

It's based on a constellation of three kinds of personality traits, which include-at the real core of the construct is callousness, meaning insensitivity to other people's suffering, truly not caring about other people's welfare. Marsh: The most important thing to remember about psychopathy is that it's a personality construct. What are the traits that define psychopathy and how do they manifest themselves in people's behavior?

I mentioned some of them in my introduction, like the fact that people may think that all psychopaths are violent criminals. There are a lot of misconceptions about psychopathy and psychopaths. Mills: So let's start as we often do on this podcast with a definition. Marsh is author of the award-winning book The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In Between.Ībigail Marsh, PhD: Thank you so much for having me. In addition to her many scientific publications, Dr. And she's interested in exploring the emotional processes and the brain differences that can explain both of these extremes of human behavior. She’s studied both psychopaths and extreme altruists, such as people who donate kidneys to strangers. She studies psychopathy as well as its opposite, extreme altruism and pro-social emotions such as empathy, compassion, and remorse. Abigail Marsh, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgetown University. Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. So what do researchers know about the causes of psychopathy? How is psychopathy related to other mental health disorders? Are psychopaths born? Or are they made by their family life, by their environment? Are there effective treatments for it? Can children show psychopathic traits and if so, how early? And if you recognize psychopathic traits in someone close to you, what should you do? And we may even know people who fall under this broad umbrella. In other words, impossible to pick out of a crowd.Īlthough severe psychopathy affects just about 1% of people, some research suggests that close to 30% of us have some level of psychopathic traits. They may lie, cheat, and steal, but they may also be friendly, smart, and basically unremarkable. People with psychopathic traits show less empathy and remorse than other people. Psychopathy is more common than most people realize. But psychopathy isn't just about terrible people who commit heinous crimes.
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The word itself, psychopath, brings to mind horror movies, serial killers, arson, and other mayhem. Kim Mills: Most of us have heard the term “psychopath” and may have an image of what a psychopath looks like, whether that's Charles Manson or Ted Bundy-or even the fictional Hannibal Lecter.
