied, “because he’s a boring psychopath.” There were non pyschopathic Jokers? Ok, not an expert on Batman, but his portrayals have been exactly that in the last 30 years… ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/23 "2012-04-06T14:06:37Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > -Now that I think about it, every D&D character ever played at my gaming table has ultimately been a copy of the player, only psychopathic. Chaotic Evil means never having to say you’re sorry. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/24 "2012-04-06T14:57:59Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > There were non pyschopathic Jokers? Ok, not an expert on Batman, but his portrayals have been exactly that in the last 30 years… I go back 50 years, and, yes, there were. During the 50s and 60s especially, he was more of a jokester. No homicidal mania once Frederick Wertham came along, and I think most portrayals of him prior to that made him more diabolical than psychopathic: when he killed, it was usually part of some plan (he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for that meddling Batman). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/25 "2012-04-06T15:27:44Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > To say much more would be to risk breaching confidentiality. Serial killers aren’t all that common. > > Now psychopaths, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen where I work. Goldman Sachs? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/26 "2012-04-06T15:32:17Z")
I posted about this a long time ago, I think psychopaths make for boring characters, because their evil stems from a pathology. There is no “there” there, they are missing an essential element of humanity. It is very good fodder for lazy writers. I’m thinking of all the villains of the weeks in series like CSI and L&O and all the others, who do horrible things so detectives will have work to do. They always kill one or two victims early on so the audience knows what kind of jeopardy the final victim, who will be saved, is in. By the numbers, and so boring. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/27 "2012-04-06T20:25:12Z")
> [@willthekittensurvive](#): > > was Ripiley the first psychopath protagonist in modern literature? No, that would be Mr Toad. Yeah, I know he wasn’t strictly the protagonist; the book was still dull as ditchwater when he was offscreen. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/28 "2012-04-06T22:10:55Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I posted about this a long time ago, I think psychopaths make for boring characters, because their evil stems from a pathology. There is no “there” there, they are missing an essential element of humanity. It is very good fodder for lazy writers. I’m thinking of all the villains of the weeks in series like CSI and L&O and all the others, who do horrible things so detectives will have work to do. They always kill one or two victims early on so the audience knows what kind of jeopardy the final victim, who will be saved, is in. By the numbers, and so boring. I know a few psychopaths whose cellmates sure don’t think they’re boring! They’re always hanging on their every word. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844/29 "2012-04-06T23:22:14Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I know a few psychopaths whose cellmates sure don’t think they’re boring! They’re always hanging on their every word. I imagine if I were locked in a cage with a psychopath, I’d pay a fair amount of attention to them too! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boring-psychopaths/617844.md?page=1)