Here’s One Possible Way to ID a Psychopath
Does looking at this photo make you want to yawn? (Image via Shutterstock)
A human behavior that’s often contagious may provide a simple clue to whether a person is a psychopath, researchers from Baylor University have discovered, per Smithsonian.
A study published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal finds that individuals with psychopathic traits—including coldheartedness, self-centered impulsivity, and “fearless dominance,” per a press release—are less likely to “catch” a yawn from other people, an action that has suggested empathy and emotional connections with other people in past studies, Smithsonian explains. “I thought, ‘If it’s true that yawning is related to empathy, I’ll bet that psychopaths yawn a lot less.’ So I put it to the test,” the study’s lead author, Brian Rundle, says in the release.
How he tested his hypothesis: After administering a psychological test to 135 students to see how they placed on the psychopath spectrum, his team applied electrodes to the subjects and placed them in front of computer screens that showed short clips of faces that were yawning, laughing, and neutral.
The electrodes measured muscle and nerve reactions, plus how frequently subjects yawned. Researchers found the less empathy subjects had demonstrated on the test, the less likely they yawned.
That doesn’t mean if you don’t catch a yawn, you’re a psychopath, Rundle says. “The take-home lesson is not that if you yawn and someone else doesn’t, the other person is a psychopath,” he says in the release. “A lot of people didn’t yawn, and we know that we’re not very likely to yawn in response to a stranger we don’t have empathetic connections with. … This is [just] a good starting point to ask more questions.” (Here’s the fastest way to tell if someone is a narcissist.)
By Jenn Gidman
More From Newser.com:
Family Fears It Buried Pregnant Teen Alive
Jared Fogle’s Foundation an Apparent Sham
Dad’s Survival Tip Keeps Lost Boy Alive
Here’s Where Single Women Outnumber Single Men
Don’t Wash Your Spinach? You May Not Want to Read This
This article originally appeared on Newser: Here’s One Possible Way to ID a Psycho
