Journal of Personality Disorders, 24(4), 487–498, 2010  2010 The Guilford Press “LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS: A VALIDATION STUDY OF THE PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY AMONG A SAMPLE OF MBA STUDENTS.” Peter Heinze, PhD, Rhianon Allen, PhD, Carol Magai, PhD, and Barry Ritzler, PhD While the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) has gained increas- ing attention as a measure of noncriminal psychopathy, absent has been research involving samples including business people. This study investigated the validity of the PPI with such a population by examining the association between psychopathic traits and moral decision-making among MBA students. Sixty-six MBA students were assessed using the PPI, the MACH-IV (a measure of Machiavellianism), the Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Only PPI Machiavellian Egocentricity was associated with level of post-conven- tional moral reasoning. MACH-IV Machiavellianism was a stronger pre- dictor of the Subjectivist ethical position than were PPI subscales. How- ever, a combination of MACH-IV Machiavellianism and four PPI scales accounted for 46% of the variance in Subjectivism. Results suggested that Machiavellian Egocentricity and Machiavellianism are distinct con- structs. Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger (2003)’s two fac- tor model of the PPI was also supported. In general, the findings pro- vided further validation for the PPI as a tool for assessing psychopathic traits among “mainstream” individuals, including business people. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) has become a “well validated, self-report measure of psychopathy designed to assess this condition in nonclinical samples” (Sellbom, Ben-Porath, Li- lienfeld, Patrick, & Graham, 2005). The PPI was created on the assumption that, as Salekin et al. (2001) state, “the syndrome may be found among community groups, even high achievers, such as businessmen, politicians, doctors, lawyers [italics added] and university students who, because of core features such as good social skills, high intelligence, and high socio- economic status, may have escaped law enforcement agencies or have From Ramapo College of New Jersey (P. H.); Long Island University (R. A., C. M., B. R.); and University of British Columbia (R. A.). Address correspondence to Peter Heinze, Ramapo College of New Jersey, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mawah, NJ 07430; E-mail: pheinze@ramapo.edu 487