A scientific study reveals the sign that would identify a psychopath at first glance.
A scientific study published in June 2021 in the Journal of Research in Personality highlights a little-known aspect of psychopaths. Researchers discovered that these troubled personalities share a common habit, a detail that might go unnoticed at first but turns out to be a significant indicator.
This particularity is manifested in their posture, more precisely in their head movements. This discovery comes straight from a team of researchers from the University of New Mexico (United States).
After filming and interviewing several hundred individuals, they made a striking observation: “People with high levels of psychopathic traits are characterized by more stationary head positions, oriented directly toward the camera/interviewer, than those with high levels of psychopathic traits. people with few psychopathic traits.
In other words, without realizing it, psychopaths tend to hold their heads remarkably still when speaking to someone, a behavior that contrasts with the natural gestures of the majority of people. The next time your colleague speaks to you, observe his behavior carefully. A particularly still head could be telling. These observations are particularly marked in “people with serious and persistent antisocial behavior throughout their lives”, specify the researchers.
-Another characteristic behavior of psychopaths was identified in 2018: the dilation of their pupils. According to a study relayed by non-verbal behavior specialist Élodie Mielczareck, pupil dilation is absent when faced with frightening images.
Be careful, however, not to draw hasty conclusions: these behaviors alone are not enough to identify a psychopath. Psychopathic personality disorder is a behavioral disorder characterized by a combination of complex traits.
According to a University of Chicago study, these traits include “insensitivity to others, shallow emotion, lack of empathy, irresponsibility, lack of remorse and guilt, and persistent violation of social norms. And contrary to popular belief, not all psychopaths are bloodthirsty killers. The High Authority of Health “recommends extreme caution regarding the existence of a causal link between personality organization with psychopathic expression and delinquency.”
These different studies nevertheless present certain limitations. Interviewee behavior can be influenced by various external factors, including stress or the interview situation with the researchers.
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