Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Robert D. Hare, Paul Babiak Page B

is not such a perfect place and people are not perfect be-ings. The best that we can hope for in most social situations is that our persona reflects the things we want to share with others, and that observers are open-minded enough that their attributions about us and our resulting reputation are accurate.
    Sales representatives, human resources staff, and other professionals who spend much time interacting with people become good at judging personality traits and characteristics. Psychologists and psychiatrists, of course, are trained in doing personality assessments 74
    S N A K E S I N S U I T S
    and can usually see a bit more of the underlying personality dynamics. So do poker players looking for “tells” leaked by other players.
    But to their credit, psychopaths have the deserved reputation of being good judges of the personalities of others—perhaps because they work hard at it—and have the uncanny ability to project the most effective persona, depending on the situation, to get what they want.
    How do they do it? To psychopaths, your face, words, and body language are your autobiography, printed in large type.
    Let the Games Begin:
    Forging the Psychopathic Bond
    Foremost on the psychopath’s agenda during the assessment phase is deciding your utility or value, followed by figuring out the inner workings of your personality. While this assessment progresses, the psychopath begins to focus efforts on building a close, personal relationship on which later manipulations will rest. As noted above, one need not be rich and powerful to attract the attention of a psychopath on the make; almost everyone has some sort of utility for an enterprising psychopath.
    As interaction with you proceeds, the psychopath carefully assesses your persona. Your persona gives the psychopath a picture of the traits and characteristics you value in yourself. Your persona may also reveal, to an astute observer, insecurities or weaknesses you wish to minimize or hide from view. As an ardent student of human behavior, the psychopath will then gently test the inner strengths and needs that are part of your private self and eventually build a personal relationship with you by communicating (through words and deeds) four important messages.
    The first message is that the psychopath likes and values the strengths and talents presented by your persona. In other words, the psychopath positively reinforces your self-presentation, saying, in effect, I like who you are. Reinforcing someone’s persona is a simple, yet powerful, influence technique, especially if communicated in a Psychopathic Manipulation
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    convincing—that is, charming—manner. Unfortunately, many people we deal with in our personal and professional lives are so self-absorbed and narcissistic that they rarely see our persona because of the preoccupation they have with their own. Finding someone who pays attention to us, who appreciates or actually “sees” us, is refreshing; it validates who we are and makes us feel special. The psychopath quickly fulfills this need.
    The Puppetmaster
    In describing his role in the murder of his friend’s father and the attempted murder of his friend’s mother and sister, an offender had this to say:
    A friend of mine came in and we started talking, getting to know each other. Well, I started to get to know him better. Because the more he told me about himself, the more leverage I had. The more I know about the guy, the more I know what buttons to push. So, I started pushing those buttons. He had a lot of unresolved issues from his childhood, so I tried to get to the root of the problem and started to get him to feel very angry, very hostile toward his family. I said, “They have money. Why don’t you take some? I’ll help you spend it because I’m your friend.” We got together and it escalated and I encouraged the escalation. I don’t know if in the back of my mind I truly believed what the capabilities were, but I didn’t care. So