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| A AV俱乐部 undergraduate student, Kevin Wilson had聽a research聽paper on psychopaths published in the Journal of Research in Personality. (Danny Abriel Photo) |
How do psychopaths find their victims? A new study by AV俱乐部 researchers suggests they are deeply attuned to vulnerable people.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like what you鈥檇 see on Animal Planet鈥攖he lion goes after the most vulnerable, the one they have the best chance of getting,鈥� says Kevin Wilson, a fourth-year science student who was the lead researcher on the paper, 鈥淎 pawn by any other name? Social information processing as a function of psychopathic traits,鈥� published in the .
鈥淭his type of aggression is referred to as predatory鈥� it鈥檚 a perceptual system geared to getting the easiest prey.鈥�
To test the hypothesis, the researchers with Professor Stephen Porter鈥檚 Forensic Psychology Lab at AV俱乐部 showed slides of different faces to a sample of young men. The faces were either happy or sad, male or female, and described as being in either a high- or low-paying job.
Mr. Wilson found men who scored high on a psychopathic personality questionnaire (a series of 187 questions probing emotional reactions and impulsivity) possessed the unusual ability to recall sad females in low-paying jobs. At the same time, they also had an unusual inability to recall females who were happy or in high-paying jobs, nor were they good at putting names to faces.
鈥淲hat we concluded is that psychopathy is associated with a kind of 鈥榩redatory memory,鈥欌�� says Mr. Wilson, 22, from Moncton, N.B. 鈥淭hey may use this to actively select their victims.鈥�
He鈥檚 interested in doing further research with diagnosed offenders in the criminal population.
Mr. Wilson鈥檚 interest in psychopaths was piqued while taking Dr. Porter鈥檚 second-year class Abnormal Psychology. He distinctly recalls reading a paragraph on psychopathy in the class textbook that intrigued him.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not like anxiety or depression; we can relate to those conditions,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut to perceive your world without emotion is so foreign 鈥� it just makes it so interesting..鈥�
LINK: in the Journal of Research in Personality