Psychopaths and Awareness of Other's Thoughts

Psychopaths are generally known for their high level of egotistical behavior which makes them bold and lack remorse for how their actions affect others. This disregard for the welfare of others suggests they might have an inability to understand the perspective of other people around them. This ability is usually referred to as empathy.

Yet, their charm and manipulative abilities also indicate an awareness of the thoughts of others. They have an intact theory of mind to successfully predict what others are thinking or want. This is a seeming paradox, of how they can understand the perspective of others to be able to manipulate them, but not when it comes to their welfare. Researchers have now been able to demonstrate how this works.

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A Yale study shows that psychopaths lack the ability to automatically or intuitively assess the thoughts of those around them which would promote the formation of social bonds. But they can assess the thoughts of others if they do it deliberately, or willfully.

Arielle Baskin-Sommers, senior author of the study, posed the question:

"Psychopaths can be extremely manipulative, which requires understanding of another's thoughts. But if they understand the thought of others, why do they inflict so much harm?"

In order to find out, permission was granted to study inmates in maximum security prisons. Inmate participants played a computer game that had them perform a task from either their own or another's perspective as an avatar dressed as an inmate.

For normal people, we don't ignore the perspective of the avatar. We become immersed in the perspective of the avatar. To disconnect and dissociate from the avatar is somewhat difficult. This is an automatic process, unintentionally done, which psychopaths don't get into like the rest of us. But when psychopaths are asked to specifically take on the perspective of the avatar, they demonstrate an ability to understand the perspective of others.

A theory of mind of considering others is not often automatic for psychopaths. A controlled ToM process can be employed through directed attention and intention. Automatic theory of mind processing is known as altercentric interference. Psychopaths have a dysfunction in altercentric interference. The greater magnitude of this dysfunction is correlated with real-world callous behavior, such as the number of assault charges.

The study suggests psychopaths have a reduced ability to automatically put themselves in other people's shows and think from their perspective. This can explain the root of deficiency in social and moral behavior. The greater the deficit, the greater the score in psychopathic traits.

Psychopaths can consider you, your perspective, your thoughts, but only if they want to in order to accomplish specific goals. If you don't fit in with what they want, then they don't care about what you think or what harm will come to you from their actions. If you do fit into what they want somehow, then they can harm you in order to get what they want anyways.

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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_{References: Psychopaths' disregard for others is not automatic | Psychopaths fail to automatically take the perspective of others}

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