Victims have a certain way of walking, and psychopaths can spot it. That’s the conclusion two bloggers for Psychology Today reached, based on a scientific study released last year.
The study, Psychopathic traits and perceptions of victim vulnerability, was authored by Sarah Wheeler, Angela Book and Kimberly Costello of Brock University. The abstract states:
The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals scoring higher on psychopathic traits would be better able to judge vulnerability to victimization after viewing short clips of targets walking. Participants provided a vulnerability estimate for each target and completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale: Version III (SRP-III). Higher SRP-III scores were associated with greater accuracy in assessing targets’ vulnerability to victimization.
Psychology Today blogger Marisa Mauro, Psy.D., explained the study further. A group of male university students were asked to watch video clips of 12 people walking. The videos were shot from behind, and the students were asked to rate the ease at which each could be mugged. Several of the individuals had, in fact, been victimized. The students who scored high in psychopathic traits were better at picking out the people who had already been mugged.
Mauro works as a prison psychologist. Based on her experience and this study, she wrote:
Certain personal characteristics are associated with tendency to be on the receiving end of bullying such as harassment and manipulation. I have found that the demonstration of confidence through body language, speech and affective expression, for example, provides some protection.
Wallflowers
Another Psychology Today blogger, Jeff Wise, also commented on the study and what it says about victims. Wise wrote that he recently came across a guy who seemed to have the traits of a psychopath. The man was charming, good-looking, athletic, financially successful—and he left a trail of destruction in his wake. His victims sounded like wallflowers. Wise wrote:
The women who wound up on the receiving end of his attentions were individuals who, in their own description, were not very worldly, experienced, or outgoing. They were psychologically vulnerable and hence ill-equipped to either resist this fellow’s predations or to deal with them emotionally after they had occurred.
Wise concluded that, “people who are on the receiving end of crime often do mark themselves out, if only subliminally.” Mauro suggested that people can decrease perceived vulnerability by projecting dominance—more eye contact, less movement of the hands and feet.
If only it were that easy.
Traits of targeted women
The research both bloggers quoted described a particular situation—people walking down the street, and how vulnerable they might be to being mugged. It should not be generalized to describe all victims of psychopaths. After all, how many of us were involved with muggers?
Consider the research by Dr. Liane Leedom on women who were targeted by psychopaths. She found that they have three traits in common:
- Extraverts. The women are outgoing, competitive, strong-willed and liked excitement. Sometimes they are free-spirited.
- Cooperative. They are high in empathy, tolerance and compassion. They value getting along with others, and are willing to compromise their own interests for the larger picture.
- Invested in relationships. They like being around people. They are sentimental and focus on special moments.
Dr. Leedom’s research relates to women. But I’ve heard from many Lovefraud readers, both men and women, who were successful, take-charge individuals—until they met the psychopath.
Personally, I don’t think anyone who watched me walk down the street would tag me as timid or vulnerable. I’m an athlete, and my stride is confident. But I was victimized by a psychopath, who took $227,000 from me, and cheated on me incessantly. And the guy started setting his hooks via e-mail, before he ever saw me walk.
Maybe projecting dominance would work to avoid muggers. But it’s not going to stop victimization by a card-carrying psychopath intent on finding a resourceful new supply.
Donna, I totally agree with your assessment on this, and Unfortunately, I also agree with the “mugging” victim part.
There IS something that marks us “easier prey” to the psychopaths, but I not sure what it is and I’m not sure anyone does, but this particular study I agree with you only pertains to a physical violence.
Now, I admit that some psychopaths WANT a victim that is physically timid, and I’ve seen many women who were victims of DV physical abusers and many of them appeared timid and beaten down, but was it a case of he picked a timid woman to abuse or was she timid BECAUSE she had been abused? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
I’m almost out of beef in my freezer and am making plans to butcher an animal for meat here pretty soon now that the weather is getting cold enough, and I went to the pasture to look them over for possible “volunteers” for the “honor” and I did not pick out the weakest or the sickest, but I picked out the biggest, fattest, most healthy one out there with the most of what I wanted, high quality meat.
