I would like to see this tool used to evaluate politicians and “leaders” in general.

My guess is that most heads of state would qualify as psychopaths; how else could the administration of G.W. Bush rationalize torture for instance? Or a CEO cut the payroll to save costs while giving himself a raise?

If the data only applies to vocabulary used in describing murders, did they have a control group of “non psychopath” murderers describing their killings?

They used the words “I had to”, “because”, and “since” to describe the murders. (insert your own sarcastic metaphor for obviousness here.)

The food connection is the scary one. I just hope the internet police don’t start rounding up my foody friends.

I haven’t seen the data, and this is just a snippet, but from what I see, I think someone needs to watch less of “the mentalist.” And more time studying dialogic context when pulling out the natural language processing tools.

Wait… Although the article is behind a paywall, apparently they did use non psychopath homicide prisoners as a control.

So, I retract point one, but am not going to pay to retract points two and three.

Would be interesting to see this work correlated with the work done indicating that traders fit into a group below or near this group.

eddieo- you kill me !

“Our paper is the first to show that you can use automated tools to detect the distinct speech patterns of psychopaths”.
Well, that’s a pretty bold statement for a sample size of 14.

It’s amazing the crap that passes for science these days, especially in the soft sciences.

Was this a double blind experiment? If not it’s worthless.

Uh. I don’t want my speech analyzed because I had to say something when I was reading this while drinking a glass of room temperature water.

I think this is a significant finding. I’m not troubled by the small sample size. 14 is actually fairly good for this type of thing, especially if all of them did this. of course it’s not great in terms of statistical power, but in reality, if you notice that of the 14 psychopaths you have met, they all talked the same about their crime, you will infer that there is a great likelihood that this is a trait common among psychopaths in general. and that inference will be very likely correct. don’t get too caught up in rules of stats, they were just made up by some guys a while ago who were thinking about generalized scenarios.

joelr said: “I’m not troubled by the small sample size.”

Yeah, I’m kinda relieved by it, actually.

I’ll have to go with Timmy(“pretty bold statement for a sample size of 14″) and Bobby Jean (“was it double-blind?”) on opinion about this one. Also, what other controls did they use; did they control for other factors (including in their controls) that can affect language complexity, such as the socio-economic backgrounds, education, etc.. Especially with a sample size of 14 (and I don’t care if that is usual-it makes for crap science), factors such as these not controlled can render conclusions useless.
And as far as automated tools in the language of a psychopath? Be careful, because the generalized idea that “normals” use social language and psychopaths more concrete is likely to get a individual (not necessarily guilty) on the autism spectrum mistaken as a psychopath.

Given the extreme difficulty presented when attempting to diagnose an individual as a psychopath, this appears to be a small but significant step toward that goal. I have known two maybe three possible psychopaths myself and they are usually very intelligent and spend a lot of time observing other humans and mimicking their behavior, once they find out, usually as fairly young children, that their natural behavior does not elicit what they want. People often like them not realizing the havoc they create behind the scenes. It’s scary to realize how our genes make us who we are.

Yes I notice the way things were expressed. For instance if C got his stingly budget wrong he would say to me “I cannot pay the mortgage this month YOU WILL HAVE TO put X in my account”. Not please, or can you or anything else. ALWAYS and for every request YOU WILL HAVE TO.

This was essentially a word-frequency test, with the words being categorized into subject or topic, like “food” or causatory conjuctions like “since” or “because.” Nice, safe analysis.

What this study didn’t test for, because it would be more difficult or subjective perhaps, is the way that sociopaths’ talk reflects their peculiar mindsets.

For example, they typically arrange their thoughts according to rules, in my experience. Non-sociopaths are always shocked that sociopaths don’t operate by the same “social contracts” that we expect. But they have other rules of operation. Such as the need to “win,” however that is defined in any particular transaction. The need to either establish superiority/dominance/status or make note of it in their view of their surroundings. Their narrow focus or high determination in relationship to goals, and their assumption that anyone less focused or determined isn’t a competitor or even “real” in terms of being a sentient life form. Their goal-justifies-the-means orientation, not just in action but in judging happenings around them. Their assumption that everyone is out for themselves, and any social contract is merely a means to an individual end. Following this same general orientation, their sense of humor is triggered by other people’s pain and losses.

