- One of the most striking peculiarities of psychopaths is that they lack empathy; they are able to shake off as mere tinsel the most universal social obligations.
- They lie and manipulate yet feel no compunction or regrets-in fact, they don't feel particularly deeply about anything at all.
- Psychopaths (having almost no emotion) cover up their emotions with a ready and engaging charm, so it can take time to realize what you are dealing with.
- Are curiously oblivious to emotional cues and are not good at detecting emotions, especially fear, in another person's voice. They have trouble identifying fearful facial expressions.
***The study group used to ask inexperienced psychology graduate students to interview a particularly appealing inmate before acquainting themselves with his criminal history. These inexperienced graduate students would emerge quite certain that such a well-spoken, trustworthy person must have been wrongly imprisoned. When showed they were showed the prisoners file of pimping, drug dealing, fraud, robbery, and on and on...they would be completely surprised. ***
- They show none of the classic signs of mental illness.
- Often have better-than-average intelligence.
***A good question from the article: Are they mad or simply bad? ***
- Can also be tone-deaf because they lack access to their own feelings and those of others. Their emotions are shallow: they feel irritated when they don't get their way and turn to risky behaviors for the flimsiest of reasons. Research shows that psychopaths miss the emotional nuances of language.
- Evidence shows they have trouble understanding metaphors as well as have more errors indentifying abstract nouns (love, deceit, trust, dedication).
- Have trouble shifting gears, even when their current strategy for obtaining their goal is failing. An observation of this is that this is a result of an attentional quirk: they do not take in new information when their attention is otherwise engaged. Once fixated on a goal, psychopaths proceed as if they can't get off the train until it reaches the station.
***Are psychopaths made or born? Answer is both! Genes account for 50 percent of the variability amount those who exhibit adult antisocial traits, that means life circumstances are just as important as biological inheritance***
- Neuroscience has found that their brains process information differently from those of other people. It's as if they have a learning disability that impairs emotional development.
- Currently science has stated that there is a way to treat targeted behavioral strategies.
- Only one in five people with antisocial personality disorder is a psychopath.
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