How to Spot Psychopaths: Speech Patterns Give Them Away. Great! A test for politicians.

[TalkingDog]

http://www.livescience.com/16585-psychopaths-speech-language.html

The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail. Using computer programs to analyze what the men said, the researchers found that those with psychopathic scores showed a lack of emotion, spoke in terms of cause-and-effect when describing their crimes, and focused their attention on basic needs, such as food, drink and money. <10 Contested Death Penalty Cases>

While we all have conscious control over some words we use, particularly nouns and verbs, this is not the case for the majority of the words we use, including little, functional words like "to" and "the" or the tense we use for our verbs, according to Jeffrey Hancock, the lead researcher and an associate professor in communications at Cornell University, who discussed the work on Monday (Oct. 17) in Midtown Manhattan at Cornell's ILR Conference Center.

"The beautiful thing about them is they are unconsciously produced," Hancock said.

These unconscious actions can reveal the psychological dynamics in a speaker's mind even though he or she is unaware of it, Hancock said.

[dkf]

1. This is kind of scary.

"The researchers are interested in analyzing what people write on Facebook or in other social media, since our unconscious mind also holds sway over what we write. By analyzing stories written by students from Cornell and the University of British Columbia, and looking at how the text people generate using social media relates to scores on the Self-Report Psychopathy scale. Unlike the checklist, which is based on an extensive review of the case file and an interview, the self report is completed by the person in question.

This sort of tool could be very useful for law enforcement investigations, such as in the case of the Long Island serial killer, who is being sought for the murders of at least four prostitutes and possibly others, since this killer used the online classified site Craigslist to contact victims, according to Hancock.      

Text analysis software could be used to conduct a "first pass," focusing the work for human investigators, he said. "A lot of time analysts tell you they feel they are drinking from a fire hose."

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Dick was a prophet

Next in the list...offic of pre crime

[Fumesucker]

4. Talk like a Psychop.. errr.. Pirate..

Arrr!!

[dkf]

10. Lol.

[nineteen50]

8. Can corporations write?

[AngkorWot]

2. Don't they use these tests to improperly label convicts?

Interesting interview on NPR a couple of months ago with the guy who first came up with these tests. It was supposed to be just a tool, but they ended up being misused getting a lot of false positives with convicts. Thus they're pretty much locked up and the key is thrown away in cases where the actual convict is capable of reform through therapy and counseling.

[TalkingDog]

6. I don't think this is a test. The researchers are examining speech patterns. n/t

[snot]

5. Funny; it says,

"Psychopaths make up about 1 percent of the general population" . . . I guess we know which 1%.

[TheWraith]

14. Actually the "successful, amiable psychopath" is pretty much a myth.

Most psychopath/sociopath types end up that way by virtue of being socially alienated and with primarily negative or broken social interactions--abusive parents, bullying, childhood loss, whatever. These same conditions are very much not an ideal for achieving social success and wealth, or even being socially capable enough to interact with people well. Despite popular images like Hannibal Lecter, most psychopaths are isolated, barely functional people.

[iris27]

16. Tell that to my sister, who has left a swath of destruction in her wake all her life.

She's no corporate CEO, but she has a husband, a church community of friends, and a loving family of in-laws who have not (yet) seen the other shoe drop. She is very good at the long game, and pitted many of my family members against one another over a course of years, and personally cost me thousands.

[TheWraith]

17. Selfcenteredness is not the same as psychopathology.

If you think that your sister could, say, gut a homeless person, toss their severed head into the preschool playground, and never feel a moment's guilt, well, there are always exceptions to the rule.

[laundry_queen]

24. It's a myth that a psychopath will always kill if given the opportunity

Most will not - especially the intelligent ones. They are all about what benefits them. Most psychopaths are smart enough to know that killing someone would mean jail should they get caught and they don't care for that because it means they would be out of control. That's not to say that if someone was getting in the way of something the psychopath thought they were entitled to that they wouldn't NOT kill if they thought they could get away with it, but the VAST majority do NOT kill people. It IS true, however, that psychopaths, if successful when young, often burn out as they get older, alienating every one they've ever known or worked for. They do often end up destitute and attempting to manipulate vulnerable people into taking care of them.

[TheWraith]

32. I didn't say they'll always kill. But the defining feature of a psychopath is feeling no guilt.

That's why they're so strongly associated with "broken" socialization or abuse by other people; it causes them to disassociate from other people and lose the ability to empathize which is critical to guilt.

