From American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman to Killing Eve’s Villanelle, the psychopaths portrayed in film and television have quite a lot in common. Their charming exteriors mask an emotional void, a sharp intelligence, and a penchant for violence.
These depictions may be entertaining, but pop culture’s fascination with psychopaths – and its simplification of them – has also given rise to a number of persistent myths.
“Psychology is most useful when it helps us appreciate complexity,” says Claire Hart, associate professor of psychology at the University of Southampton.
“Unfortunately, popular discussions of narcissism and psychopathy often do the opposite, reducing a nuanced personality construct to a simple explanation for people we happen not to like.”
Here’s what the research actually tells us about psychopaths...
1. ‘Psychopath’ isn't a clinical diagnosis
You’d be forgiven for assuming that a person could be diagnosed with ‘psychopathy’ by a doctor, but no. Although the label has often been used by doctors, lawyers, and the media, it’s not listed as an official mental health disorder in medical manuals.
Instead, the actual clinical diagnosis used by professionals is ‘antisocial personality disorder’ (ASPD) – although someone with an ASPD diagnosis might be described as having psychopathic features.
ASPD focuses primarily on patterns of behaviour, such as repeatedly breaking the law, lying, acting impulsively, and showing a reckless disregard for the safety of oneself and others.
While ASPD looks mostly at how a person behaves, psychopathy describes the group of personality traits that underlie the behaviour they exhibit. But even in expert circles, the distinction between the two terms is sometimes blurred.
“Some researchers argue that psychopathy is essentially a more extreme form of ASPD,” says Dr Nadja Heym, associate professor of psychology at Nottingham Trent University.
“However, other researchers argue that they should not be conflated; psychopathy can be seen as a disorder with some distinct features and neurocognitive underpinnings.”
2. Psychopaths have feelings
It’s often assumed that, while most of us are swept to-and-fro by our emotions, psychopaths remain calm, feeling nothing.
But psychopaths certainly feel anger, frustration, excitement, and pleasure. They are different from other people; they generally experience less empathy, remorse, and fear. But even here, there are no blanket absences.
“Our work has shown that even some psychopaths have empathy,” says Heym, whose studies have looked at how empathy can coexist with darker personality traits.
She has also coined the phrase ‘dark empath’ to describe a personality profile that combines the dark triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism) with high degrees of empathy.
Instead of using their emotional understanding to demonstrate compassion, psychopaths use it strategically to manipulate, control, or exploit others.
Psychologists divide empathy into two categories: the ability to understand how someone feels, and the ability to personally experience those emotions.
For a long time, it was widely assumed that psychopaths lacked both. But, according to research led by the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Oklahoma, many individuals with psychopathic traits retain a high level of emotional awareness.
They use cognitive empathy to map out a target’s vulnerabilities, fears, and desires without being slowed down or burdened by any personal distress or guilt.
Read more:
- Are psychopaths born or made? We may finally have the answer
- Could you spot a psychopath by just looking at them? A new AI can
- What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?
3. Few psychopaths are actually violent
Contrary to what horror films – or documentaries about notorious serial killers, such as Ted Bundy – would have you believe, not all psychopaths go on murderous rampages for fun.
“Popular culture tends to create an image of the psychopath as a cold-blooded murderer,” says Hart. “And we know that psychopathy is characterised by traits such as callousness, reduced empathy, superficial charm, impulsivity, and low remorse.
“Importantly, though, many people who score highly on psychopathic traits are not violent criminals, and many violent criminals are not psychopaths.”
While people with highly psychopathic psychological profiles are over-represented in prison, many of them live successfully among us, using their personality traits to get what they want in life – albeit sometimes at the expense of others.
Certain professions, such as business and politics, have been touted as happy hunting grounds for dispassionate and ruthless psychopaths. But psychologists have suggested other promising lines of work for psychopaths, which might surprise you. One such career is surgery.
“As it’s been said, it is useful for a surgeon to be able to look at a human the surgeon is operating on as a pile of Legos, because the surgeon is much less nervous and stressed and therefore prone to error,” says Prof Ryan Murphy, a researcher at Southern Methodist University, Texas.
“There is reason to believe that many of the world’s top surgeons could be high-functioning psychopaths for this reason.”
As some psychologists have noted, it would appear that all psychopaths are violent criminals if the only place you look for them is behind bars. The reality, though, is very different.
4. Psychopaths are not all highly intelligent
The psychopaths on our screens tend to have a sky-high intellect, such as Sherlock Holmes’s arch-foe Professor James Moriarty or the genius serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
The reality of a psychopath’s brain power is more prosaic. Their IQs span a wide range, like the rest of the population. And while they possess a greater tendency to manipulate, we shouldn’t assume they’re particularly good at it.
A meta-analysis of 187 published studies comprising over 9,000 people found no evidence that psychopaths were more intelligent than the general population. In fact, they reported “a small, but significant effect size suggesting that individuals who score higher on measures of psychopathic traits tend to score lower on measures of IQ.”
In reality, psychopathy is often marked by impulsivity, poor decision-making, and weak self-control. For many, these traits make it harder to focus, plan for the long term, or stay on track at school and work.
Instead of pulling off clever, calculated schemes, most real-world psychopaths behave recklessly, often leading to repeated failures and trouble with the law. They are not criminal masterminds.
5. Psychopaths may be treatable
For many years, it was assumed there was nothing you could do to help a psychopath. But that view is starting to shift.
The breakthrough came when researchers started to experiment with reward-based therapies. Individuals with psychopathic traits are highly motivated by personal gain, so therapists use rewards to encourage cooperative behaviour.
The approach was pioneered with the ‘decompression model’, developed by staff at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Wisconsin, which rewards psychopathic individuals for positive behaviour instead of punishing them for bad behaviour.
Recent studies highlight that early intervention is especially effective. Specialised treatments for children and adolescents, such as tailored family programmes, have shown great success in reducing aggressive behaviour and building healthier relationships.
More recently, cognitive therapies have also been shown to help adults manage their impulses. Researchers tested schema therapy, a specialised form of cognitive therapy, in high-security forensic hospitals. Even in adult patients with high psychopathy scores, the therapy reduced risky behaviour and emotional volatility. Such interventions also offer hope in treating younger psychopaths.
Read more:
