Psychopaths on TV and in films, like Patrick Bateman and Tom Ripley, are usually guys who are also violent criminals. People may think that this makes it more likely that most psychopaths are guys, but an academic now says this may not be the case. An expert at Anglia Ruskin University named Dr. Clive Boddy says that female psychopaths are “more common than we think” because studies have been unable to find them for a long time. Dr. Boddy told MailOnline that the signs of psychopathy in women are different from those in men. Often, they show up as sexually seductive and controlling.
Spreading lies or rumors and “expressing violence verbally,” which means yelling or screaming, are also important signs. There are female killers on TV and in films. For example, Glenn Close played Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, and Jodie Comer played Villanelle in the BBC show Killing Eve. Dr. Boddy says that female psychopaths are more likely than male psychopaths to lie and act sexually seductively to get what they want in life. He told MailOnline that psychopaths are motivated by a desire to have power over and control other people using any means they can find.
“This may turn violent, mean, or dangerous for male psychopaths, ending in physical dominance.” “For female psychopaths, this may lean towards manipulating others through seduction, relationship violence, and spreading rumors and lies about them in order to get benefits and favors over them.” Also, people tend to think that psychopathic traits like being dishonest, hostile, incapable of empathy, and missing emotional depth are more common in men than in women. “Because these are seen as male traits, even when women show some of the most important signs of psychopathy, they may not be labeled as such, even when they should be,” he said.
Why Female Psychopaths May Be More Common Than We Think
According to the latest scientific data, there are about six times as many male psychopaths as female ones. However, Dr. Boddy believes that the real number of psychopaths among women is about 1.2 to 1, which is up to five times higher than what was thought before.
His words were: “Not enough is known about female psychopaths because there haven’t been enough studies on them.” The expert said that sexual behaviors like flirting, seduction, and trickery are common in women who show signs of psychopathy. In addition to physical violence, psychopathic women often show their anger through words, such as yelling, swearing, or crying. So, it’s not as obvious as the violence that male criminals usually show, which is more physical.
“Female psychopaths also tend to use words instead of violence to get what they want, which is different from how male psychopaths usually act,” he said. Because most studies are based on criminal and male psychopath profiles, the professor is worried that they may not be able to find female psychopaths. A common way to assess psychopathy, the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, is biased towards finding signs of psychopathy in men. This is part of the problem.
Beyond Brutality: Why Identifying Female Psychopaths Requires New Approaches
“If female psychopathy shows up in different ways, then methods used to catch and identify male criminal psychopaths might not work for finding female non-criminal psychopaths,” he said. This affects the criminal justice system because the choices made now about how to handle risks involving children and partners may be wrong.
The fact that women aren’t automatically more honest, caring, and concerned with problems like corporate social responsibility also affects how organizations choose their leaders. Dr. Boddy will talk about female psychopaths at the Cambridge Festival on March 16. He will use data from his own studies and other studies to show that there are more female psychopaths than anyone thought.
Since 2005, the expert has been studying how psychopaths affect people at work. They just recently shared the most important signs that your boss is a psychopath. Some of these are having a “superficial charm,” not feeling sorry for your actions or being sincere, cheating a lot, and not caring about other people.
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