There can be plenty of people in the world who are cynical, self-centered, and rationalize their own bad behavior, but there's a distinction between that and true psychopathology.

[Maraya1969]

22. Look at the destruction caused by the anti-gays and the religious movement

They have been told of the danger and harm that they do to people, (I know because I am one of the ones doing the telling and I know I am not along) yet they continue in the face of their destructiveness. All the time with a smile on their face and "God" on their mouths. I'd say a good portion of them are psychopaths.

[Scuba]

29. Can you cite a reference for that? My mother was a psychopath...

...and folks who didn't know her well thought she was a wonderful person. On the other hand she had NO close friends. But in public, she could turn on the charm.

[TheWraith]

33. There's exceptions to every rule, but...

In general psycopathy is a lot more serious than people assume. It's not just a matter of being able to hide being a bad person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Intelligence

Psychopathic tendencies can sometimes be recognized in childhood or early adolescence. If recognized, a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, or possibly the related Oppositional Defiant Disorder, may be given. However, while these childhood signs have been found in a significantly higher proportion of psychopaths than in the general population, it must be stressed that not all the subjects of such childhood diagnoses turn out to be psychopaths as adults, or even disordered at all. Therefore, psychopathy is not normally diagnosed in children or adolescents, and some jurisdictions explicitly forbid diagnosing minors with psychopathy and similar personality disorders. This is because such a diagnosis "fails to capture the emotional, cognitive, and interpersonality traits — egocentricity and lack of remorse, empathy, or guilt - that are so important in the diagnosis of psychopathy."<63>

...

The three indicators — bedwetting, cruelty to animals and firestarting, known as the Macdonald triad — were first described by J.M. MacDonald as "red flag" indicators of psychopathy and future episodic aggressive behavior.<66> However, subsequent research has found that bedwetting is not a significant factor.<67> The question of whether young children with early indicators of psychopathy respond poorly to intervention, compared to conduct-disordered children without these traits, has only recently been examined in controlled clinical research. The empirical findings from this research have been consistent with broader anecdotal evidence, pointing to poor treatment outcomes.<68> Many of the above characteristics can be paralleled in bullying at school and elsewhere.

[H2O Man]

43. That supports what

our friend "The Wraith" is saying. Now, of course, I (hopefully) have not met your mother, and am hence speaking in more general terms.

The "myth" is that these people who appear charming on a surface level are that way in most areas of their life. Or enjoy long-term success in careers and a semi-stable family life. Below the surface, they are unstable at work and home, and cause misery for those around them.

[Maraya1969]

21. And I read that they make up 25% of CEO'S

[laundry_queen]

25. It is totally true that there is a disproportionate number of psychopaths

in the business world. It is such a problem that in one of my courses to do with management of employees (I'm taking a degree in business admin/accounting) there was actually a small section in the textbook about it, what to look for, how to deal with it, and how it is affecting companies. It is becoming a well-known fact even IN the business world.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Yep, fly this past Wall Street and the corporate boardrooms = antics ensue!

[Broderick]

9. I learned nothing reading this

[Fumesucker]

12. The question is though...

Are you bragging or complaining?

[provis99]

34. guess he recognized himself in the description.

So nothing new to learn.

[Broderick]

39. I will deny that

pffft

[Broderick]

38. HAHA

[On the Road]

11. It May Help to Have an Aphasic Around the House

or a tonal agnostic. From The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, 1985:

There he was, the old Charmer, the Actor, with his practised rhetoric, his histrionisms, his emotional appeal --and all the patients were convulsed with laughter. Well, not all: some looked bewildered, some looked outraged, one or two looked apprehensive, but most looked amused. The President was, as always, moving --but he was moving them, apparently, mainly to laughter. What could they be thinking? Were they failing to understand him? Or did they, perhaps, understand him all too well?

--snip

In this, then, lies (the aphasics') power of understanding--understanding, without words, what is authentic or inauthentic. Thus it was the grimaces, the histrionisms, the false gestures and, above all, the false tones and cadences of the voice, which rang false for these wordless but immensely sensitive patients. It was to these (for them) most glaring, even grotesque, incongruities and improprieties that my aphasic patients responded, undeceived and undeceivable by words. This is why they laughed at the President's speech.

