Posted on 10/28/2011 3:59:06 AM PDT by jmcenanly
Crime scene psychopaths reveal themselves through their speech Psycopaths are estimated to make up 1 percent of the population and up to 25 percent of male offenders in correctional settings.
NEW YORK — Psychopaths are known to be wily and manipulative, but even so, they unconsciously betray themselves, according to scientists who have looked for patterns in convicted murderers' speech as they described their crimes.
The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail. Using computer programs to analyze what the men said, the researchers found that those with psychopathic scores showed a lack of emotion, spoke in terms of cause-and-effect when describing their crimes, and focused their attention on basic needs, such as food, drink and money. [10 Contested Death Penalty Cases]
While we all have conscious control over some words we use, particularly nouns and verbs, this is not the case for the majority of the words we use, including little, functional words like "to" and "the" or the tense we use for our verbs, according to Jeffrey Hancock, the lead researcher and an associate professor in communications at Cornell University, who discussed the work on Monday (Oct. 17) in Midtown Manhattan at Cornell's ILR Conference Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Can we apply this analysis to You Know Who?
He just wants to eat his waffle.
When my son was getting ready to enter high school they had an orientation one evening. One of the English teachers spoke for about 15-20 minutes. I was so distracted by her ums and ahs, that I started keeping count. Well over 100. I was very dismayed to hear this coming from the English teacher. :( I’m guessing speech wasn’t her strong suit.
bflr
“How words give them away”
“To examine the emotional content of the murderers’ speech, Hancock and his colleagues looked at a number of factors, including how frequently they described their crimes using the past tense. The use of the past tense can be an indicator of psychological detachment, and the researchers found that the psychopaths used it more than the present tense when compared with the nonpsychopaths. They also found more dysfluencies — the “uhs” and “ums” that interrupt speech — among psychopaths. Nearly universal in speech, dysfluencies indicate that the speaker needs some time to think about what they are saying.”
“With regard to psychopaths, “We think the ‘uhs’ and ‘ums’ are about putting the mask of sanity on,” Hancock told LiveScience.”
“Psychopaths appear to view the world and others instrumentally, as theirs for the taking, the team, which also included Stephen Porter from the University of British Columbia, wrote.”
“As they expected, the psychopaths’ language contained more words known as subordinating conjunctions. These words, including “because” and “so that,” are associated with cause-and-effect statements.”
“’This pattern suggested that psychopaths were more likely to view the crime as the logical outcome of a plan (something that ‘had’ to be done to achieve a goal),’ the authors write.”
“And finally, while most of us respond to higher-level needs, such as family, religion or spirituality, and self-esteem, psychopaths remain occupied with those needs associated with a more basic existence.”
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I, me, my
Oh my. Oh bama...
I think the implication is obvious.....
The have a (D) after their name?
“including how frequently they described their crimes using the past tense.”
As opposed to describing their past crimes in the future tense? What?
Eat your peas.
Maybe the speaker's a soulless psycho, too.
Or hey, maybe the findings are a pile of Obama!
A lot of colloquial past description is done in the present tense. Non psycho murderer: “so I go into this liquor store, you know? And this guy behind the counter sees me coming and I can tell he knows I’m gonna do something...”
Let’s see. The studied are
1 male
2 convicts
3 killers
Could it be language is not their forte?
Not to mention that successful psychopaths are not in prison. They’re out among us, smooth-talking, slick, charming, eloquent.
LOL!Good one! His speech patterns (and ignorance) drives me crazy!
bump for later
And feeling our pain...
Just listen to Hillary or Obama and count the 'Uh, Umm-s.'
Then compare with something Sarah Palin says extemporaneously.
But remember, Palin is stupid, dumb, incoherent, ...
... and Hillary, Obummer, are brilliant!
"Barack Obama received at least some instruction in the Islamic faith of his father and went with him to the mosque, but the importance of this experience is vastly overstated by conservative commentators who seek to portray Obama as a Muslim of sorts. Radical anti-Americanism, rather than Islam, was the reigning faith in the Dunham household. ...
Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother's milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.
There is nothing mysterious about Obama's methods. "A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is," wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world's biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture. Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis' cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power's portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noire Nightmare Alley. The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech. ..."
Article: Obama's women reveal his secret
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html
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