Scientific research

The common wisdom in the mental health field is that sociopaths "burn out" in middle age. If only it were true. According to Lovefraud's research, after age 50, the behavior of sociopaths is just as bad — or worse. In Lovefraud's online survey, 2,120 romantic partners, family members, friends and associates of suspected sociopaths answered questions about their experiences. Here were the key questions of the survey: Did you know the individual both before age 50 and after age 50? A total of 1,276 people answered the question, and 65% said yes, they did know the individual before and after age 50. Did the individual "mellow out" or "burn out" after age 50? Did the individual e …

Sociopaths get worse after age 50, say 91% of Lovefraud survey respondentsRead More

Sara Lapsley is a PhD student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Adelle Forth. They are conducting a study to improve our understanding of the experiences and impact of being in a romantic relationship with someone who may have psychopathic traits. They are seeking participants 18 years old or over who have had a romantic relationship with someone who may have psychopathic traits. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires that measure anxiety, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. There are also questions that ask about the experience of being harmed (including physical, emotional, and financial harm), as well as questions on …

Researchers seek intimate partners of psychopaths to share their experiencesRead More

UPDATED FOR 2022. So you're out with friends, or worse, at a business meeting, when you see someone yawn. Soon, you're yawning too. Why does this happen? Researchers believe that yawning is contagious because it is linked to empathy, and most humans have lots of empathy. This behavior is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. Many mammals yawn. And yawning by one member of a group often begets yawning by another member of the group. This happens among people — and also among dogs and chimpanzees. But it doesn't happen among psychopaths. Research on yawning Brian K. Rundle and colleagues at Baylor University in Texas published a paper entitled, Contagious yawning and ps …

When everybody yawns, psychopaths don’tRead More

Most of what is known about psychopaths comes from research with imprisoned criminals. Why? Because researchers can access them — they are literally a captive audience. But many psychopaths manage to stay out of prison. Psychopaths live among us and engage in the regular activities of life, including romantic relationships. Little is known about the psychopaths who stay out of prison and how they affect others. But finally, there is scientific evidence of what many of us have learned the hard way: Intimate relationships with psychopaths cause great harm to the victims. A scientific paper, Toxic Relationships: The experiences and effects of psychopathy in romantic relationships, has just b …

Scientific proof that relationships with psychopaths are bad for youRead More

The primary goal of anyone trapped in an abusive situation is survival. When you feel like you aren’t in charge of your life, and you see no way out, how do you survive? This can happen to people who are being coercively controlled in an intimate relationship, are stuck in a cult, or are living in a region of declared or undeclared war. Sometimes the situation is so threatening that the mind can’t deal with it. Psychological solutions include perspecticide and percepticide — the inability to see what is really happening. I first encountered the term “perspecticide” in a Business Insider article from 2017 entitled, Manipulative people brainwash their partners using something called ‘perspect …

Perspecticide and percepticide: effects of psychological terrorRead More

UPDATED FOR 2022. Charismatic, glib, grandiose, magnetic, energetic sociopaths are typically described in these terms. Here's why sociopaths succeed: No matter what they actually do and say, these men and women have style. And, according to a classic experiment in education research, style is all that is needed to be respected and believed. Back in 1970, Dr. Donald H. Naftulin, director of Continuing Education in Psychiatry at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and colleagues, conducted an experiment to test the hypothesis that student ratings of educators depend largely on personality variables and not on educational content. The experiment was ingenious, and in …

Why sociopaths succeed: Style matters more than substanceRead More

UPDATED FOR 2021. Psychopaths tend to dominate conversation. Many of us know this first hand, but the reasons why psychopaths talk so much have been documented in a scientific paper published by the Public Library of Science, PLOS.org. Researchers brought together same-sex college students in groups of three people. None of them knew each other. The students were asked to engage in small talk. The conversations were videotaped, and researchers later analyzed who did all the talking. It turned out that study participants with higher scores in primary psychopathy, as measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), spoke more words and controlled the conversation more than …

Why psychopaths talk so muchRead More

University of Windsor researchers still in need of participants to complete online survey about experiences in relationships with psychopaths Researchers are interested in hearing about your experiences with suspected psychopaths. Use the link below to complete a screening questionnaire to determine if you are eligible to participate in the study: Screening questionnaire For this screening questionnaire, you will be asked about a specific time when someone you suspect is a psychopath made you question your memory for a past event. This may have been because they told you that your memory was incorrect, that the events did not happen, or that other people have doubts about your …

Did a suspected psychopath make you question your memory of a past event?Read More