A new study has identified a key feature indicating that a person may be a psychopath. Researchers from the Australian National University conducted observational experiments involving over 200 volunteers in the United Kingdom.
Those scoring high on psychopathy exhibited difficulties in regulating their attention focus. This means they could see the bigger picture but struggled with finer details, as reported by MailOnline.
In social situations, such as an office meeting or a restaurant, this implies that psychopaths quickly lose interest in minor details or fail to notice them altogether.
The research was conducted by psychologists Stephanie Goodhew and Mark Edwards from the Australian National University in Canberra. “There are several dimensions of psychopathic personality traits, including egocentrism, callousness, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior. Our results indicate that individuals demonstrating higher levels of impulsivity and antisocial behavior find it challenging to regulate their attention,” the researchers explain.
Typically, individuals described as psychopaths exhibit traits such as antisocial behavior, deceitfulness, irresponsibility, egocentrism, callousness, and a lack of remorse or empathy.
The scientists focused on three traits of psychopathy: antisocial behavior, egocentrism, and callousness.
It is believed that psychopaths have a severe form of antisocial personality, which can manifest in various ways, from episodic misbehavior to repeated law violations and serious crimes.
Egocentrism refers to caring only about one’s own interests, while callousness denotes a lack of emotions, feelings, or sympathy for others.
The researchers conducted two experiments involving 236 volunteers aged 18 to 40 living in the UK. Their psychopathic traits were assessed using the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (E-LSRP), a questionnaire consisting of 26 statements with which participants had to agree or disagree.
The researchers evaluated their “breadth of attention,” meaning how well they mentally processed “global” and “local” information, where local information refers to finer details and global refers to the broader picture.
To determine the extent of their attention, participants were shown Navon stimuli—images composed of a large letter made up of several smaller letters. For example, one Navon image is a large letter T composed of many smaller letter Es.
During the image presentation, participants had to quickly press the corresponding key on the keyboard to indicate which letter they noticed first. If they focused on the large letter, it indicated they had a “broad” attention span, concentrating on the bigger picture.
Conversely, if they saw the small letter, it meant they had “narrow” attention, tending to focus on finer details.
By assessing both speed and accuracy, the Navon test also demonstrates how well individuals can constantly narrow and widen their field of vision.
Overall, the team found no correlation between attention breadth and the three psychopathy traits. However, they found clear evidence that one psychopathic trait—antisociality—is linked to a faster widening of attention. In other words, individuals who scored higher on antisociality also tended to quickly expand their field of vision to see the broader picture. Thus, in social situations, antisocial psychopaths may constantly evaluate their wider surroundings, missing subtle details.
In contrast, the team found no significant link between the other two psychopathic traits—egocentrism and callousness—and the widening or narrowing of attention. This suggests that the tendency to see the bigger picture may only apply to psychopaths with a strong inclination toward antisocial behavior.
The team acknowledges that their volunteer group was small but hopes that a larger sample from around the world will replicate or expand upon the new findings.
“It would be informative to assess the extent to which current findings are replicated or whether new connections between primary psychopathic traits and attentional breadth emerge in such samples,” they conclude.
Previous studies have shown that the ability to smile and endure pain may be a concerning sign of a dark personality. That is, if a person can tolerate a higher level of pain, they are more likely to be a psychopath.