Why jerks get ahead

By Saumya Kalia. Poetry as Resistance. Literature has been one of the oldest tools of revolution in India. Stifling the activist's voice speaks to the state's fear of words.

By Rohitha Naraharisetty. Sorry Boss! Employers could face financial penalties like increased gas and electricity bills for contacting employees outside of work hours. Leave a comment. On a personal level, you can look at a paper like this to see how your professional rivals or coworkers are getting ahead. It has to do with social cues and personality traits — some of which maybe you should adopt. Nobody likes a jerk, but it seems clear that jerks are on to something — at least if you stick by the old adage that the ends justify the means.

Sam Becker More Articles Published on. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership. Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Please click confirm to resume now. The researchers hypothesized that some of these sinister traits may help people succeed, while other traits may hinder career advancement. For example, people with high scores of Machiavellianism tend to crave power, control, and status — hence, they tend to actively pursue leadership positions and prestige.

On the other hand, nobody likes working with a selfish jerk — Psychopaths often have difficulty working with other people, and are prone to impulsivity. Spurk and colleagues collected surveys from a large sample of nearly working German adults between the ages of 25 and Respondents then provided their monthly salary before taxes and leadership position within their organization, and completed a short self-report survey on their career satisfaction.

In their analyses, the researchers also took various other factors that could influence career success, like gender, job tenure, working hours, and occupational education, into account. The researchers found a negative association between psychopathy and successful career outcomes. Though psychopaths may be charismatic, smart, and talented, this inability to play well with others often prevents them from obtaining high levels of career success.

Interestingly, a comprehensive review on successful psychopaths recently conducted by Emory University psychological scientists Scott Lilienfeld, Ashley Watts, and Sarah Smith found that some psychopaths may possess distinctive traits that make them more likely to become successful leaders.

While the bulk of psychopathy research has focused on prison populations, Lilienfeld and colleagues looked at research on people with psychopathic traits who also obtained professional success.

Additional research on the mixed outcomes of the Dark Triad may help explain why so many organizations end up with a destructive Tony Soprano or Frank Underwood at the top.