The following main traits characterize psychopathy:
- Lack of empathy
- Lack of guilt and remorse
- Emotional coldness
- Superficial charm
- Pathological lying
- Manipulative behavior
- Unexpected calmness and rationality
- Irresponsibility and impulsivity
- Grandiosity
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 one end of the Psychopathy-Empathy spectrum. Most people fall in the middle of the spectrum. They have a mix of selfish and empathic traits. Some are hyperempathetic, and some, psychopaths.
Creepy things psychopaths say
Psychopaths can say or do things that ordinary, feeling people wouldn’t in the same context. That and their thinly veiled threats make some of the things they utter really creepy. Feeling creepy is nothing but our bodies telling us that we’re in danger.
Context plays a huge role in making the things that psychopaths say creepy, as you’ll see in the following examples:
1. “I don’t feel anything”
If that line comes from a depressed person feeling emotionally numb during a bad phase in their life, it’s not creepy at all.
But psychopaths say it when people around them expect them to empathize or feel something.
For example, they may use that line when:
- You tell them about your troubles, and they can’t be bothered.
- Their loved one dies, but they see no point in grieving.
- They do something wrong and don’t feel guilty about it.
2. “I enjoy watching others suffer”
Psychopaths tend to be rational and calculating in the crimes they commit. They’re often caught because they brag about the suffering they inflict on vulnerable humans and sometimes animals.
When they say such things, you know they’re not joking like an average person sometimes does. No, they mean it. They get urges to harm and act upon those urges.
In a similar vein, they’ll also say something like:
“I wonder what it’d be like to X.”
Where X is harming others in the most grotesque and unimaginable ways.
3. “It’s not a big deal.”
Psychopaths aren’t affected by tragic events in the same way ordinary people are. For example, when regular folks are told they have a life-threatening disease, they panic, become melancholic, or at least reflect on their life.
You could tell a psychopath they’ll die in a week, and they’d be like, “That’s crazy!”. That’s it. They’d then move on and have a cup of coffee like it’s business as usual.
Their unexpected calm and rationality in the face of highly threatening events can turn them into cold-blooded killers. No wonder there were rumors a while back that some governments are looking to enlist psychopaths in military and security forces.
References:
- Glenn, A. L., Efferson, L. M., Iyer, R., & Graham, J. (2017). Values, goals, and motivations associated with psychopathy. Journal of social and clinical psychology, 36(2), 108-125.
- Kiehl, K. A., & Hoffman, M. B. (2011). The criminal psychopath: History, neuroscience, treatment, and economics. Jurimetrics, 51, 355.