Why some people break from the group, for better or for worse.
Some people do not fit the usual picture of a good employee, and I am interested in when that helps and when it harms.
Elliroma Gardiner and I studied workplace mavericks: people who are unconventional and take risks while staying focused on goals. In 458 full-time workers, mavericks were more extraverted, more open to experience and less agreeable. In a laboratory task they kept taking risks when feedback led others to stop (British Journal of Psychology, 2012). We measured it with the Maverickism Scale.
The same traits can turn dark. With Ben Walker and Genevieve Sovereign I found, in two samples, that disinhibition predicted both subclinical psychopathy and the intention to become an entrepreneur (Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2020). Ben and I also reviewed the role of moral emotions in corporate psychopathy (Journal of Business Ethics, 2017), and with Peter Jonason I examined the Dark Triad traits through Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (2016).
I have also studied survivalists, people who plan and prepare for a major disaster. Using a new eight-item questionnaire, I found they tend to be disagreeable, low in rationality, and high in psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism (Personality and Individual Differences, 2018).