Should You Be A Psychopath?
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 07. 2023
- Use code VSAUCE250 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3mG5rbL
Please support Vsauce2 on Patreon: / vsauce2
You almost certainly know a psychopath in real life… and you may very well be one yourself. And that might even be a good thing.
We’ve recognized psychopathy in science and culture for thousands of years, yet we still don’t know what to do about it. Yet we use the word itself now more than ever, so much that the meaning of the word “psychopath” has become diluted in popular culture. As we increasingly learn more about the science of psychopathy, we should get better at deploying the term more accurately -- but instead, it’s become a catch-all for unconscionable human behavior and a mainstay of true crime stories.
Psychopaths are much more complex than that… for better and worse.
In reality, a psychopath’s brain creates and perpetually reinforces a moral code that is defined more by what it lacks than what it contains. From a total absence of anxiety to a simple utilitarian worldview that can do tremendous harm to others, the psychopath is a mix of brute force and the most subtle manipulation. And this is where it gets really complicated: you actually want the ruthlessness of a psychopath to run your company, you want the charm of a psychopath for investigative journalism, and you want the fearlessness of a psychopath to respond to medical emergencies.
Can we harness the biological and psychological forces that create dangerous, destructive psychopaths to improve humanity? And if we could cure or eliminate psychopathy… would we even want to?
ADDITIONAL READING
Kiehl, Kent. “The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience.” www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Whi...
Dutton, Kevin. “The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success.” www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Psychop...
** CREDITS **
Vsauce2:
Twitter: / vsaucetwo
Instagram: / kevlieber
Facebook: / vsaucetwo
TikTok: / vsaucetwo
Talk Vsauce2 in The Create Unknown Discord: / discord
Vsauce2 on Reddit: / vsauce2
Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Twitter: / kevinlieber
Podcast: / thecreateunknown
Research and Writing by Matthew Tabor
/ tabortcu
Editing by John Swan
/ @johnswanyt
Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
www.etsy.com/shop/Craftality
Vsauce's Curiosity Box: www.curiositybox.com/
#psychology #truecrime #psychopath #mentalhealth #science - Věda a technologie
Use code VSAUCE250 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3mG5rbL
Thanks, Psychopath Kevin!
Loved the long form, this topic needed it.
Couldn’t you only be diagnosed at a specific age or something
Kevin.. whats with the face in the red... I see it behind your shoulder and it's distracting... explain???
This video doesn't seem that accurate. I think you're letting the narrative run away with the script.
"Psychopaths do not feel anxiety." Well at least i know I'm not a psychopath.
ugh same.
id love to be a psycopath just to get rid of it.
no worries, you can still be a sociopath.
No but you can train to be like one
i'm pretty sure anxiety is something everyone that's alive can feel just in different ways.
@@zacsch5364nah there are plenty that should but never experience it.
You really should real up on what sociopathy really is....
About the statistic you quoted: it may be true that four-in-five diagnosed psychopaths are in prison, but the prison population is more likely to be tested. Like all mental issues, there will be many in the general population that qualify but do not have a diagnosis. The bias in testing will effect the statistic, likely the 80% incarceration rate is much too high.
this is a fair point
@@anaveragekiwi It's so obvious I kinda can't believe that Kevin neglected to mention it. A full, comprehensive psychological evaluation is performed on every violent criminal, while free civilians are extremely unlikely to undergo the same treatment.
It does kinda also depend on how the statistic itself is scaled and what it specifically is measured in comparison to, its neither inherently wrong or right, without the input data its impossible to know.
It doesn't even make any sense...
Some quick maths based on google - There are 250m adults in US, so 2,5m psychos. There are 1,8m total people in US jails, which is LESS than 2m psychos supposedly in jail (2,5*0,8). This would mean over 100% of people in jail are psychopaths.
Maybe the study only tested the general public, extrapolated that to the whole population and compared it to the psychopaths in prison. Let's be honest, none of us has read it.
Him: "It shows the difference between psychopaths and us... "
Me: "us?"
Exactly
Me
Hello! I’m autistic and I’ve been studying ASPD independently as it’s a fixation. I love this video! It’s clear;y well researched and I definitely learned a lot about the long history of psychopathy and I got some good book recommendations lol.
Though I’d like to clarify that ASPD, like autism, is a spectrum disorder and that psychopaths are only at the far end of it, where sociopaths are considered more “emotional” or empathetic. Because it’s a spectrum, it;s hard to place people on it effectively, but to but it really simply, basically, sociopaths are like low functioning psychopaths who are far more impatient and don’t hide their antisocial traits as well.
I should also clarify that people with ASPD are not inherently evil, which I trust that a community of people who love science would totally get, but I wanted to make clear just in case. The only thing that would make anyone “evil” is their choices - those with ASPD just tend to be more likely to make commonly considered *bad* choices.
Again, I love this video! ^w^ and MASSIVE DISCLAIMER, I am no professional! I’ve done at least two years of research on ASPD because it is a fixation, but I’m no professional. Also if I phrased anything to sound harmful, accusatory, or offensive, I apologize, as being autistic, as mentioned in the video, can make it difficult for me to express my emotions and sometimes things just come out wrong lol
i have ASPD. was diagnosed in my 20s (i'm 36 years old now). you did fine. i find it intriguing that studying ASPD is a fixation for you.
you're correct about the spectrum part. i've known other paths (as we call each other) who were much more emotional, impulsive, petty, etc (the sociopath end of the spectrum) and unstable in general - as well as other cold, calculating, manipulative ones like myself (the psychopath end of the spectrum).
my younger cousin is autistic. we used to find amusement in watching our other family members get really emotional and react dramatically to things while him and i just shrugged and were calm. it was a unique bonding experience for us. he didn't understand while i just didn't care.
we were both isolated from the family due to our neurological differences and helped each other out. i'd talk him down during meltdowns when no one else could handle him, and he'd communicate when i was treading into muddy water morally without freaking out or trying to guilt trip me. he was a good kid and ended up becoming a successful adult. i'm proud of him.
i hope your studying goes well. if you have any questions, don't hesitate to respond to my comment and ask.
Also autistic, Cluster Bs are for me a "narrow interest" I dislike that term,it's what clinicians use to describe the autistis interests.
May I ask,what behaviors or concerns did your parents or caregivers have,that went on for you to be diagnosed?
My half brother,whom I believe to be a psychopath enjoyed lighting fires,he tortured animals and once shot up a nests containing signet swans.@@AgentFulgoreBasedDepartment
lol autistic
@@AgentFulgoreBasedDepartment Yeah honestly. Im not ASPD but im on the spectrum like the op of the comment, I had to fake many emotions when I was a kid, except for my acual emotions like my meltdowns and when i was upset. Most notably i had to pretend to cry at my grandma's funeral. I still feel guilty for not crying, I was just a little kid though and im much more emotional as an adult LOL
@@AgentFulgoreBasedDepartment evil edward elricccc
I think it has to be said that you don't have to be a psychopath to stay calm in tense situations like surgeries since that usually comes with experience. There is also the matter of mental disassociation.
Yeah but everyone knows that all doctors are pervs.
This. There is no benefit a psychopath has that a regular person can not learn. Empathy is selective in those who have it for a variety of reasons, including learning to disassociate or deal with threats, especially those of the same species. We have to be able to tell friend from foe.
For a psychopath, everyone is a foe, but there are too many, so it's better to fit in and seem like a friend because it benefits them to do so. But there is no emotional connection there the way we've developed to retain bonds beyond surface level cooperation. Which has allowed our species to be greater than the sum of it's parts, because the level of cooperation we can achieve is only possible through super strong bonds. And even then we still have lots of squabbling and issues because we're a pretty infantile species given our self-awareness. We're still growing.
@@vixxcelacea2778 Yeah, this psychopath apologism is misleading and disgusting.
@@TheWizaardNot all psychopaths are psychotic
@@TheWizaardweirdly
I can't wait to sit down and watch some relaxing youtube videos.
