Ten minute test could spot killers

BBC ^ | Wednesday, 28 May, 2003

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

A simple test could one day help police to catch psychopathic potential serial killers.

Psychologists in Wales have adapted an existing psychological test to identify people with psychopathic tendencies.

The 10 minute test is based on the Implicit Association Test, developed in the United States, and used to reveal people's deepest thoughts and feelings.

Psychopaths may be capable of committing violent or antisocial acts but rarely demonstrate any remorse or guilt.

They are often highly skilled at lying, can be charming and are adept at faking the emotions they lack.

For this reason, many psychopathic serial killers can go on murdering without detection for years.

Serial killers Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Harold Shipman have each been branded psychopaths.

Emotional detachment

Psychologists at Cardiff University believe psychopaths' emotional detachment can be used to identify them.

Their adapted test flashes up a series of words on a screen, one after another.

"This test may become an important tool for distinguishing psychopaths who are likely to commit extremely violent offences from those who are not"
-- Cardiff University researchers

The individual has to classify each word as either "pleasant" or "unpleasant" and either "violent" or "peaceful".

They press one of two buttons - one for "pleasant" or "peaceful" actions and another for "unpleasant" or "violent" actions.

However, the task becomes much more difficult if the buttons represent conflicting emotions - if one button is for "pleasant" and "violent" and the other is for "peaceful" and "unpleasant".

For instance, if "blood" or "peace" flashes up, ordinary people will generally take longer to decide which buttons to press, taking time to consider each word carefully.

However, tests on psychopaths have shown that they do not need this extra time and choose the "right" answer no matter how the buttons are configured.

The researchers tested 121 male convicts. Of these, 13 were psychopathic murderers; 17 were non-psychopathic murderers; 39 were psychopaths who had committed offences other than murder; and the remaining 52 were non-psychopaths who had committed offences other than murders.

Faster answers

They found that psychopaths answered much more quickly than any of the other men involved in the study. This difference remained significant even when they adjusted for IQ levels.

"With psychopathic murderers, there's almost no difference between whether we put the 'violent' words with 'pleasant' (ones), or the 'violent' words with 'unpleasant' ones. They are just as fast," said psychologist Robert Snowden, one of those involved in the study.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers suggested that the fast responses of psychopaths may be linked to their "abnormal social beliefs" about violence.

"Psychopathic murderers have diminished negative reactions to violence compared with non-psychopathic murders and other offenders," they wrote.

The researchers suggested their test could be used to identify those psychopaths who are most likely to carry out violent acts.

"This test may become an important tool for distinguishing psychopaths who are likely to commit extremely violent offences from those who are not," they wrote.

[chance33_98]

Ten minute test could spot killers

Yeah, but did they lay off anyone? ;^)

[DoughtyOne]

The absurdity of this premise speaks for itself. Psychologists have one of the largest ratings of divorce and disfunctional families, yet they have everyone else pegged precisely. Balderdash!

[Travis McGee]

Very Clockwork-Orangish, if you ask me.

A bit of the old ultra-violence anyone?

[RandallFlagg]

Holden: Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about... your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother.
BLAM!

"Blade Runner"

[Willie Green]

How soon do you think it'll be implemented in the Publik Skools?

[the_Watchman]

Now that YOU know and I know, I guess we'll just slow up our responses!!

Doesn't publishing this report invalidate all future results? They might run across some psychopath who hasn't read the this on the net. However, I doubt that a psychopath would show any remorse at answering slow in order to "pass" the test.

[xm177e2]

The absurdity of this premise speaks for itself. Psychologists have one of the largest ratings of divorce and disfunctional families, yet they have everyone else pegged precisely. Balderdash!

There are plenty of sane psychologists. The thing is, crazy people are drawn to psychology, so deal with their own mental problems.

This research is done absolutely scientifically (assuming the scientists aren't lying, and I doubt they are) and is easily reproducible.

[chaosagent]

Yeah, right.

Now go back and pick 125 males in the same age group without any criminal records and see how they test.

Then we'll talk.

[tpaine]

"They found that psychopaths answered much more quickly than any of the other men involved in the study. This difference remained significant even when they adjusted for IQ levels."



Some among us may be in trouble if response time to FR flames is ever computed..

[xm177e2]

Doesn't publishing this report invalidate all future results? They might run across some psychopath who hasn't read the this on the net. However, I doubt that a psychopath would show any remorse at answering slow in order to "pass" the test.

I think the time differences are pretty small, so it would be hard to fake (and wouldn't be so hard to see if someone was deliberately slowing things down). But yes, the hardest part about using tests to hunt down these people is that they are by nature liars--and psychopaths are usually good liars.

[GOPJ]

Do psychopaths have the patience to read? Isn't immediate gratification more their thing?

Doesn't publishing this report invalidate all future results? They might run across some psychopath who hasn't read the this on the net. However, I doubt that a psychopath would show any remorse at answering slow in order to "pass" the test.

[El Gato]

So what are we to do, give everyone the test, as we now stop people for "seatbelt checks" without any probable cause, and then lock up everyone who fails the test? Sounds like that Tom Cruise sci-fi movie where they bust people BEFORE they commit a crime.

[DoughtyOne]

Blam! Perfect response.

[DoughtyOne]

Probably already has been. I have long suspected that kids have been pumped for years about what goes on in their homes. Are there guns in your home. Do you read that nasty Bible regularly? Do your folks like Barbara Streisand and Bill Clinton?

[Russian Sage]

This is a violation of psychopath's rights. Most psychos aren't hurting anybody most of the time. Why don't you leave them alone?

[DoughtyOne]

It is impossible to tell which people will act out their urges even if they are prone to such activities. Therefore these tests aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Further they are simply grounds for people with their collective heads up their a--es who want to run everyone elses life for them.

This is great grounds for developing a set of guidelines that will enable private citizens to be targeted as people who shouldn't have a family weapon etc. Anotherwords, civil rights will fall if this is accepted and implemented.

How many problematic people are there out there? How many actually act out? This is voodoo at best and certainly not the groundbreaking study it is reported to be. For every test like this that is reported to be foolproof, there are five that contradict it.

You site your study and others will cite the alternative studies. Hocus pocus...

[Willie Green]

Yeah but with this test, they can brand the little tykes as psychopaths as early as kindergarten.
It'd be a good excuse for pumpin' em full of drugs stronger than Ritalin!

[HiTech RedNeck]

What if the "wrong" answer? For example, one might have an impression of blood as "unpleasant" because it's often associated with wounds and pain. But the AUTHORITAYS want you to say "violent."