#psychopathy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychopathy, aggregated by home.social.
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If possessing #empathy really was a problem for human flourishing, evolution would be churning out people with fully diagnosable #psychopathy at a far higher rate than 1.2%.
What has happened though, is we’ve built a society rewarding psychopathy with money and power at every step, that’s left the empathically neurotypicals without money or power.
Then finally, the psychos got together and decided that everybody else is flawed.
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If possessing #empathy really was a problem for human flourishing, evolution would be churning out people with fully diagnosable #psychopathy at a far higher rate than 1.2%.
What has happened though, is we’ve built a society rewarding psychopathy with money and power at every step, that’s left the empathically neurotypicals without money or power.
Then finally, the psychos got together and decided that everybody else is flawed.
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If possessing #empathy really was a problem for human flourishing, evolution would be churning out people with fully diagnosable #psychopathy at a far higher rate than 1.2%.
What has happened though, is we’ve built a society rewarding psychopathy with money and power at every step, that’s left the empathically neurotypicals without money or power.
Then finally, the psychos got together and decided that everybody else is flawed.
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If possessing #empathy really was a problem for human flourishing, evolution would be churning out people with fully diagnosable #psychopathy at a far higher rate than 1.2%.
What has happened though, is we’ve built a society rewarding psychopathy with money and power at every step, that’s left the empathically neurotypicals without money or power.
Then finally, the psychos got together and decided that everybody else is flawed.
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If possessing #empathy really was a problem for human flourishing, evolution would be churning out people with fully diagnosable #psychopathy at a far higher rate than 1.2%.
What has happened though, is we’ve built a society rewarding psychopathy with money and power at every step, that’s left the empathically neurotypicals without money or power.
Then finally, the psychos got together and decided that everybody else is flawed.
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DATE: August 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Narcissism and psychopathy linked to entrepreneurial mindsets
People who possess certain dark personality traits, along with specific traditional traits like openness, show a higher natural inclination toward entrepreneurship. A recent psychological survey of working adults revealed that individuals scoring high in narcissism and psychopathy also reported stronger entrepreneurial tendencies. These results were published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
Psychologists often study entrepreneurship not just as an occupation, but as a deep-seated personality construct. In this framework, entrepreneurial tendency is defined as a latent psychological disposition. It involves a strong preference for innovation, a knack for recognizing opportunities, and a drive to create societal value.
According to this perspective, a person can possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset even if they currently work a traditional salaried job. By treating this tendency as a stable pattern of thoughts and emotions, researchers can investigate how it relates to other established facets of human psychology.
To describe general human personality, scientists typically rely on a model known as the Big Five, which categorizes personality into five broad domains. Openness to experience involves imagination and a preference for novelty, while conscientiousness relates to organization and goal-directed behavior. Extraversion is tied to sociability, agreeableness reflects cooperativeness, and emotional stability refers to how well a person handles stress.
In recent years, psychologists have also focused on a cluster of socially undesirable characteristics known as the Dark Triad. Narcissism involves grandiosity, dominance, and an inflated sense of self-worth. Psychopathy is characterized by high impulsivity, arrogance, and low empathy, while Machiavellianism refers to a calculated willingness to manipulate others to achieve personal goals.
Because starting and running a business requires a high degree of confidence, risk tolerance, and a desire for control, these dark traits might naturally appeal to prospective founders. M. Inmaculada López-Núñez and her colleagues at the Complutense University of Madrid wanted to see how these different personality models predict an individual’s internal drive to be an entrepreneur. They designed a study to examine these relationships while accounting for demographic factors like age, gender, and current occupational status.
The researchers recruited 591 adult workers in Spain to participate in the study. The participants ranged in age from 26 to 76 and included both men and women. They represented a variety of employment situations, including traditional salaried employees, self-employed individuals, and unemployed workers. The participants also had diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from primary schooling to advanced university degrees.
Each participant completed a series of online questionnaires. The first survey measured their entrepreneurial tendencies by asking them to rate statements about how often they identify business opportunities or generate new ideas in team settings. The participants rated their agreement on a five-point scale.
Next, the participants completed a brief ten-item inventory to assess their Big Five personality traits. They rated how well certain pairs of adjectives described their typical behavior. Finally, the researchers measured the Dark Triad traits using a specialized twelve-item scale. This survey asked participants to rate their agreement with statements reflecting manipulation, grandiosity, and a lack of remorse.