*Kevin sends me down a rabbit hole leading to reading the Unabomber manifesto*
Fascinating video! Great work, this must have taken AGES to research and edit.
how was the manifesto?
Speaking of psychopathy, this is the story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖
@@VeganSemihCyprus33who
That one is still on my 'to read' list.
Isnt language manipulation a form of psychopathy whereby a seemingly innocuous comment has an extra space in it so as to appear as a true statement but its very existence is deceptive? Example "rabbit hole leading to reading". Let me guess, it was an error? Are you trying to convince others you are reading a certain book when in fact your comment doesnt say that at all?
Relaxing how? The mere viewing of videos is, in itself, stimulating hence the reason youtube is so popular and can be moreso by adjusting the flicker rate and colors used in said videos.
These are all verifiable facts that anyone can look up and see for themselves...much like the vibratory signals emitted via cell phones to make them more addictive.
The colors used in the background of the guy talking are not on accident, they are probably meant to exude a sense of authority since the sheep see the police as authority figures when in fact they are merely corporate workers. Also Red is meant to excite and Blue is meant to calm which is at least partly why the police leave their lights on while at a stop and why people sensitive to colors unknowingly get nervous while around police. One color may overtake or nullify the other leaving one with a feeling of incredible intensity/nervousness/excitation (common) or very relaxed (rare). Maybe you ought to stop wasting your life "watching relaxing youtube videos" (which just sounds like a paid shill) and pick up a book instead.
There's an interesting book I read while studying anthropology called Hunter In A Gather's World which hypothesizes that a lot of our currently perceived mental illnesses or disorders are actually adaptational traits for tribal living as in remote communities people with ADHD are usually hunters being hyperaware, restless, etc. Born psychopaths would be invaluable in terms of survival as they'd be unaffected by factors except prioritizing survival as the British psychiatrist Kevin Dutton has written about there's possible real world benefits and applications of such people that make them desirable and invaluable assets to society.
"Shoud you be a psychopath?" -- I don't think it's a choice? Is it? LOL
I watched this with a friend, and said friend told me their late father was a very passionate furniture maker, and would rank tables above puppies and laughter above tables, solely because he often said that the laughter of his newborn children would be the only thing to ever bring him more fulfillment and joy than a customer thanking him and tipping him for a newly crafted table.
I actually felt similarly. How often is a puppy useful? How often is a *table* useful? Eh? Eh? Tables rule.
I’m also a furniture maker, and there are precious few things in life more enjoyable than building something useful and beautiful out of a pile of raw materials. It’s about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I use mostly recycled materials, and if you ask me, there is no better feeling of accomplishment than turning some old wood and junk most people would throw out into something practical and functional that can be used and enjoyed again, instead of being thrown in a landfill. It’s probably woefully esoteric, but there’s just something about creating beauty and function in a world that seems hell-bent on destruction and frivolousness.
@@TheD736 personally the first thing in my mind upon the mention of a small fluffy animal isn't "how much utility does this have for me?", especially when the question is just about ranking words based on an arbitrary value of "emotional positivity" that you associate them with.
not to claim that your way of thinking is wrong or anything; I'm sure there's also people who would rank puppies low simply due to a personal dislike of dogs etc.
hippy
"Puppies and laughter are ephemeral, but a good table lasts forever."
- Furniture makers, when they go to work
Please do narcissism next.
yes this!
As a narcissist, let me tell you all about it...
just watch trump talking, lol
Psychopatch doesn't exist in DSM, it's not PDs anymore, and you have no way to deal with any psychopatch/sociopath. It's mental disorder. Also you have less change to define someone NPDs(unless you're psychologist), because you need much more time to belong with them, and on this time, you digged a hole to burry sth inside you already. You understand?
@@hadensnodgrass3472 just reduce your self-esteem little bit. It doesn't hurt us at all, but we will see some funny defines every loud mouth as a narcissist 🤣
This shows me that we need BETTER psychopath tests. I'm sure one will emerge eventually. Right now it doesn't distinguish (enough) between the truly dangerous person and people who can draw from useful "Zen States".
What is that "piece" that allows someone to become a miraculous surgeon instead of a serial killer? Where is the test for that?
Great video Kevin!
Rationality and intensity of impulses. Both a surgeon with aspd and serial killer are equally dangerous people so there is no need in distinguishing them, both struggle from the same condition
There will never be scientific tests for any of these made-up psychological labels. Because it's a load of garbage. Every person knows right from wrong, if not instinctively, then they can be taught. If you do 'psychopath' things, then are just a piece of sh!I1t
I think it's the sociopath that's more dangerous, or at the very least toxic. I'm pretty sure the man with the cigarettes example was a sociopath as well. There's a pretty big overlap.
Nurture?
I love a psychopath. Not kidding. Quite the experience. We talk about it- the lack of empathy and emotions. Many people get a soulless feeling from him. It’s taken me years not to take him not caring about normal things not to take it personally and just understand it’s his psychotic nature. He comes to things thru logic and mimicking normal folks. He’s brilliant - but hard to love
Do not have children with him
Have many, many children with him.
if he's truly a psychopath, he doesn't care about you. You matter to him as much as a carton of spoiled milk. Are your serious about your relationship? Or are you using that word as an exaggeration?
They didn't say they are in a romantic/ sexual relationship with the person. I assume they are not...
At least he isn’t offended by being called „hard to love“ xD
What you overlook about berserkers is that they worked themselves into an altered state, with loud chants and wild dances, possibly with psychoactive substances. They weren't wired like that at all times. What we could learn from this is that there may be techniques to enter into a psychopathic mindset should there be a benefit to that, such as to provide resilience to potentially traumatic situations, or dispel stage fright so you can perform with confidence. Or to interview disaster-displaced people, some who have lost loved ones, some suffering PTSD, for days on end.
This is deep bruv and I think it should be looked at more. Because I think with certain behaviours and/or actions that can change and/or shitdown some brain parts just like how PTSD does
Very good observation and understanding @enkephalin , I can relate and verify
This exists, and is used by surgeons! You can emotionally separate if trained, or you could naturally just.. be able to remove emotions for some time.
Berserkers are pretty much made up anyways, but sources from the time period even.
Bersekers more accurately translates to Bear Shirts, which are Scandinavians who had successfully hunted and killed a bear, typically the title was only given out to people who did it solo. Bear Shirts also were typically people who were the Generals Bodyguard or Household Guard, once Vikings became more settled. While they may have been very wild in combat, the whole army would be doing loud chants, dances and jests. The more tribal and disorganized the army, the more of this kind of stuff happens. Additionally, given their special status they were more than likely to be the most heavily armored troops on the battlefield, not bare chested. Psychoactive substances may have been used, but its difficult to say how widespread the use was throughout their armies, or how often drugs were used prior to combat for Vikings.
Very Well said. Folk need to get waaasy better at commentary Aikido than most are! 😅 Good medicine!
A slight tangent but it reminds me of something someone said about why D&D characters etc tend to have tragic backstories and trauma, or be slightly mad - because happy, well-adjusted sane people don't generally become adventurers, decide to go explore subterranean monster lairs with traps and ancient curses, or hunt down and fight multi-tonne fire-breathing lizards.
And then there is just Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil, they just went adventuring because it's fun.
Chaotic Good also, but with some lofty dream of bettering the world. (the ADHD alignment)
if they are responsible and caring people then it explains how they can go out to vanquish 'evil'
...and it still means they should score mid-high on the psycopath test, or even pass it, to endure in that kind of behaviours, that lets you confront with risks, tasks and adventures a common NPC would not even remotely elaborate on doing
Heck, the Barbarian class even has that Berserk state of mind cited in the video, for example
Speaking of psychopathy, this is the story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖
a dead father to avenge, a best friend gone missing; if you were content with your life, why would you need to go to such great lengths to change it?
