8 Ways To Tell If You're A Psychopath

4. Are You A "Normal" Psychopath?

When we think of psychopaths (like you do) it's the "criminal psychopath" that tends to spring to mind. The ones who tortured animals as kids and committed terrible crimes with absolutely no remorse.

Whilst those psychopaths definitely exist, and they are definitely overrepresented in prisons, with estimates for true psychopathy in US prison inmates as high as 15% compared to the 1-5% of the general population, the stereotype of the violent psychopath perpetuates because those are the ones that are the easiest to study.

The thing is about prisoners, is that you always know where to find them and they're often the subjects of psychological scrutiny. Plus, the psychopaths that go on to commit terrible crimes tend to be the ones that attract our attention the most - a psychopath that lives a relatively private, non-violent life is unlikely to either come to the attention of a psychiatrist, nor seek the help of one.