Three signs you’ve got a psychopath in your life

Chances are you’ve come across at least a couple of psychopaths in your travels.

In fact, some figures suggest that up to one in 100 people have high psychopathic tendencies.

While your mind might immediately jump to the shower scene from Psycho, most everyday psychopaths aren’t actually that stabby.

Contrary to popular belief, not all psychopaths are killers, but they do tend to share a couple of key traits that you can use to identify the ones in your life.

1. They love themselves

Many psychopaths are quite narcissistic; they rate themselves very highly, have oodles of confidence and a healthy sense of superiority.

Flattery is the easiest way to get into their good books as they thrive off compliments, but you’ll notice that they come down hard on anyone who tries to criticise them.

2. They’re master manipulators

A psychopath won’t hesitate to manipulate the people around them to further their own interests, or sometimes just for fun.

They have plenty of superficial charm, persuasion tactics and a penchant for lying in their arsenal, and although many of the emotions they display while trying to manipulate are fake, the anger that comes out when their plans are thwarted is very real.

Research published last year suggested that people with psychopathic traits can learn how to be deceitful and manipulative faster than people without.

3.They have very little empathy

Emotions – apart from anger – don’t come naturally to people with high psychopathic tendencies, but this may not be very noticeable as they can be very good at faking it.

Experts claim people usually find psychopaths intriguing, because they tend to do a lot of acting to deceive, or mimic normal reactions.

What you will be able to spot it a lack of empathy for other people’s problems, as well as a lack of remorse for their manipulative and exploitative ways.

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