54:45 - What about sampling bias? The implicit assumption here is that psychopaths are no more and no less likely to be interested in Vsauce2 than the average person.
I imagine snipers must score rather high on that occupation list, but it's probably classified.
"I'm not a psychopath" is exactly what a psychopath would say.
"'I'm not a psychopath' is exactly what a psychopath would say" is exactly what a psychopath would say.
@@DebNKY if I where really a psychopath, would I have killed my elderly neighbors because they made a slight noise at 1 am? Exactly didn't think so 😎😎😎 💯
@@DebNKY ok
Actually because of their narcissism, they will willingly admit they are a psychopath because they don’t see anything wrong with that.
“I’m a psychopath” is exactly what a non psychopath edgy nerd would also say.
Look at these comemnts
Please make a part 2 talking about sociopathy and the difference between socio and psychopathy
@@busimagen not rll sociopathy is like being antisocial while psicopathy is that plus more as the video said
this comment thread proves that theres a lot of confusion about the two terms
Didn't we already go through this with Kati Morton and Shane Dawson and Jake Paul a few years ago? 😒
Officially, there is no such thing as psychopathy and sociopathy. Both are antiquated terms formerly used to describe ASPD. Psychologists and psychiatrists don't differentiate between psychopathy and sociopathy anymore, albeit there are still sociopathic and psychopathic traits. Psychopathic traits are generally considered to be biological i.e., from birth, while sociopathy develops through, well, environmental (societal) influences. A neglected child might develop certain levels of ASPD and has issues with relationships, empathy and bonding, etc. while any child could've also been born with ASPD because of which the symptoms are way more severe and neurologically ingrained, tending to have a complete disregard, lack of remorse, etc. Individuals with ASPD rarely have symptoms solely belonging to psychopathic or sociopathic spectrum, so calling a person a sociopath or psychopath is like calling a chef a vegetable cutter. It's just part of it, not the whole thing.
@@guntherwahlrand7417 Heard it thrown around, back in the day, about the difference between people who were born without empathy and those who've lost it: Someone who's never had it can learn to emulate it and get by in society, but someone who had the capability and lost it is unlikely to regain it.
Dunno if any of that is remotely true but the spread of that belief certainly makes eveything more confusing for everyone involved.
30:00
in fact
Ted once in prision said
"Who says crime doesnt pay? I feel totally good about what I did"
Bundy?
@@Caprigon No, Kaczynski
We don't need dangerous people. People that made life simply better, weren't psychopaths. Don't give them glory.
Uh oh, someone is delulu and misinformed.
Psychopaths have been a central core to many of history's greatest advancements.
Is a sharp knife dangerous? You can use it to feed a hungry crowd, or use it to commit a crime. Psychopaths are exactly the same
The real psychopathic behaviour is uploading an hour long, very interesting video right before some portion of the viewers go to sleep. Well played.
No matter what time he uploads, some people will be about to go to sleep
@@guiorgy Oh you're one of those "earth is a globe" people, huh?
@@snex000 Nah, it's a flat disk, but the sun moves around, creating night and day differently for each region.
@@georgecataloni4720 Oh, I see... your one of those sheep who think the Earth is real?
(Out conspiracy the conspiracy theorist.)
@@snex000 wdym?.. Also, it's a geoid...
31:23 Yes, for most of my life, doctor would tell me I had traits of psychopathy, turns out I was just autistic. People easily confuse them and their traits
As a fellow autistic person with traits superficially resembling psychopathy, I can relate. Hope you found some good friends who could see through the appearances.
@@ArbitraryEverything yeah I do have friends, but very few and we don't talk much so yeah. I'm trying to meet new people tho, hopefully I'll find someone
I mean realistically, those are simply just word choices we use. Kinda like the difference between a man touching a woman’s breast and a woman touching a woman’s breast- both adults are doing equal action- it’s the social attachment that makes it difference. In the same way, many many autistic people have not similar but literally the same traits as a psychopath. We just assume different derivatives of diagnosis for them because it’s comming from different place but the end result is the same.
Essentially, you are definitely not psychopath in our definition but you are a psychopath in action and result.
@Nosirt As an autistic person (I have Autism): We have emotions; I feel anxiety, lust, love, fear, etc. & I acknowledge that other people feel these things too, sometimes more strongly than I do. I have much more difficulty telling when someone is feeling these emotions, though. I can't read people as well as the average person.
@@Ms.Amylia_Clenny it is all on a spectrum. It’s not like you are a psychopath or not- it’s how much.
This was a most fascinating presentation! I watched to the last second and could have watched another hour of it.
Brilliantly done! Thank you for the research, scripting and production.
Loved it.
My number plate is literally "MPATHY", but I'm also an army veteran and only last year, went into a burning building to get people out, as everyone else stood and recorded on their mobile phones.
So no. Not am I not a psychopath, but it is clear stupidity to say that only psychopaths can do these things.
Why have I put my life in danger? Because I give a shit. Despite the fear of adverse consequences, I know that my failure to act will have greater consequences for others, than my mere safety.
Psychopaths could never have built civilization. That takes an understanding of the fact that we are all in it together. Caring for others, even complete strangers, hurts, but it is also what makes me and those like me human.
I can be ruthless, when I have to be. I can make the hard decisions that others can't. But my motivations come from a desire to ensure that the world is a better place when I leave, compared to when I arrived.
I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather be. Maybe we are researching the wrong end of the spectrum.
This is an amazing point. This comment needs to be more recognized. What you commented clearly states that empathy and sympathy creates a more positive and effective impact on society.
@@ruelharvey01997 Thanks. I think that part of the problem is that very little research into positive psychology, and positive personality traits is done.
We have a DSM-V, but with the possible exception of the "Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification", there isn't really a similar book for the opposite side of the spectrum.
The irony is that after having served in the Army, and experienced homelessness and poverty, I actually have a few diagnoses from the former book, but it is the unrecognised positive traits that keep me alive and able to help others.
Edit: "This comment needs to be more recognized." Another irony. People like me get ignored. Occasionally, we'll be recognised, and soon forgotten, or idolised beyond who we truly were, (think Nelson Mandala. who was a terrorist, long before he found his true calling as a man of peace and reconciliation), but most of the people you see on your TV news are at the sociopathic end of the spectrum, even if they don't meet the full diagnostic criteria.
Humble brag
@@tallisonrausch5719 I'm proud of who I am and what I stand for and like the person who stares back at me from the mirror.
If you honestly believe that telling people that you don't need to be a sociopath to help people, or make the difficult choices is bragging, then I feel sorry for you.
Having empathy doesn't exclude you from being able to remain calm. Stress mitigation can 100% be situational to where someone is only checked out emotionally while doing their task. It's dangerous to propose that it's positive for totality when most of it isn't.
Having empathy quite obviously leads to situations where u can’t remain calm..
It’s the non empathetic who can disconnect t..
Your first statement is sorta implied
Empathy is weakness.
@@davidabest7195 That's a disturbingly generalized and thereby false statement.
Calling Alex Honnold a psychopath is stretching it, if you actually watch the movie he planned the climb using ropes for years he meticulously cleans the rock that he will use for his climb. He's not a psychopath he's an athlete
Spot on! That's also why "I was angry" should not be a excuse for an atrocity. ASPD peple live without empathy and shunned all their lives, if they can be calm, then so should you.
As someone with Aspergers Syndrome this makes a lot of sense because I always score alarmingly high on psychopathy tests (yes i know online tests aren't trustworthy), yet i do have a moral compass and a conscience that will heavily weigh down on me for percieved wrongdoing
I was just thinking that because I think I may be on the autism spectrum and worried about psychopathy for a bit...but yeah, no..I'm just neurodivergent lol.
I have asp but I’m completely the opposite. I am empathetic to an extreme degree
@@Digital_PeterGriffin yes, i just focus on diff things n such, i wouldnt call myself less emotional at all, just not expressing it well and having trouble connecting with ppl and trust issues, i mainly just open up to ppl im super close to
I have trouble understanding my own and other people's emotions.
