Five little quirks which might mean you’re actually a psychopath

Our prisons are filled with people with psychopathic traits – but offices around the world have their fair share of people with psychopathic traits.

Around 1% of people have some psychopathic traits, such as being charming, impulsive, and failing to take responsibility for your behaviour.

Sound familiar?

But the signs of being a psychopath aren’t always obvious, such as eating people’s livers with a nice Chianti.

Here’s a few behaviours which could be a telltale sign that you have psychopathic traits.

MORE: ‘I’m disgusted with myself’: Man who left angry note on ambulance apologises after neighbour dies
MORE: Female TV producer claims a Government official groped her while she visited 10 Downing Street

You enjoy ‘No Diggity’ by BlackStreet

A recent study found that psychopaths are (perhaps surprisingly) often Blackstreet fans.

Among 200 people under test, those with the highest scores for psychopathy tended to prefer rap songs out of a list of tunes – rating No Diggity and Eminem’s Lose Yourself the highest.

Interestingly, fans of The Knack’s irresistibly hummable My Sharona were found to be the least psychopathic.

The researchers hope that by identifying typical music tastes for psychopaths, they might be able to pinpoint people in the workplace.

You’re doing well in business

Researchers Bond University in Australia and the University of San Diego examined 261 professionals in supply chain management – and found that 21% had ‘clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits’.

A study of 261 corporate professionals in the supply chain management industry revealed that 21 percent of these individuals have ‘clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits.’

This is compared with about one in 100 people from the general population, and one in five people in the prison system found to have these traits.

You’re great in a crisis

One scientist suggests that a key thing to look out for is ‘bold’ behaviour – such as being expert at managing crises, a scientist suggests.

Writing on The Conversation, Scott Lilienfeld, professor of psychology at Emory University says, ‘The lab at Emory University, and that of collaborators at Florida State University, are investigating whether some psychopathic traits, such as boldness, predispose to certain successful behaviours.

‘Boldness encompasses poise and charm, physical risk-taking and emotional resilience.

‘In studies, researchers have found boldness is modestly tied to impulsive heroic behaviours, such as intervening in emergencies.

You don’t catch yawns

Psychopaths lack empathy with other people – and one of the ways this manifests itself is that they never ‘catch’ yawns from other people.

Researchers from Baylor University in Texas found that people who have psychopathic traits are less likely to yawn after seeing somebody near them yawn.

You drink a lot of coffee

Psychology researchers at Innsbruck University in Austria found that people who expressed a preference for bitter tastes (like coffee) were more likely to be have psychopathic traits – such as manipulating and hurting others.

The researchers interviewed 1,000 people, both students and prison inmates, correlating the results of psychological tests with a chart of taste preferences.

The experiment offers the ‘first empirical evidence that bitter taste preferences are linked to malevolent personality traits,’ the researchers say.

‘General bitter taste preferences emerged as a robust predictor for Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism.’