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Psychopaths make up close to one percent of our general population and about 25 percent of male convicts in prisons are psychopaths. These are people that show a lack of empathy toward others, a lack of guilt or remorse. They also have very shallow emotions, they can be impulsive, have superficial charm, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. But many psychopaths are people that never actually commit horrible crimes or hurt others. According to researchers, brain scans of psychopaths show an average of an 18 percent reduction of volume in the brain's middle frontal gyrus. There is also a nine percent reduction of volume in the orbital frontal gyrus. But there could be a much easier way to determine if someone might be a psychopath.

It's interesting to note that whether they are violent or not, many of them give away clues to their true inner nature. Scientists that have studied psychopathic people for years say that certain patterns regularly show up in the way they speak.

Scientists talked to over 50 convicted killers. Fourteen of these people ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, which is a 20-item test. The convicts were asked to describe the details of their crimes. Computers were used to analyze what these men said and it was found that those with higher psychopathy scores showed a lack of emotion and spoke about cause and effect when describing the murders. Their attention was mostly focused on their own needs and wants like food and money.

According to the lead researcher, Jeffrey Hancock, we all have control of some of the words we use, but not the majority of them. Most of the words we use are produced unconsciously. These are the words that reveal the psychological workings of a speaker's mind, even if they are unaware of it.

Psychopaths tend to be very manipulative and they often have little or no conscience. They are usually only concerned with their own needs. Interviewing them can be very difficult because they can be so cunning. But their words can also give them away.

The researchers looked at several different factors including how often they talked about their crimes using past tense. The use of past tense can be an indicator of emotional detachment. It was found that psychopaths use it more than present tense when compared to non-psychopaths. They also found a lot more speech dysfluencies. Psychopaths used words like "uh" and "um" much more often. These are words that interrupt speech and indicate that the speaker needs more time to think about what they're about to say. This can be an indication that the speaker is putting a lot of thought into what they're saying in order to manipulate the person they're talking to.

Psychopaths see the world and other people as the means to an end. So as the researchers expected, they found more language that contained subordinating conjunctions. These words include "because" and "so that" and are used with cause-and-effect sentences. This shows that psychopaths are more likely to view their crimes as logical outcomes or something that had to be done to get what they wanted.

Most people have higher needs like family or religion but psychopaths are often preoccupied with finding ways to meet their more basic needs. They use about twice as many words that relate to basic needs and self-preservation, like drinking, eating, and obtaining money. Non-psychopathic people (even those that had committed murder) talked more about religion and family, indicating what non-psychopathic people tend to think of when they commit a crime.

The scientists are now interested in finding a way to analyze what people write on social media. This could be a useful tool for law enforcement and could help with investigations. If the police know a suspect is a psychopath it can affect how interrogations are done.

Of course, it's important to note that just because someone is a psychopath doesn't mean they are violent. In fact, many experts believe that some of the most successful people in our society (businessmen, doctors, lawyers, etc.) could actually be psychopathic. But this research is interesting and hopefully, it can lead to tools that will help mental health professionals and law enforcement identify when they are dealing with a psychopath.

References:

LiveScience.com. What Makes a Psychopath? Answers Remain Elusive. Accessed at https://www.livescience.com/7859-psychopath-answers-remain-elusive.html on February 22, 2018.

LiveScience.com. Criminal Minds Are Different From Yours, Brain Scans Reveal. Accessed at https://www.livescience.com/13083-criminals-brain-neuroscience-ethics.html on February 22, 2018.

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