Suffering souls is wrong. Some of these people don't have souls at all.
I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and scored a 19 on the psychopath test. I can confirm that there is definitely some overlap.
Also some umderlap
The the best video I’ve watched today. Unusually good sources. Straightforward with welcome preparation of what you were going to say. Clear delivery and visuals. Thank you for your effort
Long format Vsauce2? Just the thing I didn't know I wanted
Speaking of psychopathy, this is the story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖
felt like a short 10 minutes for me tho, they can surely go 3 times longer, theres more were that came from!
@@VeganSemihCyprus33 I'm not watching that, instead recommend some offensive videos! ♥
Pyschopaths always fascinated me because I care too damn much about everything all the time. It's exhausting. Sometimes I fantasize about not caring at all. Not that I would actually want that, though.
I hear you... I'm in the same boat, I'm emotionally exhausted all the time given the current world we are living in :( I'm always wishing I could fix everything knowing I can't... but as you said, I would not want to give it up either. I guess helping one person at a time is better than none...
Yeah, I get ya. For the longest time I thought I had no feelings. Got into therapy, turns out I was depressed and living with cPTSD. From sometime in the last 5 to 10 years, I've slowly been re-gaining my feelings. Now, I also feel other's feelings which is confusing enough in its own right. At heart I'm a fixer, the eternal helper. But I don't have the energy to fix it all, or much at all.
But going back to not caring isn't an option either, for I wouldn't feel a reason to be around these people, or even get out of the house.
Hello I'm a psychopath and diagnosed with ASPD. What's it like being a normie?
It's easy to stop caring. Figure out what is pointless to worry about and what you can actually change. Then you can fix the things that can be changed.
I get that
there are well-known terms called Functional Psychopath and Borderline Psychopath, these are the CEOs and Seal team members, and yes I want my sergeant to be one of these
I've always loved VSauce with Michael and you keep it going with your excellent presentation style and high energy delivery. Really good 👍
Surely there is a good median between "this patient in front of me is just an object I work on" and "OMG one wrong move and I create orphans!"
why does it have to be one line, why not both, is it true that you have to work on him, yes, is it true that he is a living breathing himan with a family, yep... narrow goals are good until they aren't, monoideologic thinking can become blinding at some point
You could start with better training. Current training methods, for example, rely on deliberately desensitising doctors by having them perform unnecessary surgeries on animals without anaesthetics. The screams of the animals being cut up while alive and conscious is supposed to prepare surgeons for 'real world' scenarios.
yeah, but that OMG realization could cause nervousness or panic...and you definitely don't want a surgeon panicky while operating. of course, some work better under pressure, but it causes focus, not panic in those types. I'd rather the surgeon not care about me, but his/her career instead.
@@PlayedbyInstinct Those training methods are no longer practiced, and absolutely make use of anesthesia.
Precisely. Fear can motivate, as well as paralyse. Maybe a surgeon should feel some sense of fear, enough to motivate them to not screw up tue job.
Ot goes back to classical Greek virtue ethics. To be a coward, and to shrink in the face of hardship is not virtuous, but neither is a foolhardy attitude that does not take into account danger and consequence.
Courage is the mediation between these two. All truly courageous people feel fear, it is in confronting that fear that courage is found. To a psychopath, there are no consequences to consider, which is exactly what makes them so reckless. Look into Charles Teo, a prominent Australian neurosurgeon, and you will see exactly why you do not want a psychopath performing your brain surgery.
Eskimos called psychopaths “kunlangeta” , These were men who lied, cheated, stole, and took sexual advantage of women, and didn't care about punishments. Apparently, the Inuit way of dealing with these socially deviant individuals was to quietly push them off the ice.
Those are actually traits that all men possess.
@@macysondheim Hey who hurted you?
@@martinsaad5125 Obviously men did, bruh.
@@stefantkalcic1491 yeah but who specifically?
Yes but some act on them and some don't. Its easier to be evil than to be good.
Being an obsessive compulsive probably a workaholic and having a pathological need to impose order and control things, people and events or also being extremely selfish, greedy and egocentric doesn't make you a psychopath although many psychopaths have those characteristics. Probably the most defining characteristic is a total absence of any kind of moral conscience. Many people have a false idea about psychopathy as being like the kind of psychosis where someone is so completely out of touch with reality as to be unable to function in the world and society. Psychopaths can in fact not only be highly functional but even highly successful. In fact the ruthless and amoral but highly strategic calculating gamesmanship of psychopaths may actually confer a selection advantage under the unjust, unequal, zero sum game conditions of the modern world, especially when the system is a hyper capitalistic one.
A lot of times in intense situations I sort of calmly think through things and do what I need to, then after it all hapens get a flood of anxiety and realize how terrifying what just happened was.
If you didn’t come from tiktok raise your hand 🤚🏽
Bot comment energy
@@edd_endreport and move on
🤚🏽
now how would this have been posted on tiktok within a half hour...
🤚
You don't need to be a psychopath to detach emotionally from surgery
you kinda do, you perform a task that would, under most circumstances be considered dangerous and immoral and then go and wash up and wait for the next one
@@frogz How is surgery immoral?
@@vibaj16 he doesn't know what he is talking about, but i don't agree with trizzer89 either. you can't be a regular person and detach emotionally from anything. that is just not possible
@@frogz you dont lmao not every successfull surgeon is a psychopath detachment needs practice
Yeah I was relieved when the test slowly shifted into "random deliquency" and "blaming others"
This was such a superb take on the psychology of psychopathic behavior. Perhaps you might consider broadening the 'parollee checklist' to include something I am actually quite shocked doesn't factor into your analysis although it is akin to superiority complex. What about those individuals who seem to want to exercise control over others, and control their lives to such an extent it becomes an obsession. I am referring to the types of folks who might demonstrate what's called 'toxic overachiever traits'. They plan, they get good grades, they brush their teeth and pay taxes. They study people the way a serial killer might study a potential victim i.e. watch their patterns observes their reaction to different types of stimuli all to develop a predictive matrix -if you will. Often these types are successful and to me it makes sense why... If making money and cultivating access while refining my people data, ultimately delivers what it is I want: to change people's lives for the better according to my own interpretations of what that even is, then that is the cost of getting of in what is purely my own kink... Isn't it? So anyway I think your research could benefit from expanding your parameters, and should allow for this pathology type. Maybe call it the "Autocrat
Psychological Axis" while demonstrating to us along what lines and corollates would such behavior find its origins in. Finally, the idea that planning makes you not a psychopath is ridiculous. Dahmer was a sociopath. Unabomber was a brilliantly effiencient, hopelessly broken by the toture he endured at the hands of the CIA while at Harvard, was neither naturally sociopathic or psychopathic. He was embittered and wanted to take revenge on those he deemed responsible and or complicit and or would benefit in what he himself call technocratic tyranny. He is a much different animal I think. Petty at times to be sure but the insult is truly in the comparison to Dahmer. That is all... Unfortunately, I express a lot when I write.
Good day sir
Can't help the feeling that the video ends on too positive a note regarding psychopaths in positions of power. I get that psychopathic traits being more of a double-edged sword than they're commonly given credit for is one of the larger takeaways of it (and one that I agree with and was fascinated to learn more about). I also get that dedicating a segment to pointing out how the numbers regarding psychopaths in key vocations could be seen as harrowing would detract from that notion and pile on even more runtime, yet at the same time it's reasonable to assume that successful psychopaths carry not only their productive capabilities over into these professions our society is acutely reliant on.
This is little more than a nitpick at the end of the day and I'm by no means arguing in favor of judging a book by its cover but those statistics really left me in a state of malaise rather than marvel
This whole documentary comes off as superficial and cherry picked. Employ psychopats because they can save your kid from a burning building? But wait, didnt you say that they have no empathy? Why would they reliably save your kid?
