Psychopaths are always one step ahead of the movies, and television shows are to be believed. They always seem aware of what people are thinking and know how to take advantage of this knowledge.
But in actuality, a psychopath’s capacity to enter a man’s psyche is not exceptionally strong. It is not that he couldn’t do it; instead, he doesn’t want to. The test used to identify psychopaths is demonstrated below.
Psychology of the pathologically thinking mind
Before examining how psychopaths differ from others, let’s first discuss the theory of mind. In essence, this refers to the capacity to comprehend what goes on in other people’s heads.
Although most people start to form a theory of mind around the age of four, we are not born with one. For the younger ones, try this traditional exam.
Little John is shown a box of cookies, and you inquire about what is within. “Biscuits!” He claims he will be let down when he discovers that the package is filled with carrots.
You then introduce Dana, a new child, to John, who has never seen the box before. What does Dana believe to be in the box? John inquired. He will understand that despite knowing the reality, Dana still thinks biscuits are in the box if he has a developed mind theory.
John, though, might think that Dana is aware of the existence of carrots if he has not yet developed such a theory. This skill is also known as the “formation of perspective,” It is generally accepted that the absence of perspective is a primary sign of psychopathy.
Who is deemed to be a psychopath?
In actuality, psychopaths do not employ this skill; it is not that they are unable to develop it. A large part of psychopaths’ antisocial, harsh, and cruel behavior can be related to their ignorance of other people’s beliefs and emotions.
A psychopath can perfectly convey what is happening in the fictional man’s thoughts when instructed to take on that character’s perspective in a story.
This triggers Siret’s psychopath from Alfred Hitchcock movies or the media. Someone who can infer your thoughts but who can give up when he has to show empathy?
It sounds somewhat ominous. But the tale is not so cut and clear.
I feel sorry for the devil
Although psychopaths indeed have the option to empathize, they rarely do so, which is a little… annoying. Could this be a disease?
According to a recent study, there are differences between the ways that psychopaths and people with normal brains absorb emotions. It’s not nearly as easy as just giving up empathy, though.
Psychopaths may readily assume the role of another person if required to, just like the rest of us. Differences start to show when empathy is put to the test without the subject being aware of it.
How to conduct the psychopath examination
Assuming you took the psychopath’s test, the results would be as follows. You would initially see a rendering of a room with a model of wall points.
A person standing with their back to one of the walls is in the center of the room. You are questioned by the researcher, “How many points do you see?” It takes roughly a second to respond to the question if the person in the image sees the same number of points as you.
However, this is the only place where things get interesting. For non-psychopaths, the response time increases by roughly 100 milliseconds if the individual in the image cannot see all the points (maybe because some are on the opposite wall, for example).
Instead of reacting based on how many points he can see, the non-psychopath immediately replaces the person in the image and imagines how many points that person can see. A psychopath does not consider the person’s presence or orientation.
This means that whereas psychopaths work harder to pass for others, normal brains do it without effort. I apologize for their incapacity to convey pity for us.
