Explore the vast world of different and colorful personality traits.
The following main traits characterize psychopathy: Selfishness and power-hungriness are the predominant traits of psychopaths.1 They do what they want without any regard for the consequences of their actions. Not all psychopaths are violent, but because they don’t feel the pain of others, they’re likely to be.2 You can think of psychopathy as being on …
A narcissist is someone who’s self-centered, lacks empathy, seeks validation, and has fantasies of power and success. We all have narcissistic traits to some extent, but someone with a full-blown Narcissistic Personality Disorder makes life difficult for themselves and those around them. At the root of narcissism is low self-esteem. A narcissist tries to overcompensate …
A narcissist is a person who’s highly selfish, lacks empathy, and believes they’re superior to others. They have delusions of grandeur and an exaggerated sense of self-importance. Since every human being is selfish to some degree, we all have narcissistic traits. In some people, however, narcissistic traits are present to a pathological degree. They have …
Sociopathy or Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a mental health condition in which a person harms others for selfish gain. Sociopaths have a win-lose mentality and lack remorse when they hurt others for personal gain. One may have sociopathic traits but not full-blown ASPD. In fact, most people have a mix of selfish (sociopathic) and …
Being strong-willed means having a strong will or willpower. Willpower is the power that enables you to do what you want to do. Where does that power come from? It comes from a conviction that what one wants to do is worth it. When you believe your wants, goals, and beliefs are worthy, you’re likely …
Humans are social species. For any social species, social cohesion matters. Social cohesion is achieved when individuals can live together in reciprocal, ‘I scratch your back, and you scratch mine’ relationships. An individual enters a reciprocal relationship with someone who adds value to their life. Valuable or high-value people, therefore, can better form relationships and …
Sarcasm is when a person says one thing but means the opposite. How can one say something and mean the opposite? Because meaning and intention transcend words. A big part of human communication is nonverbal. Thus, to interpret the meaning of a message (like spoken words), you have to look at body language, facial expressions, …
Smartness or intelligence can be defined in several ways. I won’t bore you with all the definitions. No matter how you slice and dice it, smartness boils down to problem-solving. You’re smart in my book if you’re good at solving problems, especially complex ones. What determines how well we’re able to solve a problem? One …
The word ‘cult’ comes from the Latin cultus, meaning care, cultivation, culture, or worship. A cult has a culture of its own, with a cult leader, usually a male, and followers. A cult leader and his followers are bound together by shared beliefs, practices, and rituals that are considered deviant by a society’s mainstream belief …
I was part of the core team that organized a fest in our college. We had regular meetings to keep us updated on the progress. During this one meeting, when we were having lunch, the team leader blurted out, “He’s so quiet. He doesn’t speak much”, talking about me. I remember how I felt. It …