Analyzing text may be the best way to weed out a psychopaths from society and even on social networks.
A group of researchers at Cornell and the University of British Columbia looked at the kinds of words criminals used when describing the crimes they committed. The team found that the words of psychopathic murderers reflected selfishness, detachment from the crimes and emotional flatness. If psychopaths could be identified through their language, it could speed up analysis of the psychological problem and improve treatment and it could also help crime investigators to identify killers on social networks.
Psychopathy, a subset of antisocial personality disorder, is marked by an inability to empathize with others and a lack of remorse. Psychopaths also have trouble recognizing emotions in others. For example, when shown photos of faces they have difficulty reading expressions to figure out what a person feels.
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To test the hypothesis, the researchers looked at 52 men in Canadian prisons for murder. Of that group, 14 were diagnosed as psychopaths; 38 were in a group that was not. Each was asked to verbally describe their crime in detail, and the transcription was analyzed with a computer.
The psychopaths used more conjunctions such as “because,” “since,” or “so that,” which all imply that a crime was necessary. They also used twice as many words that related to physical needs like food, money or sex. In fact, some described what they had to eat on the day of the crime.
People who weren’t psychopaths used words that reflected social needs, speaking of their spirituality, religion or family.
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The psychopaths tested also tended to use the past tense more and pause often when they spoke (using “ums” a lot). Hancock and his colleagues think that means they are trying to frame their replies to make a good impression, and so have to spend more time on it.
Some of the hallmarks of psychopathy are impulsiveness, pathological lying, and manipulative behavior. That’s why many can be superficially charming; they tend to be extroverted and spend a lot of time practicing what they think other people want to hear, since whether any of it is true or not doesn’t matter.
The study also revealed that psychopaths are rational, at least insofar as their impulsive behavior allows.
Via: Cornell University, Legal and Criminal Psychology
Image: British National Archives via Wikimedia Commons
Tags: Computer Software, Crime
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