Many corporate brands are strongly associated with the person the companies are headed by (Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). Attention for corporate psychopaths (CPs), defined as individuals who show psychopathic traits and work successfully in corporations, has been growing lately (Boddy, 2005). Psychopathic traits (e.g. charm, lack of remorse and empathy) can easily be interpreted as leadership characteristics (e.g. charisma and decisiveness) and therefore boost the career of the psychopath allowing him/her to climb up the corporate ladder (Boddy, 2011). Empirical evidence—although limited—supports this assumption. It has been found that CPs more frequently have senior level positions in organizations than junior ones (Boddy, Ladyshewsky, &Galvin, 2010b) and that the chances of finding a psychopath among CEOs is four times higher than in the general population (Bercovici, 2011). A CP in a high level position (e.g. a CEO) can not only be assumed to have the largest leverage on how the company’s resources are deployed, but the way s/he is perceived by others also has a great impact on the company’s image (McGrath, 1995). The willingness to trust an entity is “based on the expectation that the other party will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). Therefore, the perception of negative/psychopathic traits in a CEO is of considerable importance to organizations because it influences the CEO’s public image and subsequently the level of trust placed in the top manager. This, in turn, can have far-reaching consequences for the company he works for because an executive’s greatest capital consists in the trust placed in him/her and a company cannot be successful in the long run without the trust from stakeholder groups (Hage, 2012). The perception of psychopathic traits can thus have severe consequences for the company’s attractiveness to its stakeholders. The current research investigates the effects of perceived psychopathy of CEOs for the attractiveness of any form of interaction with the company. Results of a structural equation model based on a survey among 670 participants show that perceived corporate psychopathy negatively influences perceived trust in the CEO. Perceived trust in the CEO, in turn, has a positive effect on perceived attractiveness of products, of shares, and of perceived employer attractiveness. Furthermore, if an individual considers sustainability to be of high importance, the ethical standards concerning sustainable behavior seem to be stricter because the trustor cares about them more than the economic aspects of how the CEO manages the company. Therefore, it was found that attitude toward sustainability moderates the relationship between perceived corporate psychopathy and perceived trust in the CEO.

사회에서 발생되는 잔인한 범죄사건으로 인해서 사이코페스에 대한 관심이 고조되고 있다. 그러나 그에 대한 이해가 부족하다. 사이코페스에 의한 범죄라 고 하면, 세상을 떠들썩하게 하는 큰 범죄를 연상한다. 그러나 사이코페스는 타인을 구타하지 않아도 거짓말을 상습적으로 하는 행동도 포함된다. 그런 측면에서 보면, 사이코페스는 우리 주위에 흔히 존재하는 특별한 존재가 아니다. 그런 추리는 수형자에게도 관련된다. 일면으로 생각하면, 수형자들 중에 사이코페스가 다른 어느 집단 보다 많을 것으로 기대된다. 그러나 그에 대한 교정프로그램은 전혀 장외 밖에 있다. 특히, 지금까지의 프로그램들은 거의 정신교육에 의존 해 왔지만, 본 글은 정신훈화에 중심을 두고 있고 현재 진행 중인 방법으로 벗어나서 역할연기, 낮은 공기법과 문간에 발 들여 놓기, 사례 발표 같은 행동을 통한 교정프로그램의 효과성을 제한한다.