In a new podcast episode, a scholar examines the science and myths around psychopathy tests—and their impact on the criminal justice system.
Few ideas have gripped the public imagination quite like the idea of the “psychopath.” From Hollywood thrillers to true-crime podcasts, popular culture has led us to believe that psychopaths are dangerous and biologically distinct from the rest of us.
But what if almost everything we think we know about them is wrong?
In this episode of the Big Brains podcast, Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen, an assistant professor of forensic epistemology at the University of Toronto and author of Psychopathy Unmasked (MIT Press, 2025), whose research is challenging the very foundation of psychopathy as a diagnosis.
Larsen explains how the term “psychopath” is relatively new, dating to the Ted Bundy trial in the 1970s, and how TVs and movies have skewed our understanding of the “psychopath.” He discusses psychopathy tests, their impact on the criminal justice system—and what the latest science reveals about the minds we’ve long misunderstood.
Source: University of Chicago
