psychopath

14 Stories

States With Most, Least Psychopaths
The State With the
Most Psychopaths
in case you missed it
Jun 23, 2018 3:10 PM CDT

The State With the Most Psychopaths

Connecticut is No. 1 ... unless you include DC

(Newser) - Surprise, surprise: The place home to the most psychopaths in the US is Washington, DC. By far. That's according to new research out of Southern Methodist University. The survey doesn't count actual diagnoses but extrapolates from earlier research on the distribution of the "big five" personality traits...

Psych Prof Copes With Having a Psychotic Killer's Brain

James Fallon lives with stunning discovery about his brain

(Newser) - James Fallon is still trying to be a friendly psychopath—just ask his wife. "Every time something came up where I was interacting with her socially, I just asked myself, 'What would a good guy do?'" the psychiatry professor at University of California, Irvine, tells the CBC...

Like These Songs? You Might Be a Psychopath

Small study finds possible link between 30 songs and psychopathy

(Newser) - In news certain to start a whole new round of arguments at record stores (were record stores still a thing), researchers at New York University say the songs you like could give you away as a psychopath, the Guardian reports. Researchers had 200 people already scored on the Levenson Self-Report...

From 'Callous' Child to Full-Blown Psychopath


From 'Callous'
Child to Full-Blown
Psychopath
LONGFORM
May 19, 2017 8:04 PM CDT

From 'Callous' Child to Full-Blown Psychopath

The 'Atlantic' looks at treatment advances for 'untreatable' kids who lack empathy

(Newser) - The story of Samantha is a heartbreaking one, as told by Barbara Bradley Hagerty in the Atlantic . Adopted into a large family, the 11-year-old started exhibiting cruel traits from the time she was a toddler, trying to choke two younger siblings before she turned 7, and when her mom finally...

Your CEO Could Be an Actual Psychopath
Your CEO Could
Be an Actual
Psychopath
STUDY SAYS
Sep 14, 2016 6:25 PM CDT

Your CEO Could Be an Actual Psychopath

An Aussie study finds 1 in 5 are, at least in one industry

(Newser) - What do prisoners and CEOs have in common? The answer isn't the punchline to a joke, but the finding of an Australian study out of Bond University that says about 20% of chief executives are psychopaths, the Telegraph reports. The results—presented Tuesday at the Australian Psychological Society Congress...

Virginia Murder Suspect Was a 'Sociopath in Training'

Suspected killers of Nicole Lovell, 13, attend court hearing

(Newser) - The alleged killers of a 13-year-old Virginia girl sat in court Friday as police painted a grim portrait of them, People reports. Former Virginia Tech students Natalie Keepers, 19, and David Eisenhauer, 18, heard how Nicole Lovell was allegedly lured from her home on Jan. 27, murdered by Eisenhauer, and...

Here's One Possible Way to ID a Psycho

Study finds those who have less empathy are less likely to 'catch' a yawn

(Newser) - A human behavior that's often contagious may provide a simple clue to whether a person is a psychopath, researchers from Baylor University have discovered, per Smithsonian . A study published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal finds that individuals with psychopathic traits—including coldheartedness, self-centered impulsivity, and "fearless...

Psychopaths' Brains Don't Register Punishment

Brain scans find striking abnormalities

(Newser) - Psychopaths just don't grasp punishment the way normal people do. So say researchers who used MRI scans to analyze the brains of 12 violent psychopathic criminals, 20 violent criminals who are not psychopaths, and 18 healthy controls who are not criminals. It turns out that the psychopath cohort had...

Guys Who Post Too Many Selfies Might Be Bad News: Study

It points to narcissistic traits—not to mention psychopathic ones

(Newser) - The results of a selfie study may not come as a surprise to you: Guys who post loads of them, researchers at Ohio State University find, also show signs of narcissism and even score higher on tests for psychopathy. The findings were based on an online survey of 800 men...

Study: Psychopaths Can Choose to Have Empathy

They just have to flip the empathy 'switch'

(Newser) - Psychopaths aren't devoid of human empathy, they just have the ability to switch it on and off, a new study suggests—though they do tend to default to "off". The study hooked criminals diagnosed with psycopathy up to a brain scanner, and showed them video clips of two...

Your 'Inner Psychopath' Could Make You a Big Success

A book by Kevin Dutton looks to learn from nutcases

(Newser) - What psychopaths have too much of, we could all use in small doses—or so argues Kevin Dutton in a new book called The Wisdom of Psychopaths. Easy charm, unassailable self-confidence, outsize ego, and resistance to self-blame are among the qualities that horrify us in Anders Breivik, say, but seem...

Psychopaths Have a Lousy Sense of Smell

 Psychopaths Have 
 a Lousy Sense 
 of Smell 
study says
Sep 21, 2012 1:35 PM CDT

Psychopaths Have a Lousy Sense of Smell

Study suggests it's no coincidence both originate in orbito-frontal complex

(Newser) - If you know someone with a terrible sense of smell, you might want to be careful around them. A new study suggests a link between a crappy olfactory and being psychopathic, AFP reports via Raw Story . Both phenomena have separately been linked to the same part of the brain, the...

'Uhs' and 'Ums': Among the Verbal Tics of Psychopaths

They interrupt speech to mask their madness: study

(Newser) - Know someone who uses "uh" and "um" a lot, and cause-and-effect conjunctions like "because" and "so that"? Well, not to exaggerate, but your friend may be a psychopath. Researchers recently interviewed 52 convicted murderers in an effort to suss out the linguistic tendencies of psychopaths—...

Neuroscientist Discovers He's a 'Born Killer'
 Neuroscientist 
 Discovers He's 
 a 'Born Killer' 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jul 3, 2010 8:19 AM CDT

Neuroscientist Discovers He's a 'Born Killer'

Expert on killer brains spots one in his head

(Newser) - A neuroscientist who spent the last 20 years studying the brains of killers was more than a little surprised to discover that he had one. Jim Fallon—after learning that his father's side of the family tree was full of alleged killers, including Lizzie Borden—analyzed family brain scans and...

14 Stories