Men that are higher in psychopathic traits appear to be better at pretending for be more attractive to women , harmonize to a recent study . The team found that in trait such as Honesty , Emotionality , and Agreeableness , men with more psychopathic personalities were undecomposed at mimic those prosocial traits if they knew it was to score with woman , suggest what you see is not always what you get .
The research suggests these psychopathic traits may increase their willingness to deflect their personality to attract a married person , despite not scoring highly on prosocial traits .
Psychopathyis a collective full term for a number of antisocial personality traits , include impulsivity , irresponsibleness , shallow emotions , want of empathy , and persistent encroachment of social norms . They are n’t cartoonish villains like Hannibal Lecter and every person with psychopathological trait is n’t a serial killer – in fact , the traits can tend to aid people intobusiness success . However , the great unwashed that exhibit these trait can become very full at hiding them , or else they risk ostracization .
This power to immingle into their social surround can make or break off how they form relationship with others , with some finding huge succeeder in social state of affairs despite having trouble forming bond . Those that are good at it will often turn to mimicry , in which the somebody with psychopathic traits will mimic people that are well in social situations to further their interests . They may seem more well-disposed , undetermined , and honest , which all importantly increase their chance of find a collaborator .
But to what extent do they mimic these trait ? A team from Carleton University take 164 heterosexual college man and take them to complete a HEXACO ( Honesty - Humility , Emotionality , and amenity ) questionnaire , which measures personality traits , and then a test for psychopathological trait . They then learn a woman ’s go steady TV and were afterwards asked to occupy out another HEXACO , but this time they were instructed to invoke to the char in the video , who was very clear about the type of man she like .
All men showed some form of adaption in their personality traits to try and woo the woman in the video recording , changing their HEXACO answers to appear more attractive to her - even those in relationships . However , those that scored higher on the psychopathy test demonstrate greater change in their honesty , emotionality , and amenity . The difference was lowly but significant , suggesting psychopathic traits are correlated with mimicry .
As with all self - reported studies , collect data this way does bequeath the field open to biases , and the hypothetical nature of the dating scenario may also not understand to how the students would actually go up it in a real office . It does , though , give a start spot for future research into psychopathy and mimicry .
The written report was published in the journalEvolutionary Psychological Science .