The researchers used statistical models to determine how much of the variation in entrepreneurial tendencies could be explained by the collected data. They found that demographic factors, traditional personality traits, and dark traits collectively accounted for about 41 percent of the total variation in entrepreneurial tendencies among the participants.
Several traditional Big Five traits were strongly associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. People who scored higher in openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion tended to report higher entrepreneurial tendencies. Openness to experience emerged as the most relevant trait among the Big Five for predicting this business-oriented disposition.
The Dark Triad traits also provided unique predictive value. Specifically, higher scores in narcissism and psychopathy were positively correlated with the entrepreneurial mindset. Narcissism showed the strongest association among the dark traits. The inclusion of these socially undesirable characteristics improved the accuracy of the predictive model, indicating that dark traits offer information about entrepreneurial tendencies that traditional personality models miss.
Demographic and occupational factors played a measurable role in the results as well. Being younger and being male were linked to a stronger psychological disposition toward entrepreneurship. This aligns with some historical data regarding business creation, though the researchers noted that gender gaps in actual start-up activity are narrowing globally.
Additionally, current occupational status was linked to psychological tendencies. Self-employed individuals showed higher entrepreneurial scores than traditional salaried workers. The researchers suggested that choosing self-employment might be an active expression of a person’s latent psychological traits, as individuals naturally gravitate toward work environments that fit their internal needs.
The study has a few limitations. The researchers relied entirely on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. Because of this cross-sectional design, they cannot determine the direction of the relationship between these variables. The data do not prove that possessing dark personality traits causes a person to become more entrepreneurial.
It is possible that the way individuals view themselves skews their survey responses. For example, individuals who score high in narcissism might naturally overestimate their own business acumen, reporting higher entrepreneurial abilities than they actually possess. Self-report surveys capture an individual’s perception of their traits, which may differ from their actual behavior in a business setting.
Future research should track participants over an extended period to see how these personality traits influence actual career choices over time. Observing individuals as they start and manage businesses could help clarify exactly how dark traits interact with traditional personality measures in the real world.
Scientists also need to explore the specific reasons why people choose to start businesses. Distinguishing between those who start companies to seize a new opportunity and those who do so out of economic necessity could reveal different underlying personality profiles.
The study, “Individual differences in entrepreneurial tendencies: The impact of self-employment and the Dark Triad,” was authored by M. Inmaculada López-Núñez, Sara Esteban-Gonzalo, Teresa Diéguez-Risco, and Juan F. Díaz-Morales.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EntrepreneurialMindset #DarkTriad #Narcissism #Psychopathy #OpennessToExperience #Conscientiousness #Extraversion #EntrepreneurshipResearch #SelfEmployment #BigFiveTraits
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DATE: August 9, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The dark triad and problematic sexual behavior: A small piece of a complex puzzle
A recent study suggests that people with antagonistic personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, tend to report higher levels of problematic sexual behavior and momentary sexual urges. However, these associations are relatively small, indicating that personality is just one piece of a much larger psychological puzzle. The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Problematic sexual behavior refers to patterns of sexual thoughts or actions that feel difficult to control and cause negative consequences in a person’s life. Rather than classifying this as a formal addiction, psychologists often view it on a spectrum of severity. Sexual activity can play a positive role in adult well-being and act as a healthy way to cope with life’s challenges. However, when a person repeatedly uses sexual behavior as their primary method to manage difficult emotions, it has the potential to become an unhealthy coping mechanism.
To better understand who might be most prone to these patterns, researchers looked at the “Dark Triad” of personality. This group of antagonistic traits includes Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Machiavellianism involves a tendency to be manipulative and strategic, usually to exploit others for personal gain. Narcissism is characterized by a sense of grandiosity, perceived superiority, and a strong sense of entitlement. Psychopathy involves emotional detachment, low empathy, and poor impulse control.
Past evidence indicates that people scoring higher on these traits often struggle with regulating their emotions and managing stress. Because problematic sexual behavior is frequently linked to poor emotional control, scientists wanted to see if these antagonistic traits correlated with a higher tendency to rely on sex for stress relief. They also aimed to test whether experiencing acute emotional stress would amplify momentary sexual urges.
