ADHD and the Dark Side of Leadership

Psychopathy and ADHD both have impulsive elements that may explain overlap of the two. A 2010 study indicated that children with ADHD inattentive type and combined type were rated by teachers as having elevated levels of psychopathic and callous-unemotional traits as well as lower educational performance (DeLisi et al., 2010). In 2013, DeLisi found that children with both ADHD and conduct disorder scored higher than their peers on psychopathic personality features and also noted that thrill-seeking and impulsiveness showed to be the strongest classification variables for delinquency and violent delinquency at the 90th percentiles. There is relatively little literature on ADHD and psychopathy in adults, and there is no literature on the interaction of ADHD and leadership on dark traits. The purpose of this study is to address 3 questions: 1) Do ADHD and leadership status influence psychopathy and dark triad scores? 2) Do leaders have lower ADHD symptoms than non-leaders? 3) Does impulsivity mediate the relationship between ADHD and psychopathy scores