“The hero and the psychopath may be twigs from the same genetic branch.” That’s what behavioral geneticist David T. Lykken said in his book The Antisocial Personality. Though they seem like exact opposites, many of the character traits associated with psychopathic behavior – like fearlessness, brashness, and willingness to take risks – are also linked to the kind of behavior we admire in heroes. And there is increasing evidence to support the hypothesis.
Travelling back in time, we find lots of exciting examples of great people who exhibited most of the characteristics expressed in both heroes and psychopaths. For instance, Andrew Jackson, A.k.a “Old Hickory,” was ranked third in a 2012 research on U.S. presidents who displayed key traits of …show more content…
Patton, and Emory University’s Sarah Francis Smith and Scott O. Lilienfeld examine a sample of first responders and their scores on personality and psychopathy standardized tests.
The research team focused on first responders (such as military personnel, emergency medical technicians [EMTs], police officers and firefighters) because they are prototypes of the kind of heroic actions that could be guided by personality. In particular, the first responders in this study are known for small acts of heroism on their daily jobs, which are easier to quantify compared to big acts of heroism that often funnel to being in the right place at the right time.
Besides psychopathic traits in general, the researchers were also looking for leadership skills, because most heroic actions require someone with the ability to organize groups to aid others in case of emergencies. They also analyzed transactional leadership skills (involving motivating compliance through reward or punishment), since this style of leadership is useful, especially in a …show more content…
Many first responders reported a history of poor conduct in the workplace, such as getting arrested, being charged with a felony or other offenses, undesirable off-duty conduct and so on.
While these results suggest that heroes and psychopaths have a lot in common, they shouldn’t be interpreted to mean the two are the same. They only share certain vital traits – like fearlessness and boldness. Most of the other features commonly seen in psychopaths – namely inability to feel guilt, lack of empathy, selfishness, and lack of inhibition – are unquestionably not part of heroism or altruism.
This study provides useful insight into the psychology of heroes and psychopaths, bringing us closer to understanding why people who might come off as antisocial in particular situations also perform brave deeds in others. However, Christina Patton and her team do acknowledge some sensitive flaws in their survey, including the fact that they used self-reports of heroic/altruistic behavior, which may not be an accurate representation of purely objective measures of heroism. Patton recommends more research investigating other ways in which the two characters are
Travelling back in time, we find lots of exciting examples of great people who exhibited most of the characteristics expressed in both heroes and psychopaths. For instance, Andrew Jackson, A.k.a “Old Hickory,” was ranked third in a 2012 research on U.S. presidents who displayed key traits of …show more content…
Patton, and Emory University’s Sarah Francis Smith and Scott O. Lilienfeld examine a sample of first responders and their scores on personality and psychopathy standardized tests.
The research team focused on first responders (such as military personnel, emergency medical technicians [EMTs], police officers and firefighters) because they are prototypes of the kind of heroic actions that could be guided by personality. In particular, the first responders in this study are known for small acts of heroism on their daily jobs, which are easier to quantify compared to big acts of heroism that often funnel to being in the right place at the right time.
Besides psychopathic traits in general, the researchers were also looking for leadership skills, because most heroic actions require someone with the ability to organize groups to aid others in case of emergencies. They also analyzed transactional leadership skills (involving motivating compliance through reward or punishment), since this style of leadership is useful, especially in a …show more content…
Many first responders reported a history of poor conduct in the workplace, such as getting arrested, being charged with a felony or other offenses, undesirable off-duty conduct and so on.
While these results suggest that heroes and psychopaths have a lot in common, they shouldn’t be interpreted to mean the two are the same. They only share certain vital traits – like fearlessness and boldness. Most of the other features commonly seen in psychopaths – namely inability to feel guilt, lack of empathy, selfishness, and lack of inhibition – are unquestionably not part of heroism or altruism.
This study provides useful insight into the psychology of heroes and psychopaths, bringing us closer to understanding why people who might come off as antisocial in particular situations also perform brave deeds in others. However, Christina Patton and her team do acknowledge some sensitive flaws in their survey, including the fact that they used self-reports of heroic/altruistic behavior, which may not be an accurate representation of purely objective measures of heroism. Patton recommends more research investigating other ways in which the two characters are