“Problematic sexual behavior is widely discussed and debated, but we still do not fully understand what drives it,” said Emanuele Fino, corresponding author and an assistant professor at Queen’s University Belfast. “We wanted to examine whether certain personality traits are linked to difficulties controlling sexual thoughts or behaviors, whether emotional stress strengthens these links, and whether the patterns differ between men and women.”
To explore these questions, the authors conducted two separate studies using undergraduate students in Romania. In the first study, 418 participants completed online questionnaires measuring their personality traits and their levels of problematic sexual behavior over the past year. The sample included 213 women and 202 men, with an average age of 22. The researchers used established psychological scales to measure the three dark personality traits, along with a standardized questionnaire to capture frequency-based indicators of dysregulated sexual behavior.
The findings from the first study suggested slight differences between men and women in how these traits related to sexual behavior. Among women, higher scores in all three traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, were associated with more problematic sexual behavior. Among men, only psychopathic traits were associated with these behaviors. The associations involving Machiavellianism and narcissism in men were not statistically significant.
“People with higher levels of antagonistic traits, such as callousness, manipulation and self-centeredness, tended to report more problematic sexual thoughts and behaviors,” Fino told PsyPost. “Also, in one of our studies, psychopathic traits were the only traits significantly linked to problematic sexual behavior among men, specifically, which may reflect characteristics such as impulsivity, sensation-seeking or reduced empathy.”
It is important to note that the effect sizes were quite small across the board. In statistics, shared variance refers to how much of the variation in one trait can be explained by another. The dark traits accounted for only about 3 to 7 percent of the shared variance in problematic sexual behavior scores among women. For men, psychopathic traits accounted for about 6 percent of the variance.
This means that over 90 percent of the variation in this behavior is explained by factors outside of these personality traits. “The links were statistically significant but fairly small,” Fino explained. “Human behavior is complex, and no single personality trait is likely to explain it fully. It is therefore more accurate to say that these traits may contribute slightly to someone’s likelihood of experiencing difficulties, alongside many other factors.”
The second study involved a separate group of 455 undergraduate students, including 249 women and 206 men, with an average age of 22. This time, the researchers focused on momentary sexual preoccupations and urges rather than behavior over the past year. They also added an experimental element to see how acute stress influenced these momentary urges. Half of the participants were asked to vividly recall and write about a highly distressing childhood memory to induce emotional stress, while the other half completed a neutral control task.
Following the memory task, the researchers measured the participants’ current sexual urges, dark personality traits, and anxiety levels. They adjusted the statistical models to account for age and general trait anxiety. Trait anxiety refers to a person’s baseline tendency to feel anxious, while state anxiety refers to temporary feelings of worry in the moment.
The stress manipulation worked as intended, with participants in the distressing memory group reporting higher state anxiety than the control group. Despite this increase in anxiety, the induced stress did not change the relationship between the dark traits and momentary sexual urges. “We expected emotional stress to strengthen the link between personality and sexual urges, but it did not,” Fino said.
“Our stress task increased anxiety, so the task worked, but it did not change the relationship between personality and urges,” Fino continued. “Longer-term or everyday stress may be more relevant for problematic sexual behavior than brief, experimentally induced distress.” Gender also did not alter this relationship in the second study, contrasting slightly with the findings of the first study.
When looking at basic correlations, all three dark traits were linked to higher momentary sexual urges in both men and women. Again, the associations were small, with the traits explaining about 3 to 6 percent of the variation in momentary urges. The researchers then analyzed all three traits together in a single statistical model to see which one was the strongest predictor. When grouped this way, no individual trait uniquely predicted the sexual urges.
To make sense of this, the researchers used a technique called structural equation modeling, which allows scientists to look at the mathematical overlap of traits. They found that a general antagonistic personality style, shared across all three traits, was linked to the sexual urges. Psychopathic traits were the strongest indicator of this shared antagonistic dimension. This suggests that a broad tendency toward emotional callousness and disinhibition might be driving the association, rather than the specific individual features of narcissism or Machiavellianism alone.
These findings do not indicate that certain personality types are destined to develop sexual compulsions. “Our findings do not mean that people with certain traits are destined to develop problematic sexual behavior, nor can these traits predict what any individual will do,” Fino cautioned. “These traits do not determine a specific person’s behavior and should not be used to judge or label individuals. They are only one part of a much larger picture.”