So to me, a psychopath would function the same way in picking victims, and for a “LONG CON” would pick out the victim with the most of what s/he wanted…status, position, money, energy….for a relationship…but if it was a ONE TIME MUGGING, I think most of them would pick a more timid victim.
Even a psychopath is smart enough to realize you get more out of a LONG CON than you do out of a single ONE TIME MUGGING.
Oxy-good analogy, I wonder what the cows are thinking when they look at you?
cow no 1
“She seems so, nice, she keeps us well,I’m fine and healthy….but there is something in the way she looked at me today”
cow 2
“like what…like what…go on ..stay with this it’s important”
cow 1
“well…she looks at me like I’m just a piece if meat”
I agree with you the psychopath is smart enough to realise you get more out of a long con than mugging
just to add the other growing problem which is cyberpaths. They are not looking at the way you walk here, just ruthlessly targetting anyone who is looking for love, friendship and perfectly normal human aspirations.
They click into this “romantic mind set” and play it to the hilt…in internet dating…you could say we advertised ourselves into the psychopath net, with perhaps naive dreams of finding true love.
Not a once of mugging, nothing with the way you walk… the normal aspirations of a decent human being…IS their target.
BP, funny cow dialogue.
cow #3
Oh bessie, you’re just being paranoid! She’s too nice for that.
cow #2
Well, I think you should listen to your Gut on this one.
Cow #1 (chewing cud) It’s just the creepiest feeling….I just can’t shake it…something about that stare…like she was sizing me up.
cow #3
Oh don’t be silly. You know how much she loves us!
Dear BP,
And cow number 1 is RIGHT! LOL But the thing is that I DO take care of them well, they have everything to make a cow happy and when the time comes, at least I do it quick and painlessly, unlike a psychopath. When mine see me coming it is “Ohhhhhh the FOOD GODDESS is here!!!!! I want to see what she brought me!!!”
The three old cows have NAMES and all were show heifers so know how to lead on a halter and are very tame and love me, but I don’t “make friends with” the younger ones that will be meat, and actually I took 4 to the livestock auction the other day because I had too many to winter through with a short hay supply from this year and I FELT GUILTY taking them and selling them and not knowing if they would be treated kindly…at least When I kill one for meat, they don’t suffer stress or fear or anxiety or get pushed around by bigger tougher strange animals and believe it or not, cattle are very sensitive to that.
After my husband died I decided to sell the bulk of my carefully bred up herd, and actually I didn’t so much as “sell” them as “placed them for adoption.” LOL (Okay, oooookay, I’m a sentimental slob all right, I admit it) I found out later that one of the people who bought some from me mistreated them (I think this guy IS A PSYCHOPATH from what I hear) and I was FURIOUS that I had picked a bad stupid mean buyer for some of my babies.)
I don’t have any problem eating meat and I know it doesn’t come from a “hamburger tree” but I want it to have been treated well growing up and humanely put down. (Makes it taste better too!)
Kim, yea we posted over each other and I didn’t see your post until I hit send on mine. Good going guys, and you are so right! I am a COW PSYCHOPATH just fattening them up for the kill! LOL ROTFLMAO and the same statements apply to them if they could talk that apply to us IF WE WOULD LISTEN TO OUR GUTS. They fatten us up for the kill, they “lead us with nice.”
In fact, when you are “working” (driving) cattle you do use all the body language manipulation. You never look directly at the cow you want because if you stare at her (that’s a PREDATOR SIGN REMEMBER) you watch her out of the corner of your eyes so she doesn’t get the idea that you are interested in HER. Then you move around her so that she will move off in the opposite direction from you (going where you want her to) but you don’t want to panic her, you just want to slowly move her away from you until she gets into the corral or a corner where she is TRAPPED, then you have TOTAL control.
