People with high levels of psychopathy may be less likely to move their heads while speaking than those with low levels of psychopathy, a new study has found. The study authors say this subtle pattern of nonverbal communication has been previously identified in male psychopaths, and their results suggest that the same trend holds true for women.
Psychopathy is characterized by a set of emotional deficiencies, such as callousness and lack of remorse, and dysfunctional behaviors, such as pathological lying and manipulation. Excessive impulsivity and irresponsibility are also common in people who fit this label, but psychopaths can be difficult to spot because of their ability to hide these antisocial traits.
However, previous research has identified a number of surprising telltale signs in the body language of psychopaths. For example, men with higher levels of psychopathy tend to use more. Teburi than those with lower scores short bursts of flashing It is also related to the condition.
Reduced head movements during interviews have been identified as yet another potential contributing factor in psychopathic men, but little research has been conducted in women. To fill this gap, the study authors filmed clinical interviews with 213 incarcerated women, during which they completed psychopathy questionnaires to assess the extent to which each participant met criteria for this diagnosis. was carried out.
They then used an automatic detection algorithm to monitor each woman’s head movements in every frame of the video. Overall, the researchers found that women with higher psychopathy scores were less likely to move their heads than women with lower scores.
On average, participants spent 40% of the interview with their heads within a “moderate range of motion” away from their average position. However, the psychopathic woman kept her head within a “minimal range of motion” away from the average position during most of the interview.
Time spent moving the head within this minimum range of motion was positively correlated with psychopathy scores, whereas time spent in the moderate range was negatively correlated with psychopathy.
Based on this observation, the study authors concluded that their results “show a unique pattern of head dynamics characteristic of women with high scores for psychopathy, particularly a more stationary head position during the conduct of a clinical interview.” It will help identify it.”
The researchers note that it is often difficult to identify psychopaths based on behavior alone, and paying attention to nonverbal cues is “particularly important when studying courses of behavior that are deceptive in nature.” It is explained that there is a possibility that
The study was published in the journal personality and individual differences.