In dealing with a sociopath, it’s often a lot easier to identify the mindset by listening to the way s/he talks about other people and events, or treats third parties, than to try to “read” their dealings with you. Especially when the sociopath is attempting to pump you for information about yourself or groom you for exploitation.

In addition, they have certain emotions that they, sooner or later, show with a sincerity and fluid articulation that goes well beyond their comparatively robotic attempts to mask themselves with socially attractive attributes in order to fit in. These emotions include resentment, envy, disappointment, anger, boredom, irritation, dissatisfaction, vengefulness and all the possible permutations of feeling “ripped off” and justifying self-compensating behavior.

Finally, one of the best, but unfortunately most subjective ways to identify them, is by their eyes. The look in their eyes is either too eager and intense (especially in early probing or grooming phases), or like a wall that blocks any searching look. This “wall” is the more common affect, where the rest of the facial expression — smile, look of concern, whatever seems like a friendly or empathetic expressions — is just out of sync with the expression of the eyes and the surrounding musculature.

Being aware of any of this is probably less useful information if you’re dealing with a sociopath than just calibrating ourselves to awareness of being seduced, persuaded or pushed toward something we wouldn’t ordinarily do or want. Particularly if we’re being pressured to violate our usual standards or safeguards with some urgency by the other party. If the persuasion includes some sparkly lure dangled in front of us, or some criticism of our character if we don’t acquiesce, that’s all the more reason to suspect we’re dealing with a predator.

on food – he’d make outlandish concoctions with expired stuff instead of throwing it out. He’d fly into a rage when the easy over eggs he wanted for breakfast had a tiny crust trim (from the butter and heat) and he’d throw them out as inedible because I was incompetent to do simple tasks.
on money – there was more than enough for a Benz, booze, cigaretts, massages, drugs, girl-friends, boys, strippers, however, I had to bring my own toilet paper because I used the bathroom 3 times in one afternoon, while he went out and peed in the flower beds. He keeps finding married women narcissists who are building a financial (air) empire. They thrive on BS like that. The last one did a business plan for him that she copied and pasted off the internet. She made a point to add pictures of the owners being blond and professional – like her, and all brunetts like me, were goofy looking with glasses (like ugly betty) with a big word bubble sayin HUH? Don’t you dare reel them in if you value your life. Women are supply….
Sex – I have a hardon, bend over. If you don’t, they are entitled to a stripper who needs the money for college.
On a trip accross country he would not allow me to eat. When I finally insisted, he went outside for a smoke. He never came back. I had to make arrangements in the middle of the night to fly home.

I know I am going into details here. People like that need to be exposed just like sex offenders. His sister, mother and aunt are sociopaths. Seven years later I still have flashbacks and panick attacks.

I actually have a friend who has behavior similar to this….I don’t think he would ever kill anyone though. I hope not, anyway. But he certainly is very self-centered.

The look in their eyes is either too eager and intense (especially in early probing or grooming phases), or like a wall that blocks any searching look. This “wall” is the more common affect, where the rest of the facial expression.

All the comments, pro and con, make good points — regardless, I’m fascinated by the food connection. Is it a memory marker? For instance, the day he had oatmeal he killed Johnny, the day he had pizza he killed Suzie. Or, taste is one sense the psychopath can relate to? Or, eating/ingesting =devouring/killing?

These emotions include resentment, envy, disappointment, anger, boredom, irritation, dissatisfaction, vengefulness and all the possible permutations of feeling “ripped off” and justifying self-compensating behavior. http://www.medigym.com.au

I still can’t believe that you could read the mind of people by seeing the patterns of speech of people, it seems a bit unbelievable.

The last one did a business plan for him that she copied and pasted off the internet. She made a point to add pictures of the owners being blond and professional – like her, and all brunetts like me, were goofy looking with glasses (like ugly betty) with a big word bubble sayin HUH? Don’t you dare reel them in if you value your life. Women are supply….

I’ll have to go with Timmy(“pretty bold statement for a sample size of 14″) and Bobby Jean (“was it double-blind?”) on opinion about this one.

agree with u
I still can’t believe that you could read the mind of people by seeing the patterns of speech of people, it seems a bit unbelievable.

I still can’t believe that psychopaths can read your mind and know information related to you

My psychopath, almost ex, would write in the third person. For instance, “Tom was very tired that evening and did not speak to anyone.” “Tom drove the truck because everyone was so lazy he had to do the work himself.” etc. .