Psychopathic types

I published a post a while ago where I asked people to take a psychopathy test on the internet and to send me their results and MBTI personality type. The respond has been amazing; 422 persons sent me their answers, and here are the results:

The test that was used in this survey consists of 27 statements, which you answer to by checking how much you feel each question applies to you on a scale that varies from “disagree” to “neutral” to “agree”. After finishing the test you receive two scores that shows where you landed on the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), which is basically a scale on how psychopathic you are on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high). The first score is where you landed on the Primary Psychopathy scale, which consists the interpersonal and affective aspect of psychopathy. The second score is where you landed on the Secondary Psychopathy scale, which consists the social deviance aspect of psychopathy. (Link to test)

Here is a chart of how the average person from each type scored based on the answers I received:

ENTP 33

INTP 61

ENTJ 10

INTJ 84

ENFP 17

INFP 52

ENFJ 9

INFJ 82

ESTP 12

ISTP 13

ESFP* 2

ISFP 13

ESTJ 6

ISTJ 16

ESFJ 3

ISFJ 9

PP= Primary Psychopathy

SP= Secondary Psychopathy

*Because of few responds from ESFPs, the statistics for this type are very uncertain.

So what is a psychopath?

A psychopath is a person with antisocial personality disorder (APD). Common traits for psychopaths are:

◦ An inability to possess feelings of regret and remorse

◦ A disregard for rules and norms

◦ A disregard for other people´s rights

◦ Tendencies to display violent behavior

Psychopaths are persons who do not have a moral compass like healthy persons do, and they do often have other personality disorders in addition linked to APD such as narcissism and sadism. Tendencies like torturing animals, bullying, using deception, and irresponsibility is often early signs at psychopathy, and they usually start showing when the person is around 15 years, but they can emerge even earlier.

This test divides between the terms primary and secondary psychopath, and this is what we often call “psychopath” and “sociopath” in popular culture. Primary psychopathy is what most people would call the “original” psychopath. Description of primary psychopaths: “Primary psychopathy is the affective aspects of psychopathy; a lack of empathy for other people and tolerance for antisocial orientations.” This is our Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. They do often have a normal life, a family and a steady job, but all this is a part of a social mask they put on for others to hide their personality. They go under the interpersonal aspect of psychopathy, as earlier mentioned, and this is because they are very careful about showing their true self. To keep their social mask on, they do often find a victim, like a partner or a coworker, to control and mentally torture in private.

Secondary psychopath is the sociopathic type. Description of secondary psychopaths: “Secondary psychopathy is the antisocial aspects of psychopathy; rule breaking and a lack of effort towards socially rewarded behavior”. Sociopaths are more spontaneous and impulsive than the “original” psychopath, and do often live on the edge on society with criminal records. This is our Alex from A Clockwork Orange, the Heath Ledger´s Joker, and Jim Moriarity from BBC´s Sherlock. They are not as concerned to keep their mask on, and do often display antisocial behavior. Sociopaths can form bonds with a few persons or to a group they want to protect because their psychopathic behavior is focused towards society.

Most psychologists today do not divide the terms sociopath and psychopath anymore because a lot of people with APS show tendencies from both types, and they are caused by the same problem. The only places where they still divide between these terms are in prisons, due to different behavior.

Most people have some psychopathic tendencies, but it´s different how many and how strong they are from person to person. APD is a mental illness, which has no known way to cure, and to label someone with this mental illness takes a bit more than asking them to take an internet test.

About the results:

Highest rating:

An ESTP was placed on 4,9 and 4,9 on both the primary and secondary scale

Lowest rating:

Both an INFJ, who was placed on 1,3 on the primary and 1,1 on the secondary scale, and an INTP who got 1 on the primary and 1,4 on the secondary scale.

ENTPs are known to be the most sociopathic type, which this something these statistics confirm.

You may have noticed the types have different colors that indicate which temperament they belong to. When you look at how the types inside each temperament, they are spread out a lot on the diagram.

Instead you can spot a clear connection between the types who shares the same rational function placed either as their dominant or auxiliary function. So I made a chart for the how the average TP, FP, TJ, and FJ scored:

(ESFPs scores not included)

It came as a bit surprising at first to me, but it is actually very logical. Both the FPs and the TPs were placed higher on the secondary psychopath scale than the Js. Perceivers are the most spontaneous types due to their Se/Ne, and are likeliest to take spontaneous decisions. Judgers on the other hand are more organized and are more likely to come up with one plan and stick to it. TJs scored the highest on the primary psychopath scale, and this is most likely due to their Te. Te is more about controlling and organizing the environment around itself, and down in the left corner you find the FJs - the least psychopathic types. Their dominant or auxiliary function is Fe, which often makes these types the most empathic in the sense of caring for other people feelings, which is the exact opposite of psychopathic behavior.

The test

I have also received some feedback about the test. Some people complained about the statements you were asked to answer being unclear and difficult to understand, and I agree that the test was not the best. Questions like “When I get frustrated, I often “let off steam” by blowing my top.“ and ”I make a point of trying not to hurt others in pursuit of my goals.“ can be interpreted in a lot of different ways, and this is why it was important that I received a lot of answers from each type, so the inaccuracies did not affect the results too much. And this is an free internet test, so it´s expected to not be the best.

How many psychopaths answered?

It is estimated that the percentage psychopaths in the US population is between 1%-4% (fun fact: That means it is more likely to be a psychopath than an INFJ or INTJ). Most psychopaths are high functioning and manage to live a normal life. “Not all psychopaths are killers, but most killers are psychopaths” - M.E. Thomas (author of Confession Of A Sociopath). So I decided to how many persons (in percentages) got abnormal high and low results compared to the rest. I chose two limits; an upper and a lower, based on what most people answered. The lower limit was scores from and under 1.5, and the upper limit was 4 or higher.

How many who scored abnormally low: 09.4%

How many scored abnormally high: 10.4%

So how many psychopaths answered? Probably none. I received some messages where they were a bit concerned because they scored high on one of the scales, but none of you should worry. Firstly, this was a random internet test, and secondly (and most important): this is Tumblr. You would need to search for a long time before finding a real psychopath.