This eerie body language habit could reveal a psychopathic personality

Blink and you’ll miss it.If you suspect someone is a psychopath, just look into their eyes, experts advise.In a 2018 study, researchers at Cardiff and Swansea Universities investigated the effect of “nasty” images, such as mutilated bodies and threatening dogs, on offenders who are psychopathic and those who aren’t.They found that when looking at the pictures, the eyes of the psychopaths had an “unusual reaction” — they did not experience pupil enlargement.Meanwhile, the pupils of non-psychopathic offenders did widen and dilate when looking at harrowing images, which is a natural response.“Our findings provide physical evidence of an emotional deficit common to psychopathic offenders,” lead author Dr.Dan Burley, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, said at the time.“The pupil has long been known to be an indicator of a person’s arousal,” Burley explained.

“The pupil usually dilates when an image shocks or scares us.The fact that this normal physiological response to threat is reduced in psychopathic offenders provides us with an obvious physical marker for this condition.”This look in the eyes is often referred to as a “psychopathic stare” or “psychopathic eyes,” reflecting an unfeeling and withdrawn response when looking at something that most people would find alarming.However, researchers were dumbfounded to discover that psychopaths’ pupils actually dilated when looking at positive and optimistic images, showing a “normal” response similar to those of non-psychopaths.These findings suggest that psychopathy isn’t directly related to a difficulty responding to emotion, but rather a specific reactivity to threatening information.“Many psychopathic offenders appear to be bold, confident, and can act in a cold-blooded manner.

It’s much easier to act bold if you have no feelings of fear, and to be cold-blooded if there is no emotion to get in the way of the act,” Professor Robert Snowden from Cardiff Uni...