---snip

Emily D. also listened, stony-faced, to the President's speech, bringing to it a strange mixture of enhanced and defective perceptions ---precisely the opposite. mixture to those of our aphasiacs. It did not move her --no speech now moved her-- and all that was evocative, genuine or false completely passed her by. Deprived of emotional reaction, was she then (like the rest of us) transported or taken in? By no means. 'He is not cogent,' she said. 'He does not speak good prose. His word-use is improper. Either he is brain-damaged, or he has something to conceal.' Thus the President's speech did not work for Emily D. either, due to her enhanced sense of formal language use, propriety as prose, any more than it worked for our aphasiacs, with their word-deafness but enhanced sense of tone.

http://www.indiana.edu/~jkkteach/P335/PresidentsSpeech.html

[Control-Z]

19. What an overload an Aphasic would have listening to Palin.

"...grimaces, the histrionisms, the false gestures and, above all, the false tones and cadences of the voice..."

[Fire Walk With Me]

28. +1

:thumbsup:

Regular people can begin to touch this ability...turn off the volume on your television and watch them closely.

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. This reminded me of someone...

They also found more dysfluencies — the "uhs" and "ums" that interrupt speech — among psychopaths. Nearly universal in speech, dysfluencies indicate that the speaker needs some time to think about what they are saying.

With regard to psychopaths, "We think the 'uhs' and 'ums' are about putting the mask of sanity on," Hancock told LiveScience.

Sounds like John Boener.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

27. My ex used to stutter when he was telling a big whopper.

He was manipulative and lied about everything. His understanding of reality was internally consistent but actually wrong.

He couldn't understand why I reacted like a normal person would to his actions which were always negative.

[CoffeeCat]

31. Given the corruption and disgusting...

...perversion of our democracy--at the hand of our current politicians--I would guess
that the Congressional population has a greater percentage of psychopaths than the
prison population.

To be an accomplice in the death of our democracy--for your own gain and power--is
a horrendous, colossal crime. In order to take part over the course of many years--
you'd have to be a psychopath.

Can any of you imagine being on the inside ring of this crime? I'd cry daily and
I'd sure as hell speak out.

We hear nothing from our elected officials. Their silence speaks volumes about
their pathology.

And they are murderers, in a sense. How many people has a health-insurance-centric
system killed? How many lives have been lost by a pro-corporate FDA and relaxed
food and safety standards? What kind of people dedicate their lives to making
torture legal?

People don't want to face it, because it's frightening--but our country is run by psychopaths
and psychopath enablers.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

15. I'm all for testing politicians, corporate CxOs and Wall St. execs

in whatever ways available for antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. If tested positive, said individuals must forfeit their positions or endeavors to serve - for the public good.

[Selatius]

23. They should do MUCH more than that. They should be confined to a mental institution.

Psychopathy is a mental illness.

[laundry_queen]

26. technically it's a personality disorder

which is actually much worse as they are far more resistant to treatment.

[provis99]

35. well actually, it's the technical definition for evil.

You can't cure evil.

[0rganism]

18. "You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down... "

Once again life imitates art. At least this time it's high-quality source material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvpmxY4dc4c

"They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response... Shall we continue?"

[leftstreet]

20. Tortoise...what's that?

:thumbsup:

[JHB]

30. self-deleted comment

misunderstood, was slow on the uptake.

[lunatica]

36. That article was one of the most vague I've ever read.

It says absolutely nothing of substance. Maybe because they have nothing to say.

[alcibiades_mystery]

37. Aaaaaah-choo pseudoscientificbullshit

Gezundheit.

[deaniac21]

40. My 23 location has been activated.....

[Trillo]

41. "showed a lack of emotion"

The number of posts I've read here on DU that discuss the need to eliminate emotion in regards to decision making, even the need to eliminate emotion in one's discussion board writing, have been numerous. So, are the people that are advising eliminating emotion encouraging either psychopathy or psychopathic traits? The next question: Can psychopaths be intentionally created?

Also, I wonder about the large groups of babies who were never breastfed, and instead were put on bottles immediately. I'm sure I've read that breastfeeding encourages mother-child bonding, and I presume, helps to foster closer physical ties to other people in a longer-term sense. Is there a higher percentage of psychopaths that were not breastfed versus those who were?

I ask the question regarding intentional creation of psychopaths due to the apparant need of corrupt leaders to "divide and conquer" those below them, and due to the overwhelming corporate influence in all of our lives, the subjugation of our entire existence to the corporate overlords.

Anyway, lots of things to learn, if one has the time, and interest. Myself, I have laundry and other mundane tasks to do....

[redqueen]

42. Nice.

Thanks for posting this!