In general, coming to rely on psychopaths is like relying on a loose gun, and 'catching them before they fall' is wishy washy at best.
I don't believe psychopaths cannot rank those 5 words. You don't need any feelings to rank those words, you just need to know how other people would rank them and what kind of associations those words have. I checked and even ChatGPT was able to do it.
Then maybe that's their whole point that they'd have to copy it like chatgpt...
Chatgpt is more in line with a normal person than a psychopath is in that regard
In fairness, it probably could work so long as the subject hasn’t heard of it before. I guess the point is that if they screw it up they’re guaranteed a psycho but if they pass the jury’s still out.
I do research on psychopaths at college. Yes, psychopaths can rank those words based on the emotional schemas of those words; it's obviously intuitive. But there is none or only fleeting emotion; the same thing goes for emotionally valenced images. So, if they were asked to rank those words based on what emotion was aroused when they saw those words, then they would have difficulty.
the way you talked about it sounded like you were a psychopath yourself and couldn't rank them by yourself, only by as you said thinking about what other people think
I think there's some skewing with the percentages of male and female psychopaths. Like with autism, what if psychopathy presents differently in different people? Our male-centric standards of diagnosis maybe aren't so good at detecting psychopathy in females.
women are psychopathic by nature
Traditional narcissism traits (masculine narcissism)
Covert Narcissism traits (Feminine Narcissism)
So i wouldn't be surprised if psychopathy had a feminine form.
Yin and yang seem to exist within everything in my experience.
I have heard that the same behaviors that get a man diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder will get a woman diagnosed as having a histrionic personality disorder. So, it seems that you're RIGHT.
@@brennenhrebeniuk9661Female psychopathy comes out in divorce court. And I'm not joking. Men take breakups much harder, and women quickly come to see their erstwhile lovers as resources, nothing more, very quickly.
@friendlyfire7861 sounds accurate!
Masculine psychopathy (Yang):
Charming manipulation, aggressive, cold, impulsive
Like a Lion that pounces on its prey
Feminine Psychopathy (Yin)
Emotional manipulation, patience, calculation, superficial bubbliness
Like a Black widow luring its prey until its trapped
Wouldn't the 'stoning to death' in Deuteronomy be more psychopathic than being a 'rebellious drunk'...?
I'm thinking so
I take issue with the idea that a "rebellious son" is "the earliest mention of a psychopath." A rebellious son does not constitute a psychopath. That's a bizarre and ridiculous leap.
I'm a diagnosed "sociopath". I think they called it anti-social personality disorder, but from what I'm told, I was made this way, not born.
if I'm remembering correctly sociopaths are half made that way, but genetics also play a part. its always been there, but can be "unlocked' with a traumatic event. While psychopaths are most often born that way, genetics are often the only factor. Both have ASPD. Don't quote me on it though
Make sure it isn't autism. I was likened to a socio/psychopath by myself and others, along with being wrongfully diagnosed with things like depression when in reality It was just autism.
If you havent commited felonies you aint sht
Do you like it? also sorry if that question is insensitive, I was wondering if it's like more enjoyable to be a sociopath or an empath.
@@lolunicornsaj8907 Sure, I like it. Having a bunch of emotions seems very tiresome to me. You can ask questions, I don't mind. It's actually fun to answer because normally this is something I hide. I don't know how it is to be an empath. I love my kids and my mum. Every other emotion is extremely hard for me, and I need to fake it.
Wow amazing production. 55 minutes and it felt like nothing. Completely in the story.
Love your narrations, i was laughing and intrigued the whole time bro
Don't make me share my psychopathy. It scares people. It will impair my life, because most people won't be able to notice. I can control myself, I shouldn't be forced away from prosperity.
The line about the differences in the rate of male psychopath vs female caught my attention, specifically because there's a history in medicine of those big differences in gender-based results coming about due to research being done mostly or entirely on men, and not seeing how a condition can show up differently between the two. Some quick searches suggest the same here - some initial work is in this area indicates that female psychopaths can also manifest different behavioral outcomes. Such as female psychopaths being good at manipulating the differences in cultural views between men and women, resulting in more often getting others to do their dirty work, or playing victim. So we don't actually know the rates between male and female psychopaths because the criteria is too male-specific. So it's possible that there are a lot more women psychopaths walking around because people aren't looking for them properly.
That also reminds me of the huge differences in autism in different demographics as well. Autism is HUGELY different from psychopathy, but it has a similar gender bias and different presentations. Wen it was first being researched it was pretty much only researched in young, white, male toddlers, and so for many decades, the only type of autism that counted as autism was that exhibited in privileged young boys. It's only recently come to light that autism presents very differently in marginalised groups, women being the biggest of those demographics.
Often autistic women, autistic Black people, autistic queer people, etc have much more refined masking abilities (the ability to suppress autistic traits and appear neurotypical), which is a survival mechanism that leads to huge risks of anxiety, depression, and even suicidality. As a result of this, autistic women and autistic people in minority groups are often diagnosed much later in life, or not at all, because our autism presents differently and is harder to spot - it's why I was diagnosed so late, even though I showed quite clear signs when I was a child (as I grew older, I learnt to mask, and I'm only unlearning it now after it caused me a lot of damage).
For a long time, because of the gender bias, it was thought that autism was WAY more common in men than in women, but only in the past few years (not even decades, years! It's all very new and recent!), it's come to light that there may actually be more autistic women than men. Interesting stuff
Edit: Forgot to say as well, autistic women are WAY more likely to be misdiagnosed with other conditions, often multiple, such as OCD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, anti-social personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, etc. It's possible of course to be autistic and also have other conditions like these (I'm autistic and I have an anxiety disorder for example), but it's so common for autism to be mistaken as one of these. The most common one I hear about is autistic women being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. Autistic women just tend to slip through the cracks, it's quite sad honestly
While I won't and can't refute this idea of male-specific criteria, especially as someone who is a complementarian, thus I easily agree with psychologically distinctions between men and women quite more then just averagely. (and yes there are a surprising amount of people who reject this claim) But I will note one thing to be aware that we should not inherently look for an equal measure of occurrence in women as in men, the difference in psychologically also means the very fact that it could exist in the women is very likely to be at different rates, and its already a clear biological fact that women operate on a distinct bell curve from men, women very much trend towards more homogeneous societal operation and its quite unlikely the same applies psychologically. So while I absolutely agree, don't take me as saying that isn't true, we must be careful not to look for an equity outcome either.
@@Spartan322 A lot of those sentences didn't make sense and I'll be honest I have absolutely not the faintest clue as to what you're on about
@@sheepyhead0399 Basics of what I have said is that I agree with male/female psychological distinctions for which are stated by the comment, but in finding where the truth of that difference lies we need to then be careful to not try to produce an equal rate of the psychopathy in women as exists in men, specifically because of the psychological distinctions.
@@Spartan322 Oh I see, to be honest you make a good point however I think the unlikelihood of that bias is demonstrated in other conditions like autism which I happened to talk about in a previous comment where in understanding the distinctions between different demographics' autism, researchers concluded that there are likely to be more autistic women than men (rather than pushing for equal rates), very different to what was previously thought (in fact, some still believe that autism can only exist in men). I think it's more likely therefore, considering the procedures of diagnostic bodies and whatnot, that the distinctions between men's and women's psychopathy won't negatively affect the true distribution of the disorder. I guess it's not really worth worrying about, but something to keep in mind. Also no offence but you write like a redditor
Non of those qualities you listed at the end are exclusive to psychopaths, the problem is there are people with these traits who also don't have any sense of empathy and who use their emotional intelligence exclusively as a flashlight without care for who they're blinding. Most psychopaths we eventually unmask either because we're working backwards from the harm they've carelessly caused and trying to understand why, or because they're incompetent at pretending, there are just many mundane everyman psychopaths as there are ruthless wannabe Sherlock's.