The Border Collie herding dogs use eye contact (they are, after all, predators like their wolf ancestors) predator stare to move the sheep, goats or cattle, or even ducks can be herded.
I firmly believe that psychopaths ARE HUMAN PREDATORS and they hunt us just like a wolf does a lamb. They pick the one that they think will give them the most and the best meat for the least effort. If it is a one time mugging they’ll pick one kind of victim if it is a long con, they pick another kind and use different tactics to strip it of what they want, and like a cat plays with a mouse, sometimes they just play with it and torture it while it is alive for the FUN OF IT! I like cats, and I have some, but they can be very much psychopaths with prey.
You guys are too funny. The cow analogies are perfect.
It’s an interesting article, but… I’m lost. What does “blaming the victim” have to do with any of this?
Redwald –
In the articles that I referenced, one Psychology Today blogger advised people to walk with more confidence to avoid being bullied, or even mugged. The other said that women were victimized by psychopaths because they had low self-esteem. To me, they seem to be saying that it’s the victim’s own fault that they were targeted.
I’ve long suspected Oxy was a cow-path!
Funny, but when I first realized what my P was doing, the image of myself as a cow appeared in my head. This cow had my head inside it and it was me in a cow’s body being milked, groomed and ready for slaughter.
The predator always separates the prey from its herd. We have all experienced this. Some of us, like myself, tend to self separate because I’m a bit of a loner anyway. I think that makes me easier prey. That’s why its important to have a social structure around us. If nothing else we need to give the impression that we have lots of important connections and people who love us. My exP’s greatest anger was that he was not able to separate me from my parents. In fact, he wrote about it in a letter:
…And now our life together is ruined. How I hate your
family they were my only
hope of rescuing you. I know that you dirty me to them
as part of your addiction,
but how quickly they turned on me. I wonder if they will
ever know what they
through away probably no more than you. Eventually
you’re self-destruction
will become obvious to them, there final years will be
filled with that sorrow.
That is just part of a letter titled, “600 words” that he wrote me last year. Sick, sick, sick.
In part this is why I feel the need to salvage my relationship with my parents.
The idea of family and the destruction of family is very important to the predatory psychopath. Their inablity to HAVE their own family, because they can’t bond or because they were traumatized by their own sick family makes them ENVIOUS of those who do. Sometimes they will target a person JUST BECAUSE they have observed a family atmosphere that they want.
He ends the letter like this:
…And then
there is the animals the only way I can cope with this is
by blanking out of
my mind their existence. I can’t wait to close this
nightmare I long to start a
new family that I can call my own, you have no idea
how hard this has been
for me, my hatred over the taking of my family can
never be healed. These
horrible acts are something you’re thoughtless family
would do. It is better
for you to be with your own kind, a shallow and
thoughtless family.
Dear Sky,
Yep, that’s me, a “cow-path” LOL
Social support is important, Skylar, and we all benefit from having supportive people in our lives.
I look back though at my own egg donor and I see so many times when I needed support and she was not there for me.
You talk about how your parents treated you disrespectfully as a child, and made you give your doll to your sister and do her home work, etc. yet you say they are “different now”—are they really DIFFERENT? Or is the situation really different at all?
If they behaved so cruelly to you as a child that they would abuse you in favor of your sister, why do you think they have really “changed” now—or are they just wearing the mask better now? Or, are you, just as an adult seeing them from a different perspective?
I think the point is that you have to be satisfied with your relationship with them, are YOU getting what you need from the relationship? If not, can they change? (I don’t think so) Can you sit down and talk to them and see what their feelings are? If your father is/was a true narcissist I don’t think it is likely he will change much if any, is that okay with you? Can you accept him as he IS rather than what you would like him to be?
I’m just glad I’m away from the egg donor, because she does not meet my needs for a relationship and I’m better off without one that is painful.