The Wisdom of Psychopaths (33 page)
Read The Wisdom of Psychopaths Online
Authors: Kevin Dutton
2
Monkeys with lesions of the amygdala …
See Heinrich Klüver and Paul C. Bucy, “ ‘Psychic Blindness’ and Other Symptoms Following Bilateral Temporal Lobectomy in Rhesus Monkeys,”
American Journal of Physiology
119 (1937): 352–53; Klüver and Bucy, “Preliminary Analysis of Functions of the Temporal Lobes in Monkeys,”
Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry
42, no. 6 (1939): 979–1000.
3
“There was no such thing as stock in the Pleistocene era …”
Quote taken from Jane Spencer, “Lessons from the Brain-Damaged Investor,”
The Wall Street Journal
, July 21, 2005.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112190164023291519,00.html
.
4
Even today, anxious individuals are better than the rest of us …
See Elaine Fox, Riccardo Russo, and George A. Georgiou, “Anxiety Modulates the Degree of Attentive Resources Required to Process Emotional Faces,”
Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience
5, no. 4 (2005): 396–404, doi:10.3758/CABN.5.4.396.
5
In his book
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat … Oliver Sacks,
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
(New York: Summit Books, Simon & Schuster, 1985).
6
Kéri has found that people
… See Szabolcs Kéri, “Genes for Psychosis and Creativity: A Promoter Polymorphism of the Neuregulin 1 Gene Is Related to Creativity in People with High Intellectual Achievement,”
Psychological Science
20, no. 9 (2009): 1070–73, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02398.x.
7
In an ingenious experiment, Joe Forgas …
Joseph P. Forgas, Liz Goldenberg, and Christian Unkelbach, “Can Bad Weather Improve Your Memory? An
Unobtrusive Field Study of Natural Mood Effects on Real-Life Memory,”
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
45 (2009): 254–57, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.014.
8
A psychopath wouldn’t worry …
Psychopathy is far more prevalent in men than in women. A number of reasons have been put forward as to why this might be the case. Developmental theorists stress that differences in aggression might arise from dichotomous parental socialization practices in the upbringing of boys and girls, while also pointing to the fact that girls show earlier development of linguistic and socio-emotional skills than boys, which may in turn predispose them to the emergence of more effective behavior inhibition strategies. Evolutionary theorists, on the other hand, emphasize hardwired gender differences in behavioral activation and withdrawal as a possible source of the discrepancy: women, for instance, tend to report more “negative withdrawal” emotions (such as fear) in the presence of aversive stimuli, while men report more “negative activation” emotions such as anger. A third school of thought highlights the possible role of sociological factors in the “presence” of the disorder: a subtle gender bias in diagnosis on the part of clinicians, for example, allied with the traditional social stigma attached to women presenting with externalizing antisocial psychopathology, indeed even
reporting
antisocial feelings and attitudes. Whatever the reason, and it’s probable that the demographic conceals a confluence of all three factors, estimates of the incidence of psychopathy tend to vary from between 1 to 3 percent in men to 0.5 to 1 percent in women.
1
Back in the 1990s, Hare submitted a research paper …
The paper in question, which Hare
did
eventually get published, was the following: Sherrie Williamson, Timothy J. Harpur, and Robert D. Hare, “Abnormal Processing of Affective Words by Psychopaths,”
Psychophysiology
28, no. 3 (1991): 260–73, doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1991.tb02192.x.
2
To find out, she set up a simple experiment …
See Sarah Wheeler, Angela Book, and Kimberley Costello, “Psychopathic Traits and the Perception of Victim Vulnerability,”
Criminal Justice and Behavior
36, no. 6 (2009): 635–48, doi:10.1177/0093854809333958. It should also be noted that, while psychopaths may possess a vulnerability radar, there is evidence to suggest that elements of their own body language “leak out” and set them apart from normal members of the population. One study, for instance, using video footage, has shown that psychopaths may be reliably differentiated from non-psychopaths on the basis of as little as five- and ten-second exposure sequences. See Katherine A. Fowler, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Christopher J. Patrick, “Detecting Psychopathy from Thin Slices of Behavior,”
Psychological Assessment
21, no. 1 (2009): 68–78, doi:10.1037/a0014938.
3
First, she handed out the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale
… See Delroy L. Paulhus, Craig S. Neumann, and Robert D. Hare,
Self-Report Psychopathy Scale: Version III
(Toronto: Multi-Health Systems, in press).
