How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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Researchers say a wide face predicts psychopathic traits in men

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Wow might there be a way to spot a psychopathic man just by looking at him? Researchers from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, have published a paper showing that a man's facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) predicts psychopathy. In a study that included undergraduate students and prison inmates, the researchers found an association between the fWHR and the psychopathy traits of fearless dominance, self-centered impulsivity, and with overall psychopathy scores. According to the Daily Mail, "Last year, a separate study found both men and women with wide faces tend to be more aggressive, dominant and angry." What's interesting is that this research apparently began with monkeys. …

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Machiavellian brains light up with the opportunity to exploit others

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It's called the Dark Triad narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. You definitely want to avoid people who have these traits and personality disorders. Machiavellianism is a term used to describe those who manipulate and deceive to get their way. A recent study shows that these traits are hardwired into the brains of people who act this way. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Pecs in Hungary. They tested the research subjects for Machiavellianism, and divided them into "high Mach" and "low Mach" groups. Then they used fMRI machines to observe the subjects' brains while they played a "trust game." The "high Machs" showed higher neural activity when their partner …

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A “psychopath gene”?

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Psychopathy is highly genetic people can be born with a predisposition for the disorder to develop. Scientists have identified a gene that's linked to increased risk of violent or aggressive behavior. It's the MAOA gene also known as the "warrior gene." This doesn't mean that this gene causes psychopathy the disorder develops due to a complex interaction of heredity and life experiences. But this may be a piece in understanding the psychopathy puzzle. A single gene has been linked with being a psychopath and it's very controversial, on Finance.Yahoo.com. …

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Research links stress and a bad relationship to high blood pressure

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Research conducted by the University of Michigan links stress, negative relationship quality and high blood pressure in older married couples. Findings: Husbands had higher blood pressure when their wives reported greater stress. Husbands who reported greater stress had lower blood pressure when their wives reported lower stress. Wives who reported greater stress had lower blood pressure when their husbands reported greater stress. The researchers speculated that these findings were due to the fact that husbands relied on their wives for support, whereas wives had a broader support network. According to the paper, "When both partners reported higher levels of negative relationship qu …

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Study suggests neurofeedback to treat criminal psychopaths

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Experts generally believe that once psychopaths are adults, it's pretty much impossible to rehabilitate their disorder. However, Dr. Lilian Konicar of Eberhard-Karls University in Germany recently conducted a study in which they taught hardened criminals to control their brain activity using neurofeedback. According to Real Clear Science, Dr. Konicar is "conservatively optimistic." A new treatment for criminal psychopaths? on RealClearScience.com.   …

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A psychology professor asks: ‘Can you recognize a psychopath?’

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Robert Durst, the real estate mogul and accused killer recently featured in an HBO documentary, seems to match the common public perception of a psychopath. But Pascal Wallisch, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at New York University, points out that the public perception of psychopaths is not entirely accurate. In an article for Slate.com, Wallisch does a good job of describing the current scientific understanding of this personality disorder. Can you recognize a psychopath? on Slate.com. I do, however, disagree with one of his statements. He says that psychopaths can't help their behavior. This is not true. Psychopaths are quite capable of controlling their behavior …

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Research suggests parenting style can turn children into narcissists

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A new study from Ohio State University suggests that parents who "overvalue" their children, treating them as more deserving than others, are not nurturing self-esteem, but they are nurturing narcissism. Narcissism is partly based on genetics, according to research. So Eddie Brummelman, one of the study's authors, says that if a child has inherited a genetic risk for narcissism, it's important not to inflate the child's sense of self-worth, because that could enable the narcissism to flourish. Too much praise can turn kids into narcissists, study suggests, on Forbes.com. Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader.   …

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Why do some people take pleasure in cruelty?

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Delroy Paulhus, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Canada studies the dark side of human beings to define the different flavors of everyday evil. Paulhus has created a series of tests to identify people who have a "dark personality." He works to answer the question: Why do some people take pleasure in cruelty? Not just psychopaths and murderers — but school bullies, internet trolls and even apparently upstanding members of society such as politicians and policemen. Paulhus tends to focus on everyday evil rather than criminal or psychiatric cases. Others have called narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy the "Dark Triad," which is a triple whammy of na …

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Brain Science Part 3: Psychopathic brains and punishment

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Editor's note: Third in a series of three articles appearing in other publications on what scientists are learning about the brain and behavior through MRI imaging. A new study finds that psychopaths have abnormalities in the parts of their brains related to learning from punishment. MRI studies were conducted on violent offenders 12 with psychopathy and 20 with antisocial personality disorder but not psychopathy along with 18 healthy non-offenders. Those with psychopathy showed differences in the brain regions associated with empathy, processing of pro-social emotions such as guilt and embarrassment, and moral reasoning. The research showed that the psychopathic offenders failed to l …

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Brain Science Part 2: Brains of homicidal juveniles appear to be different

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Editor's note: Second in a series of three articles appearing in other publications on what scientists are learning about the brain and behavior through MRI imaging. Brain scans of 12-18 year old juvenile offenders who have committed homicides look different than the scans of juvenile offenders who have not committed homicides, according to a study published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical. Dr. Kent Kiehl, of the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says the differences have serious implications for understanding some of the root brain problems that could lead youths to cross a line and commit violent crime. Dr. Kiehl hopes that through neuroscience, at-risk kids may be …

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