Exactly - there are firefighters that will get you out of a building for the love of their fellow humans and their job.
There are visionairies that can fight for a vision because it is good, not because they are egomaniacs.
Being a psychopath just absolves you from the ability to ever be truly brave, and if we could heal it we should.
I don't think the point is that we NEED psychopaths for those jobs but rather that psychopaths are NOT ALLWAYS HARMFULL for our society
yeah, but one bee doesn't count as a swarm or colony. it's the multiple combination of these characteristics that create/determine psychopaths.
That's why psychopacy is considered with 30 of 40 possible points. Having a couple of these traits is totally normal. As described, the typical "average male" gets about 4 points. And even if one scores higher, high enough to be considered a psychopath that doesn't mean one is a danger to society, one might just be a super successful entrepreneur, CEO, firefighter, surgeon, etc. jobs where the lack of empathy and structure is helpful.
16:04 as someone who speaks french; the translation or the original is inverted. Manie sans delire is Mania without delirium
It's not a lack of emotions or moral code... it's a lack of empathy.
A conscience can hurt. And they don't have to deal with that pain so they feel there is nothing wrong with them... but a smart one can feign it.
That sounds good tho
Feign?
@@jemborghe knew what you meant. You spelled it "freign"
@@r_t_m OK, fixed.
As a premed student, I see this quite often. I've worked with doctors and nurses who seem to have no care that someone is sitting there injured. If it's their lunch break, then who cares? But I get where they're coming from, after a few times you get used to it. So they might not be psychopaths.
This can be a survival response. Caring a lot about people all the time is exhausting, they must have built a wall to protect themselves. Some of them might be psychos, yes, but I would wager it's the minority
At first I was thinking 'what does premed mean? some derivative term for cleaning ones ruffled feathers? Oh what a difference a hyphen makes. :D
And how do you know they didn't already skip their break? Or would you rather they be tired and make a catastrophic mistake? Why are you so casual about making an assumption that if incorrect is kinda a harsh accusation while also expecting they never take a break? If you care so much why are you not a nurse? Might you be a psychopath?
my sister is an OR nurse. compassion fatigue. but I think it's literally warped her brain over the decades. she's not the same person she was in her early 20s. not at all...
The sick and injured keep arriving and arriving. You’re not a robot or a saint. If you don’t take your lunch breaks, *you* will be the one sick and injured.
Man never disregard the amount of courage a non psychopath can muster. With or without them things will get done
courage and fearlessness are in totally different tiers one who has courage is weak on the inside but wheres a mask a persona and temporarily becomes strong while one who is fearless has no weakness except there one fearlessness .
@@TheSlovakImperator whys that?
fearlessness does not make a good doctor. none of the psychopathic traits are necessary to be good at your job. the video makes a very missleading point. psychopaths are absolutely not necessary for a "better" society. nor are they necessary for a functioning society. in fact, they are the ones who destroy a functional society from the top down.
@@TheWhiteCompany-oj1yy Your definition is nonsense. If you are fearless, it takes no strenght whatsoever to be fearless. Courage is the act of being stronger than your weaknesses. It's strenght itself. Fearlessness leads to recklessness, which demarks a lack of intelligence, both physical and emotional. And a lack of intelligence is weak. Someone who fears death and will do everything to overcome it is stronger than someone who doesn't care about dying. It's why fear as a response has survived evolution as a prime ability for any intelligent living being to have. Because harnessing fear will make you stronger than anyone who is fearless. There is no more ferocious animal than an animal scared for its life willing to fight to death to defend it. This is why psychopaths aren't the majority of the human population. If it were that good, it would be a trait that keeps getting passed down. No, it's best when it's at a low percentage of the population.
The strongest people fear and respect death, they simply aren't cowards. Because they know bravery. The strongest armies in history aren't the ones that sent meat fodder by the thousand to die, but those smaller, tightknit armies of brave people always backing eachothers, defeating much bigger armies with strategical might and with minimal losses. It's all about knowing how to turn off that fear in the heat of battle, or better yet, have full control of it. It takes far more discipline than simply being born fearless.
@@Dice-Z why should it matter how strong someone is as a human beings strength can only go so far its not about the willpower, determination, and courage someone can conjure because reality doesn't care about these things i feel as if the way you think about soldiers is wrong so soldiers are inferior its honorable that they still continue to fight regardless of how they feel which does so true strength but true strength cannot match the focus resolve and cold hearted calculation of a machine like entity you say fearlessness leads to recklessness but this is simply not true i believe that human beings have a dormant potential within all of them but it can only be brought out with fearlessness a courage's person sees the world differently then a fearless person the fearless person sees the world without the pre existing fear and that allows them to see that anything could be possible without there pre existing biases that they could be wrong because they dont care again would you rather have a surgeon that is courage's do your surgery which is still human prone to emotion do it as yes they can have empathy and understanding for others but they have no control over it or the cold hearted calculating machine who is focused on the goal and WILL have a certian outcome
I'm not an expert and dont claim to be... im taking psychology in University and just doing some thought experiments...Something I dont understand with psychopath tests is that they always seam to make the situations "under stress", or "in order to save someone"... but as mentioned before, psychopoths wouldnt really feel the fear or stress or really care to save others... wouldnt it be easier to just say "there's a puppy, a middle aged man, an elderly woman, a baby, a child, and a middle aged woman who do you kill. Why?" ..."what if you could only save 1?".... "ok now you are stranded on an island. The puppy sleeps near you and keeps you warm, the middle aged man is sick, the elderly woman is a doctor, the baby is loud and lost its biological mother, the child is your niece, and the middle aged woman is nice to your niece, but doesnt like you. Who do you kill?" .... "again what if you could only save one?"...the test could go on a few times adding to the situation to increase fear or stress. A true psychopath wouldnt care about the changes and might get upset by them interfering with their logic... but they could change things and hyper focus on only what benifits or has direct impact on them. But the real test would be how fast they answer: do they think and try to solve the riddle? do they just choose at random? What is their reasoning? Did they bother to ask why? 🤔 when saving someone was it: to benifit them? was it nonchalantly chosen? Was it because of the "relitive status"? ... I think a lot of people doing the train test feel morally obligated to do something to help people on the tracks and feel a sense of panic... i remember playing a version on line with a timer and you had to pull the lever... i derailed the train and killed the most people... but out of anxiety and stress... i made a terrible decision... in fact most of us do... psychopaths dont make terrible decisions under presser... they make the same decisions under pressure as they would without the pressure. So I dont really understand those tests. 😅
You really had me in the first 30 seconds. My psychopathic inklings were deeply enraged by your psychopathic facade. Conversely, your real self reassured me that I'm just an awesome person like you are who struggles with my dark side. Awareness is the first step to addressing
The deuteronomy passage shows psychopathy in more than one way. If a mother and father don't want their children, they can get rid of them by lying to the city, so the kid will be killed. Or, if they want to force the child to do something, they can intimidate the kid telling them they will lie to the city to get them killed if they don't clean their room, or worse reasons.
I never thought of lying as a possibility. But then again I'm on the autistic spectrum, I always just dump whatever is in my mind. I can't understand why others don't do the same, just be honest and transparent. And if people hurt you as a consequence and take advantage of your honesty, just go berserker on them, they deserve it for being manipulative psychopaths. I'm not one for diplomatic delicacies. I think the deuteronomy passage is a pretty good idea for keeping a low psychopath population in your society, because they destabilize the society and make everyone worse off with their selfish manipulation.
Kevin, this video is amazing and phenomenally well made and researched and considered. You always have a way of presenting facts uncontroversially and emphasizing details without sensationalizing. Thank you for all the work you and the Vsauce family do and for producing incredible content!
@@guitarszenhe didn't say that. The quote was so horrible that the viewer must assume he doesn't agree with it. Always give people the benefit of the doubt anyways
You are just psychopathically sucking up!