4
Moreover, when Book repeated the procedure …
Kimberley Costello and Angela Book, “Psychopathy and Victim Selection,” poster presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy conference, Montreal, Canada, May 2011.
5
In 2009, shortly after Angela Book published the results of her study, I decided to perform my own take on it
. This is an ongoing study, and further data are currently being collected in order to substantiate these initial findings.
6
In 2003, Reid Meloy …
See J. Reid Meloy and M. J. Meloy, “Autonomic Arousal in the Presence of Psychopathy: A Survey of Mental Health and Criminal Justice Professionals,”
Journal of Threat Assessment
2, no. 2 (2002): 21–33, doi:10.130015177v02n02-02.
7
Kent Bailey, emeritus professor in clinical psychology …
See Kent G. Bailey, “The Sociopath: Cheater or Warrior Hawk?”
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
18, no. 3 (1995): 542–43, doi:10.1017/S0140525X00039613.
8
Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University …
See Robin I. M. Dunbar, Amanda Clark, and Nicola L. Hurst, “Conflict and Cooperation among the Vikings: Contingent Behavioral Decisions,”
Ethology and Sociobiology
16, no. 3 (1995): 233–46, doi:10.1016/0162-3095(95)00022-D.
9
Joshua Greene, a psychologist, neuroscientist, and philosopher …
For more on the work of Joshua Greene, and the fascinating interface between neuroscience and moral decision making, see Joshua D. Greene, R. Brian Sommerville, Leigh E. Nystrom, John M. Darley, and Jonathan D. Cohen, “An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment,”
Science
293, no. 5537 (2001): 2105–08, doi:10.1126/science.1062872; Andrea L. Glenn, Adrian Raine, and R. A. Schug, “The Neural Correlates of Moral Decision-Making in Psychopathy,”
Molecular Psychiatry
14 (January 2009): 5–6, doi:10.1038/mp.2008.104.
10
Consider, for example, the following conundrum (case 1) …
The Trolley Problem was first proposed in this form by Philippa Foot in “The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect,” in
Virtues and Vices: And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
11
Now consider the following variation (case 2) …
See Judith Jarvis Thomson, “Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem,”
The Monist
59, no. 2 (1976): 204–17.
12
Daniel Bartels at Columbia University and David Pizarro at Cornell …
See Daniel M. Bartels and David A. Pizarro, “The Mismeasure of Morals: Antisocial Personality Traits Predict Utilitarian Responses to Moral Dilemmas,”
Cognition
121, no. 1 (2011): 154–61.
13
In 2005, Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon …
See Belinda J. Board and Katarina Fritzon, “Disordered Personalities at Work,”
Psychology, Crime, and Law
11, no. 1 (2005): 17–32, doi:10.1080/10683160310001634304.
14
Mehmet Mahmut and his colleagues at Macquarie University …
See Mehmet K. Mahmut, Judi Homewood, and Richard J. Stevenson, “The Characteristics of Non-Criminals with High Psychopathy Traits: Are They Similar to Criminal Psychopaths?”
Journal of Research in Personality
42, no. 3 (2008): 679–92.
15
In a similar (if less high-tech) vein …
Unpublished pilot survey.
16
Jon Moulton, one of London’s most successful venture capitalists …
See Emma Jacobs, “20 Questions: Jon Moulton,”
Financial Times
, February 4, 2010,
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32c642f2-11c1-11df-9d45-00144feab49a.html#axzz1srPuKoUq
.
17
But there’s a story I once heard …
For this story, I would like to thank Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper.
18
Back in the 1980s, Harvard researcher Stanley Rachman …
For more on Rachman’s work see Stanley J. Rachman, “Fear and Courage: A Psychological Perspective,”
Social Research
71, no. 1 (2004): 149–76. Rachman makes it quite clear in this paper that bomb disposal experts are
not
psychopathic—a view echoed here. Rather, the point being made is that confidence and coolness under pressure are two traits that psychopaths and bomb-disposal experts have in common.
19
Relationship experts Neil Jacobson and John Gottman … have observed …
See Neil Jacobson and John Gottman,
When Men Batter Women: New Insights into Ending Abusive Relationships
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998).
