Just over 5% of the trainees in the study met the full criteria for psychopathy — a rate five times higher than that seen in general public. Many of those who qualified were already in high-level senior management positions. So, the snakes are indeed overrepresented at the top.

Psychopathic traits include being highly manipulative and callous, lacking empathy and remorse, having little concern about consequences, being willing to use deceit or threats to get what you want and caring little for others except in terms of what you can get from them. Although the stereotype of a psychopath is a serial killer, they are actually more likely to be con artists or shady businesspeople…

And unfortunately, there’s even more reason for concern than this. Additional research suggests that rich people in general tend to behave less ethically than those who are not at the top of the financial heap. Several studies have found that wealthy people are typically less empathetic than poor people, both in terms of being able to read other people’s emotions and in terms of sharing or caring for others…

All of this suggests that Wall Street offers a perfect storm of an environment that is not only likely to attract psychopaths and to promote them to the top, but also to encourage them to behave in antisocial ways.