Are Psychopaths More Intelligent Than Most People?
Most ordinary people agree that the typical profile of a psychopath is that of someone with a great capacity to manipulate others, dishonest, lacking empathy and with above-average intelligence.
However… Are psychopaths really the most intelligent? This has been a question that has been addressed experimentally in recent decades. Let’s see if this is true or if it is another myth promoted by the media.
Before going into more detail about why popular culture has the idea that psychopaths are more intelligent, it is necessary to explain, very briefly, the main diagnostic characteristics of this personality disorder.
Most psychological disorders are characterized by a series of more or less varied symptoms depending on the person who suffers from the disorder. However, Psychopathy stands out for being quite stable in terms of its behavioral and personality characteristics
Psychopaths usually share a set of fairly stable personality traits, observable in the vast majority of them. The classic image of psychopaths is of insensitive people, without remorse or empathy, very manipulative, with high impulsivity and ideas of grandiosity. They also have great superficial charm, in addition to being pathological liars and having a very promiscuous sex life.
However, it is possible to differentiate between two main types of psychopathy: primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy. Primary psychopaths, who would be those most closely related to the stereotypical image of psychopathy, stand out for having little empathy and appearing very cold; however, they do not usually carry out violent or aggressive acts. On the other hand, secondary psychopaths, also called hostile or reactive, are those who carry out antisocial behavior, in the form of physical and verbal aggression and violence
Over the last decades, attempts have been made to establish the percentage of psychopaths in the population, varying the statistics between 0.2 and 1%, depending on the country. Thus, judging by these percentages, it can be deduced that throughout life you will have the opportunity to meet someone who, to a greater or lesser extent, could be classified as a psychopath.
Although, as we were already saying, not all psychopaths are aggressive and, therefore, they do not have to carry out criminal acts, it is true that a significant percentage of the prison population meets diagnostic criteria. Depending on the gender, culture and country in which the prison is evaluated, the percentages of inmates with psychopathy range from 11% to 25%.
Are psychopaths more intelligent? The myth of Hannibal Lecter
As with the vast majority of psychological disorders, psychopathy is not free of myths. Among the most notable is that psychopaths are more intelligent people than most people. This has been addressed experimentally, and it has been seen that not only is it not true but, furthermore, the population of psychopathic people has, on average, lower intelligence than expected in the general population.
However, one should not make the mistake of thinking that psychopaths are actually less intelligent than most people. To say that psychopathy has any relationship with intelligence or that it influences this construct is false. In fact, this is how research carried out by O’Boyle’s group in 2013 found that the correlation between psychopathy and intelligence was close to zero, which would mean that both psychological constructs are independent of each other.
One of the reasons why psychopathy is associated with high intelligence is related to one of the characteristics of psychopaths: being skilled in social situations, at least at a superficial level Although this is not always the case, there are many psychopaths who have quite striking social abilities, allowing them to manipulate others through their superficial charm. Manipulating other people is associated with possessing superior intelligence in popular culture.
Another explanation that could be behind why the general population sees psychopaths as more intelligent than they really are, especially primary psychopaths, has to do with the relationship that culturally has been given to intelligence when it is related to cordiality a dimension of personality.
Traditionally, people who consider themselves more logical also see themselves as colder and less cordial. On the other hand, people who see themselves as kinder and friendlier also tend to underestimate their intelligence. That is to say, culturally a very clear distinction has been made between reason and the heart seeing both aspects as something totally opposite and, if you have a lot of one, you should have little of the other.
This can be extrapolated to the view we have of primary psychopathy. Being people with a lack of empathy, it is assumed that they are very logical and, therefore, more intelligent than the majority of the population. This phenomenon, fueled by the media, has been called the myth of Hannibal Lecter, the famous psychopath protagonist of the film The silence of the lambs by Jonathan Demme (1991). Despite this, science has not found a relationship between the cordiality dimension and intelligence.