There's no reason why I should believe you and in fact trying to pretend you're not a psychopath after lying about being one is one of the signs you might be one. There's a guy stuck in psych ward to this day for similar reasons (ofc other tests have been done). He tried getting cozier sentence instead of doing a few months for stealing. There's even a doc about his case
nice, good stuff! good to see you're still killin it ^_^
took the test out of curiosity, 8.5% more psychopathic than the average person but still hilariously below the standard. This was actually really fascinating, please do more vids like these on other mental illnesses and such.
I took the test as well and scored 99%. Was confirmed fairly recently and had plenty of ignored signs as a kid and throughout life in general. If u have kids...dont ignore red flags i suppose.
@@user-vn1di4oq4w Yeah right
@@user-vn1di4oq4w Also you're probably still a kid
wait till the carpenter walks in and ranks the table #1
That bit at the end about surgeons and disconnect from emotions reminds me of a quote made by a guy on a bomb refusal squad. When asked if he gets worried when defusing, he replies, “I’m either correct, or it’s not my problem anymore.”
Psychopathy and sociopathy are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings.
Psychopathy describes a set of personality traits, while sociopathy is an unofficial term to describe a person who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).
Psychopaths have little or no conscience but are able to follow social conventions when it suits their needs, while sociopaths have a limited, albeit weak, ability to feel empathy and remorse.
Sociopaths are more likely to fly off the handle and react violently when confronted by the consequences of their actions, while psychopaths may be better able to disassociate from their actions and experience less guilt than sociopaths.
There is no clinical difference between the two terms.
This is absolutely amazing. I'd love to hear more about other personality disorders in this format!
Sameeeee
agreed!
Speaking of psychopathy, this is the story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖
Psychopath = Basically Every Female
format yay!
I think a older kid I used to know would have ranked pretty high but he was a good guy, had a very strange moral compass, if he met a brand new person for the first time and they said someone had wronged them he would physically attack the person in a way most people would only do for they’re friends or family ( even if it was someone that wasn’t even friend of a friend ) just a random person and he was ready to fight anyone for you, some people might say he was just looking for a fight but although that may be true he only attacked people that had hit or abused or ripped or something so I feel like he liked fighting but thought he needed to use it for good
What was his name?
@@Skyblue_2049 You're mistaking self-righteousness with righteousness.
To be fair, Vsauce 2 has become one of the best documentary channels on youtube in my opinion
im a 65 year old man, i score a 2 on 18 of the 20 questions on the checklist, i was diagnosed at 16 years old ! my wife agreed as i read them off!
The timing of this vid is crazy. Just saw a post saying that living with adhd/autism is life on a hard mode bc the job industry is built to benefit only people with psychopathy and the more you think about it the more it rings true.
Not just specifically the job market, but capitalism in general
that's so true
Every word nowadays has a positive/negative. We're getting closer everyday to being ok about being the things that were once not ok to be
@@Yogurt4655 ib4 a rant on how communism is the solution
@@Yogurt4655"everything is the fault of capitalism"
Lured me into watching first 30 seconds? How about the whole 55+ minutes! Thank you, that was really insightful.
Duuude, I love you! Your balance of humor and gravitas & unique perspective. Immediately following you. Reminds me of the brief hypochondria I had as a Psych major. I would choose dissociative, but mean no disrespect to those who experience that.
Selling cigarettes to pregnant women is the kind of psychotic efficiency I admire. Didn't even think of it. Pure evil genius.
As a person with autism I feel terrible whenever my words or actions hurt anyone. But can barely notice when it happens, as I have no clue what is going on on someone's head just by looking at them. They have to physically say it to me, but most people are not straight forward or literal in their speech. They speak in riddles and abstract metaphors that sound nonsensical to me, yet when they attempt at explaining such expressions, I can only understand what to use them for but not why it is. Nether can them, as they seem to understand it in a lateral level as much as I do. Tho they can catch those off of someone sentence like nothing. It is natural to regular people. I identify a lot with the marvel hero Drax for his completely literal brain. As a kid I would be branded dumb or stupid for not understanding the most basic social interaction or metaphor or poem but could do highly complex calculations in my head, understand quantum physics at a base level at age 10, learn programming an English by my self with no course. Yet for how rational I am, if I see gore or violence in a video game or movie, it barely affects me at all. But if I hear of real human suffering in real life it hurts me a lot and I struggle to forget it. Autists don't necessarily have a lack of empathy but a severely demined ability to notice other's feelings towards their words or actions without expressive literal feedback.
This is very true for many aspies. They internalize emotions the same as everyone else, including the emotions of others, but can have difficulties expressing it non-verbally. All the effects are there, inside, but the traditional external signs of this shared understanding are subdued.
Autistic people have trouble processing and integrating the emotional, regulative and cognitive aspects of social interaction. New research actually suggests that it might be because there is TOO much unregulated emotional information and compassion (which is where the guilt is coming from). The harshness of autistic people often comes from misunderstood and maladaptive alexithymia because alexithymia sort of works "perfectly" in young ages to protect against overwhelming emotions. Looking into peoples faces and having second-to-second feedback of their emotions (through their facial gestures) while simultaneously thinking the other person is experiencing emotions to the same degree as oneself is understandably highly overwhelming. Better to shut off emotions entirely by pretending they don't exist - or at least that's what an autistic child often intuitively, but maladaptively does.
I think a big underrated problem/consideration around the idea of whether psychopathy is 'good' is also society dependent. A huge reason why it is even good in the first place, is due to our society encouraging and rewarding those behaviors.
We don't necessarily Need 'the most dangerous people to do the most dangerous jobs' and whatnot. We could instead try to automate those jobs instead, or audit their true value, or even try to create ways in which folks can do those jobs both more safely and more efficiently.
For instance, the reason many of those traits are good for CEOs is because of how our society has defined businesses. We could instead have mostly co-operatives where one builds consensus instead of cutthroat negotiations. Or where the rewards are socialized such that everyone who was involved wins, rather than monopolized within winner-take-all games.
The very way in which you build a system can itself bias towards certain behaviors that may not be good or desirable in other systems.
I think its imperative we do that larger meta analysis before encouraging such ideas.
We could also teach people to see the virtues of a civil and non-criminal society through self-interest, when they aren't able to grasp the concept through emotional regulation. Psychopaths also benefit from a peaceful society, and not having the many problems that come with their aberrant behavior. The problem is that they don't understand these benefits in a way that makes sense to them, and that they can self-regulate on. I would be thoroughly unsurprised if an appropriate method of instruction that they're able to learn from would sharply curtail the problematic aspects without needing to be so cruel as to punish and destroy them for simply existing.
I'd expect it to be neigh on impossible to eliminate societal incentives for psychopathic traits that don't extend to the degree where such a person becomes a problem for society. At the smallest scale of social units, there is an extreme degree of benefit for the non-psychopaths to fall under the protection of those who are capable of weathering the storms of life and ruthlessly eliminating external threats to the social unit, be it a family or a city, or country, or what have you. This can be as banal as someone simply outcompeting someone for a lucrative promotion or raise so they can provide better for themselves and their dependents, or it can be a larger affair where a nation has to choose who lives and who dies because there's no other way around a given problem. Any meta-analysis would need to consider these types of factors, as well as the differences in outcomes that will occur due to removal of 'psychopathic' traits such as conditionally disregarding concerns of empathy during a crisis situation.
I would give direct examples of real world scenarios in which the death toll is frequently increased by orders of magnitude due to unwillingness to take strong enough measures early, but these sorts of topics tend to be heavily censored on the internet these days and would not agree with the conclusions that are permitted to remain.
Society didn't decide the behavior's. It's just what naturally occurs as humans.
This is the free market. Modern Darwinism. Anything besides what currently exists is something that society decides.
please stop putting evolution as the same as capitalism. Capitalism isn't inate or how all societies work.@@awseko4732
Our society isn't encourging those behaviours, nature is. In nature, the strongest, most ruthless, most selfish often are the ones who survive and thrive. The human brain hasn't evolved nearly enough to steer away from that.
