Researchers from Australia have identified a key sign that you are dealing with a psychopath

A new study has identified a key sign that indicates a person may be a psychopath. Researchers from Australia conducted observation experiments with more than 200 volunteers in the UK.

Those who received high scores for psychopathy showed difficulty regulating their focus of attention. That is, they were better at seeing the bigger picture, but not as good at seeing small details, MailOnline writes.

That is, if we translate the results of the study into a social situation – let it be a meeting in the office or a restaurant – it means that psychopaths quickly lose interest in small details or do not notice them at all.

The new study was conducted by two psychologists from the Australian National University in Canberra, Stephanie Goodhew and Mark Edwards.

"There are several dimensions of psychopathic personality traits, including self-centeredness, insensitivity, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior. Our results show that people who demonstrate higher levels of impulsivity and antisocial behavior have difficulty regulating their attention," the researchers explain.

Generally, people described as psychopaths exhibit traits such as antisocial behavior, untruthfulness, irresponsibility, self-centeredness, callousness, and lack of remorse or compassion.

In their study, the researchers focused on three traits of psychopathy: antisocial behavior, self-centeredness, and callousness.

It is believed that psychopaths have a severe form of antisocial personality, which can manifest itself in any way: from episodic bad behavior to repeatedly breaking the law and committing serious crimes.

Egocentrism is caring only for one's own interests, while callousness is the absence 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 E-Levenson Psychopathy Scale (E-LSRP), a questionnaire consisting of 26 statements with which participants must agree or disagree.

The researchers assessed their "breadth of attention," which is how well they mentally process "global" and "local" information, where local information is small details and global information is the bigger picture.

To determine the extent of their attention span, participants were shown Navona stimuli, images that consisted of a capital letter composed of several smaller letters. For example, one of the Navon images is a capital letter T made up of many much smaller E's.

While the image was being shown, participants had to say which letter they noticed first by quickly pressing the corresponding key on their keyboard. If they fixed a large letter, it meant that they had a "wide" attention span, i.e., they were focusing on the larger picture.

Meanwhile, if they saw a small letter, it meant they had "narrow" attention, meaning they tended to focus on small details.

By assessing both speed and accuracy, the Navon test also shows how well people are at constantly narrowing and widening their field of vision.

Overall, the team found no link between attentional breadth and the three psychopathic traits. However, the researchers did find clear evidence that one of the psychopathic traits – antisociality – is associated with faster attentional expansion. In other words, people who scored higher on antisociality also tended to quickly increase their field of vision to see the bigger picture. So in a social situation, antisocial psychopaths may be constantly assessing the broader environment, missing subtle details.

In contrast, the team found no significant relationship between the other two psychopathic traits, egocentrism and callousness, and attention span or narrowing. This means that the tendency to see the bigger picture may only apply to psychopaths who have a strong propensity for antisocial behavior.

The team acknowledges that their group of volunteers was small, but they hope that a larger sample of people from around the world will replicate or expand on the new findings.

"It would be informative to assess the extent to which the current findings are replicated, or whether new associations between primary psychopathic traits and mindful breathing emerge in such samples," they conclude.

Previous research has shown that the ability to smile and tolerate it can be a warning sign of a dark personality. That is, if a person can withstand a higher level of pain, he or she is most likely a psychopath.

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