20
In 2009, Lilianne Mujica-Parodi …
See Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi, Helmut H. Strey, Frederick Blaise, Robert Savoy, David Cox, Yevgeny Botanov, Denis Tolkunov, Denis Rubin, and Jochen Weber, “Chemosensory Cues to Conspecific Emotional Stress Activate Amygdala in Humans,”
PLoS ONE
4, no. 7 (2009): e6415, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006415.
21
To find out, I ran a variation on Mujica-Parodi’s study …
Paper submitted for publication. It should be noted, with regard to my own study, that the psychopaths were no better than the non-psychopaths at detecting which was the fear sweat and which was the non-fear sweat on the basis of odor. The distinctive odor of any sweat comes from bacterial contamination, and the collection and storage protocols were designed, as in the Mujica-Parodi study, to prevent bacterial growth. The difference between the psychopaths and the non-psychopaths was in the effect that exposure to the fear sweat had on performance.
1
Then, in 1952, the British psychologist Hans Eysenck …
For an in-depth treatment of Eysenck’s contribution to personality theory, see Hans J. Eysenck and Michael W. Eysenck,
Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach
(New York: Plenum Press, 1985). For the original paper incorporating Hippocrates’ four temperaments, see Hans J. Eysenck, “A Short Questionnaire
for the Measurement of Two Dimensions of Personality,”
Journal of Applied Psychology
42, no. 1 (1958): 14–17.
2
Eysenck’s two-stroke model of personality was positively anorexic …
See Gordon W. Allport and Henry S. Odbert, “Trait-Names: A Psycho-Lexical Study,”
Psychological Monographs
47, no. 1 (1936): i–171, doi:10.1037/h0093360.
3
But it wasn’t until University of Illinois psychologist Raymond Cattell …
See Raymond B. Cattell,
The Description and Measurement of Personality
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1946) and Cattell,
Personality and Motivation: Structure and Measurement
(Yonkers-on-Hudson, NY: World Book Co., 1957).
4
In 1961, two U.S. Air Force researchers, Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal …
See Ernest C. Tupes and Raymond E. Christal, “Recurrent Personality Factors Based on Trait Ratings,” Technical Report ASD-TR-61-97, Personnel Laboratory, Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, United States Air Force, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, May 1961. Republished in
Journal of Personality
60, no. 2 (1992): 225–51, doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00973.x.
5
More recently, over the last twenty years or so …
See Paul T. Costa and Robert R. McCrae, “Primary Traits of Eysenck’s P-E-N System: Three- and Five-Factor Solutions,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
69, no. 2 (1995): 308–17.
6
Psychologists don’t really do consensus if they can help it …
So indivisible are the Big Five atoms of personality that they’ve even been observed across species. A 1997 study, conducted by James King and Aurelio Figueredo at the University of Arizona, reveals that the chimpanzee personality also conforms to the five-factor model found in humans—with, it turns out, one extra thrown in for good measure: dominance, an evolutionary artifact of hierarchical chimp society. Sam Gosling, now at the University of Texas at Austin, has performed similar work with hyenas. Gosling recruited four volunteers to provide, with the help of specially designed scales, standardized personality ratings of a group of
Crocuta crocuta
(a species of spotted hyena). The hyenas were housed at the Field Station for Behavioral Research at the University of California, in Berkeley. Lo and behold, when Gosling went over the data, five dimensions leapt from the spreadsheet in front of him: Assertiveness; Excitability; Human-Directed Agreeableness; Sociability; and Curiosity. Which, if we forget about Conscientiousness for a moment, make a pretty good fit with the remaining four contenders (Neuroticism; Agreeableness; Extraversion; and Openness to Experience). And Gosling didn’t stop there. Encouraged by these results, he took his emotional calculus to the seabed—and discovered clear differences in sociability … in octopuses. Some octopuses, it appears, prefer to eat in the safety of their own dens, while others like dining alfresco. See James E. King and Aurelio J. Figueredo, “The Five-Factor Model plus Dominance in Chimpanzee Personality,”
Journal of Research in Personality
31 (1997): 257–71; Samuel D. Gosling, “Personality Dimensions in Spotted Hyenas (
Crocuta
crocuta
),”
Journal of Comparative Psychology
112, no. 2 (1998): 107–118. Also, for a more general look at personality traits in the animal kingdom at large, see S. D. Gosling and Oliver P. John, “Personality Dimensions in Nonhuman Animals: A Cross-Species Review,”
Current Directions in Psychological Science
8, no. 3 (1999): 69–75, doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00017.