@@Willy_Warmer wow, everything you said is wrong. you known nothing of nature or evolution, never use those terms again
The overrepresentation of psychopaths in positions of power does not mean that one must be a psychopath to be successful/powerful. It could certainly help, but it's just as likely that psychopaths are overrepresented in those positions because they were willing to do unethical things in order to get into those positions.
Am I really the only one who looks at Bob like “Ok, those women are losers who were gonna buy smokes anyway?”
No you’re not. I’d assume that even a large portion of “regular “ folks (non neurotypical) would also agree that he was fulfilling a market that already existed.
42:19 it's like in the anime Psycho pass where a system to detect psychopaths cannot detect violent people that are termed asymptomatics.
47:09 as an example of perhaps a psychopathic action, he ordered a French fleet be destroyed rather than be taken and used by the Germans.
For me, "Laughter" depends on the context, while it's largely positive, as a life long dorky kid, it could be more sinister. That might also be my neurodivergence being awkward and always wanting more context!
That's also the thought I had!
My mind wouldn't ever put "Puppy" in a negative context, it's always cute, but it's not uncommon for Laughter to be at the expense of someone.
@@bobthebox2993 Dead puppy.
@@bobthebox2993 The puppy is really cute and happy until it poops and pees on the carpet and you're the one to have to clean it up. That's a negative context, they're a handful to care for. It's worth it, obviously, and there's balancing out, but it's not ENTIRELY positive.
@@Talguy21of course, I was thinking the same, but tbh, the real first instinct is that puppy is more positive thing.
Even though I do not really like puppies, I still connect it to positivity.
Thats though only my opinion.
Did anyone rank the table first? 🤣
i feel like the word ranking thing isnt a great indicator because i think a psychopath could learn and understand that normal people would rank things like puppy and laughter first and cancer and parking ticket last even if they themselves dont have any emotional reaction to those words
A psychopath does have the primal basic emotions. They can feel love and lack of empathy for other peaple is different from having a emotional defence against death.
Any psychopath will put cancer last. Also dampened is not same as non-existent.
A lot of psychopaths will watch pseudo sniff films and horror to actually feel those last residual emotions.
Hearing you describe the positive benefits of being psychopathic served only to remind me that we live in a society set up by and for them as opposed to a society set up by and for those with empathy.
@@Engictionwe decide how society runs. Not nature. The entire point of being human is the rejection of "natural" base impulse and the embarrassment of something better. We just have a long way to go
@@Engiction if that’s how you define “nature”, then you have no explanation for the convergent evolution of societies among humans, meerkats, or ants.
@@Engictionthe system were in seems to reward psychopathy from where I’m standing. Snakes in suits, political Ponerology and corruptible are all books that speak to this dynamic
@@naka8919 our "nature" is constantly evolving. you cant separate humans from their nature is correct, but the meaning of human nature has been changing over time
Basically because it wouldn't be as efficient, yeah
So what? This clearly proves that the world doesn't need too many of us but neither none of us, just enough to push things towards the way of progress and betterment of life for everyone else
There's a constant truth people always try to run away from but it's impossible to escape
Morality and ethics are an obstacle that is needed to be put aside depending on the scenario
So far I saw an episode of Brain Games about this exact topic a few years ago and I've learned that psychopaths are people that lack emotional empathy towards others as well as about 1-2% of the World's Population are "true" psychopaths. That being said, there's a difference between a psychopath and a sicko that does horrible things to others for their own satisfaction so it's important not to mix up the two. A psychopath is also different from a sociopath due to how a psychopath's behavior is in their mind or obsession with something while a sociopath's behavior is due to their experience. Which is why Mr. Baldi from the game Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning is a psychopath why Mr. Shito from the manga/anime High School of the Dead is a sociopath and both of them are teachers in the horror genre.
Ive been here for years. Love all the vsaucs channels but vsauce 2 is my favorite.
Fun fact: psychopaths don't like psychedelic shrooms. It always gives them a massive panic attack. One I knew, told me he felt things that horrified him.
Idk why but that’s hilarious
He felt.
That scared the shit outta him. 😆
Me too, the first time it was euphoric and I felt really close to everyone, then it was too close, felt as if everyone knew what I was thinking
ego death: the narcissists nightmare
And running somewhere along those lines, I did a medication that calms Schizo's down and stops them hallucinating around 30 or 40 years ago: result - what schizo's experience. Although not super terrifying, I'd rather stick my penis in acid than try it again. (artane)
55 minutes just flew by. Amazing storytelling, presentation, and attention to detail. Well done Kevin, kudos to you and your team!
OMG,i seriously believed it were 30 min, until i saw your comment!
"You just got a glimpse into the manipulation of a psychopath." Well...they're generally less upfront about it.
Wait, "Manie sans delire" is delirium without mania? It sounds like it should be the other way around.
Everybody uses everybody else to a certain extent. Psychopaths are just willing to go further than you. They DO have a conscious. It just doesn't bother them as much as it bothers you, because guilt is a waste of time to them. It's the goal that matters; not the journey it takes to get there.
Once again a fantastically informative video! Psychology is an incredibly fascinating subject I can never get enough of. Keep up the great work!
I really like the VSauce long-form video format. I know they are a lot of work but this is the kind of content I love on the VSauce network. Great exploration of the topic and am looking forward to the next deep dive.
A table is not even close to neutral. It is the gathering place for the most wonderful communally shared things in life. Meals, board games, role-playing games. It definitely ranks second after laughter. As a bonus, you don't have to clean up it's crap or feed it. And it never barks or whines. No doctor bills either.
Psycopath can actually feel anxiety and that's when they can't satisfy their needs. And most of the time their needs are very different from non psycopaths.
Nope.
I have probably watched every single video of yours. This one is, without a doubt, one if not the best you have produced. Thank you.
I scored 15/40.
It is a high score, but I'm not a psychopath, not even a sociopath, I just have BPD, which can explain rage, impulsivity, addictive behaviors and egocentricity...
28/40 here. still not a psycho and probably my score is biased by me being a lazy diagnosed adhd asperger with a parasitic lifestyle. Also according to DNA tests I have a genetic mutation that impairs my empathy. But I have never hurt anyone and I am not sadistic.
I’m at an 18/40 and find the parasitic lifestyle a little questionable because like… should I be counting it entirely? I was on my own a while until I was broke and then severely ill. I feel guilt a lot for absolutely nothing I actually did, but not really much affect? I definitely cut up dead animals I found when I thought I could get away with it because anatomy is fascinating!
Awesome video! So well explained!
9:07 you have offended me and my pet table in 1000 languages
I love your latest videos Kevin. They seem to be making a return to in depth studies of the human condition, and less about mathematical oddities. This is the Vsauce that I enjoy. Haven't had this much fun with your videos since your 'Blue' video. Keep it up.
You had me for 55 minutes! I love this unrushed format of content, it's very relaxing and insightful.
In order to not get manipulated… one must learn to manipulate
Ted is a very nuanced case when you take into consideration that most of his family said he was unusual and odd/quirky up until the college experiments on him. Those close to him including his brother who turned him in, said he was changed after the experiments, had PTSD and completely isolated himself. The one thing they all seem to agree, he had trauma that changed him and acted as a catalyst to what happened. So I understand the reference so far in the video, but there is a massive amount of nuance (some could say its no longer nuance, its just lack of half the story) missing in this comparison. And since when is not having long-term goals a sign of psychopathy? Honestly, the perfect example of a psychopath as Ted Bundy.
Not to mention psychopathy can actually be measured in a brain scan... the doctor who discovered this fact, was shocked to find that he himself was actually a psychopath. Apparently his family was not surprised at all, but he was high-functioning and had a cohesive family, and no desires to murder or hurt anyone.