The word “psychopath” gets thrown around a lot, but do you know the signs?
Personality traits indicative of psychopathy include antisocial behavior, lack of remorse, deceitful disposition, and manipulative tendencies.
However, there are some signs associated with psychopathic tendencies that you may not be aware of.
We talk mostly about food, money and sex
Most people enjoy pleasant chatting about these topics, but psychopaths take it to another level.
Researchers at Cornell University compared the stories of 14 psychopathic male murderers with 38 undiagnosed psychopathic murderers.
They found that the former group was twice as likely to talk about food, money and sex when asked to discuss their crimes.
Non-psychopaths, on the other hand, were more likely to use words related to religion, family, or spirituality.
Yawning is less likely to be contagious
That’s old, right? When I see someone yawning, I can’t help but do it myself.
But researchers at Baylor University in Texas found that students who scored high on “ruthlessness” were also less likely to yawn at other students because of their lack of empathy.
Brian Randle, a doctoral student involved in the 2015 study, explained to The Times: “One of the biggest pieces of evidence is [contagious yawning is] It has a lot to do with empathy.
“It’s a very interesting finding, but just because you’re not affected by contagious yawning doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.
“In baboons, dogs and chimpanzees, there is some evidence that alpha males tend to yawn.
“Sitting around a campfire will cue others to yawn, causing everyone to yawn at the same time instead of going to bed at different times.”
Most people like to express themselves with their hands when speaking, but psychopaths are said to often move their hands up and down quickly.
They may do this as a subtle manipulation tactic and as a way of emphasizing parts of the text they want people to hear.
One example is during a police interrogation of murderer and rapist Paul Bernardo, when FBI agents found him using forceful hand gestures to distract him from the lies he told. .
Psychopaths tend to be kept awake by a highly stimulated mind while others sleep at night.
In 2013, Australian researchers found that a preference for staying up early in the morning was associated with antisocial behavior and “dark triad” traits, including narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. .
Dr. Paul Hawkmeyer told Bustle, “Some psychopaths have incredible minds that need to be maintained at a high level of stimulation.”
Researchers at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque studied more than 500 inmates to see if severe and prolonged antisocial behavior was associated with head movements.
Those who continued this behavior were found to have more rigid head movements during recorded conversations.
While head movements have historically been associated with deceptiveness, it has been speculated that rigidity may be a cover that psychopaths deploy.
