If you’ve ever suspected your mechanic was a little off, science may have your back.
A 2026 study out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that people with psychopathic traits are disproportionately drawn to hands-on, solitary work—jobs that keep them far away from other humans as much as possible. Mechanics topped the list, but engineers and other technical professionals weren’t far behind.
“Subclinical psychopaths, driven by their antisocial tendencies, prefer mechanical jobs that are isolating and require little social interaction,” the study authors wrote. Makes sense.
Researchers surveyed over 600 undergraduates between the ages of 17 and 32, measuring their Dark Triad traits—a set of antisocial personality characteristics that predict manipulative and callous behavior—against their vocational interests. The three Dark Triad components are psychopathy (broken into Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition), Machiavellianism, and Narcissism.
What they found was pretty consistent. All three psychopathy facets correlated positively with interest in realistic, hands-on work. Machiavellian types showed a strong aversion to people-facing professions. “This suggests a clear pattern of avoiding social and caring professions,” the researchers noted.
The Jobs Most Likely to Attract Psychopaths, With One Career Way Out in Front
While psychopaths gravitate toward isolation, narcissists apparently want an audience. The study found that subclinical narcissists are drawn to artistic work for the admiration it brings, social jobs for connection, and leadership roles for dominance. Politics, law, and business also ranked high. “Narcissistic Admiration was positively related to Creative Expression and Influence,” the authors wrote, framing it as grandiose types seeking platforms for self-promotion. Shocker.
Interestingly, people drawn to healthcare showed high Boldness scores but low Meanness and Disinhibition, suggesting that the fearlessness required to stay calm in a crisis reads similarly on paper to certain psychopathic traits, even if the motivations are completely different.
The researchers saved their starkest warning for what they called “successful psychopaths” and “successful narcissists”—people who combine Dark Triad traits with enough surface charm to climb the corporate ladder undetected. These are the ones, the study cautions, that organizations should think twice about promoting into senior leadership, because once they get there, they become very difficult to manage.
“Organizations should eschew promoting them into top management positions, lest it become almost impossible to control them,” the authors wrote.
So the next time you find yourself working for someone who seems a little too comfortable making decisions that affect other people, there might be a study that explains exactly why.
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