The data is also correlational, meaning it cannot determine whether dark personality traits directly cause problematic sexual behavior. The study relied exclusively on undergraduate university students, which introduces some limits to the research. “We studied university students, not people diagnosed with personality disorders or compulsive sexual behavior, so the findings should not automatically be generalized to clinical populations,” Fino stated.
Young adulthood is a period of active sexual exploration and identity development, which restricts how well the conclusions apply to older adults. Additionally, the stress experiment specifically used childhood memories to induce distress. This type of emotional recall might not mirror the everyday stressors that typically trigger sexual urges in the real world.
Future research would benefit from tracking participants over longer periods to see how personality and sexual behavior influence one another over time.
“We want to understand what connects personality to behavior,” Fino stated. “Factors such as impulsivity, emotion regulation, trauma as well as social and cultural contexts may help explain why some people experience these difficulties while others do not. Observing people over time will also help us understand how these patterns develop.”
“We tested our ideas in two separate groups using different approaches, which strengthens the overall evidence,” Fino concluded. “More broadly, we hope the study supports a balanced conversation. Overall, problematic sexual behavior is complex and cannot be explained by one personality trait alone or one brief stressful experience.”
The study, “Investigating the relationship between antagonistic personality traits and problematic sexual behaviour: The role of gender and emotional stress,” was authored by Simona A. Popușoi, Cara Finn, Eduard Ionut Apetrei, Cian Leppard, Andrei C. Holman, Nadja Heym, and Emanuele Fino.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DarkTriad #ProblematicSexualBehavior #Narcissism #Psychopathy #Machiavellianism #EmotionalStress #PsychologyResearch #SexualBehavior #PersonalityTraits #MentalHealthScience
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Literally making the case for a less #hierarchical society
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a70590174/powerful-people-brains/
All the more reason to start an #impeachment movement in #Brooklyn my video here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cSyHuEqhDhc&pp=0gcJCZoBo7VqN5tD #science #NeuroScience #psychology #trump #iran #iranwar #psychopathy #fascism -
I was informally (mis)diagnosed as "probably psychopathic" by my supervisor when I did my Social Psychology postgraduate at the University of Leicester psychiatric teaching hospital back in 1989. Now I realise that I was really diagnosed with adult autism by a psychologist who didn't have the tools to differentiate.
It's interesting because it started me on my path to computerising the psychiatric investigation part of the DSM (well, initially Hare PCL) evaluation for my Master's degree. The psychometric question-and-answer model and demo I came up with had me firmly psychopathic in PCL's diagnostic terms, whereas these days it would be easily diagnosed as autism.
I went on to expand the idea from psychometrics, to behaviour analysis in virtual worlds, which I figured would be a better capture than psychometric questions - Would the person co-operate to attain a goal, would they show altruism, would they be quick to anger - There's a lot you can measure in the virtual world as we know very well now, but didn't in 1991. Sadly, the lack of modern technology and the need to feed myself brought this PhD to an end without a write-up - But it's no wonder I ended up working for OkCupid, I guess :D
The sad thing about that is that although it didn't impact my life at all, other than having an interesting topic to discuss at parties, the PCL is used as a tool by US prisons in their parole calculations. A PCL diagnosis is a heavy weighting against parole, even though Hare himself has said that isn't the way this should be used. I dread to think how many autistic people are stuck in prisons for evermore because of misdiagnosed psychopathy.
The psychopathy test puts a lot more emphasis on masking and social interactions than on kidnapping people and putting them in wells to skin them later, I feel.
I can't be bothered to write a blog post about this, so I will scream into the #Mastodon #Void instead - Except now I have to think of some other #Hashtags which is always the hard part, I get carried away, autism you see!
#Medicine #Psychology #Psychiatry #MentalHealth #Education #Diagnosis #Psychopathy #HarePCL #DSM #Psychometrics #Statistics #Autism #ADHD #RetroComputing #Gaming #Online #Worlds #MUD #Leicester #UniversityofLeicester #Prison #Parole #HannibalLecter #SilenceoftheLambs #OkCupid #Tinder #Hinge #MatchGroup #Algorithms #BigData