Research,  Serial Killers

10 Building Blocks of a Psychopath

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The long-standing debate, Nature vs. Nurture, will never be settled. Both sides have valid arguments whether a serial killer is “born bad” or created by their environment. In this post, let’s look at 10 building blocks of a psychopath. Then we’ll discuss the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath. Contrary to popular belief, they’re different conditions.

Unzipped Brain

Low level activity in the prefrontal cortex, damage or malformations in the frontal lobe, and/or a small amygdala — the portion of the brain that deals with empathy and compassion — has a direct correlation to psychopaths.

The brain scan of many psychopaths show cavum septum pellucidum. Basically, that means the central part of the brain doesn’t have a complete closure. Which indicates a disruption of normal brain development.

When impairment or underdevelopment occurs in the amygdala, the result is often a psychopath. The central nucleus, where the right and left amygdala reside, plays a strong role in classic conditioning. If someone’s brain is left unzipped, so to speak, they show low levels of fear, attention deficit, violent temper, and may grow up to be a neglectful parent or abusive alcoholic. Neural brain deformities can also be genetic.

Hippocampus Abnormalities

The noradrenergic (also called noradrenaline or norepinephrine) system originates in the brain stem structures — located in the medulla — and projects to the forebrain, including the neocortex and hippocampus. This ventral bundle deals with the visceral parts of the brain, which involve emotion. In laymen’s terms, the noradrenaline system is responsible for arousal. See how a deficit in this area can help create a psychopath?

An asymmetric hippocampus is also common in both successful (uncaught) and unsuccessful (arrested) psychopaths. Hippocampal asymmetries in unsuccessful psychopaths may reflect an underlying neurodevelopmental abnormality that disrupts hippocampal-prefrontal circuitry, resulting in poor contextual fear conditioning and insensitivity to cues that predict capture. The hippocampus regulates emotion and helps us learn traits that make up our conscience. Psychopaths lack these areas.

Sweat Rate

It sounds weird, but science can now determine the sweat rate of psychopaths. A Galvanic skin reaction measures the electric resistance of the skin in certain regions of the body. When a “normal” person gets nervous, emotional sweat seeps out certain pores. For example, sweaty palms while nervous. This is different than sweating due to hot temperatures.

A psychopath, however, has no Galvanic skin reaction. Which explains how psychopaths beat polygraph exams.

Respiration Rate

Respiration rate is also affected by emotional stimuli. In “normal” people, respiration becomes more rapid and shallow while nervous. Not true for psychopaths. They experience little-to-no change in respiration rate. Even when they’re forewarned of a stressful situation by way of a flashing light or startling noise in a controlled setting, almost no change occurs.

Heart Rate

Neuroscience linked a low-resting heartbeat to psychopaths. The penchant to commit violent acts could be as simple as boredom. It takes a great deal of danger to stimulate someone with a low-resting heartbeat. A serial killer with a low-resting heartbeat could torture a woman for hours and never break a sweat. A true psychopath can viciously murder their victim, then go out for pizza as though nothing unusual happened that evening. A low-resting heart rate often equals a lack of fear.

Prenatal Exposure

Prenatal exposure to nicotine disrupts the development of the noradrenergic neurotransmitter system. When this happens, the sympathetic nervous system shuts down. The result is an under-aroused, stimulation-seeking, budding psychopath. Obviously, I’m not claiming that every child born to a mother who smoked during pregnancy will become a psychopath. If that were true, the baby boomer generation would all be psychopaths, including me. But them’s the facts, Jack. 😉

Alcohol is even worse. When an expectant mother drinks, alcohol ravages the brain during fetal development. The result is a budding psychopath with poor executive functions, an inability to learn, cranial deformities, and a host of other problems.

Chronic Dry Lips

I know what you’re thinking: Aren’t you reaching on this one, Sue? Actually, no. Chronic dry lips indicate a vitamin B12 deficiency. Believe it or not, there’s a link between vitamin B12 deficiency and psychopaths. Again, this fact alone won’t make you a murderous psychopath, but it’s another box to check while figuring out whether or not you should date that cute guy or girl.

When I first stumbled across this anomaly, Jeffrey Dahmer sprang to mind. Something about his ruby red lips always freaked me out. Now I know why.

Porn

I’m not talking about you and your lover slipping a DVD into the player to spice up your Saturday night. No. When a child of developmental age watches lots of porn that involves bondage, torture, necrophilia, bestiality, or other sadistic rituals, such as snuff films, they develop the inability to become aroused without it. It’s one more building block in creating a psychopath.

Child Abuse

Not every abuse victim becomes violent. However, when a child is emotionally, physically, or sexually abused, and they already have an unstable constitution due to a deadly cocktail of any of the above, then the result may be a murderous psychopath. In this case, the victims often resemble the abuser.

Pathological Liar

As I mentioned earlier, psychopaths are fantastic liars. Even when caught in a lie, they can reason it away. A scientific study suggests that psychopaths had 26% more white matter compared to anti-social, non-liars, and 22% more than “normal” people. Pathological liars also had 14% less gray matter. White matter is the nerve fibers or “axons” that connect nerve cells or neurons to each other. Having more white matter makes people better at lying, which involves manipulation, forethought, and multi-tasking.

Psychopath vs. Sociopath

Psychopaths and sociopaths aren’t created equal. One of the best explanations of the differences between a psychopath and a sociopath is taken from the Behavioral Science Consultancy blog, SDL, which states:

A sociopath is someone who is affected with a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior. A psychopath is a person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

David Lykken’s studies revealed that psychopaths are born with temperamental differences that lead them to being risk seekers, impulsive, fearless as well as not being able to socialize normally. Sociopaths have normal temperaments, and their personality disorder tends to affect their lives regarding parenting, peers, and their intelligence.

Both psychopaths and sociopaths present risks to society, but psychopaths are generally more dangerous, because they experience a lot less guilt. A psychopath also has a greater ability to dissociate from their actions. Without emotion, their victims’ suffering is meaningless. Many famous serial killers have been psychopaths. In addition to the ones I’ve included in images, add Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, to name a few.

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs on the Kill Zone (Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers"), Writers Helping Writers, and StoryEmpire. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-9 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. When she's not writing, she loves spending time with her murder of crows, who live free but come when called by name. And nature feeds her soul.

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46 Comments

  • MJ Payne

    September 17, 2018 at 6:13 PM

    One of the very best blogs I have read on this subject matter. After posting news stories about child abuse and abusers for four plus years I have looked at so many faces of people who are psychopaths, sociopaths, drug abusers, and the faces are almost haunting. My father was a psychopath and he had what I believe they call a “swiss cheese conscience”. Once he brought home a wounded gopher, named it and nursed it to health. Unfortunately half the things he did to me I don’t even remember. Or fortunately. He and his brother were both psychopaths. They both abused all the family children. He left me a legacy of distrust and terror. The abuse damaged my nervous system and neurotransmitters so I have a lot of panic attacks. My grandmother on his side of the family was a sadist and I remember the small smile on her face whenever she did something mean in the name of the “good”. She raised two pedophiles. My mother asked my dad’s psychiatrist to help us get away and he said “no way, I’m just getting to the place where I can sleep at night again.” Naturally this blog is of great interest to me. I think there are many female psychopaths that do things of great damage to infants and very young kids and are never caught. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world….” People are fascinated by people with no conscience or a damaged one. The thing is to develop a sixth sense and listen to it. Psychopaths can fool almost anyone. Great post Sue as always.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 18, 2018 at 8:18 AM

      Thank you, MJ! I’m so sorry to hear about your family. It could not have been easy growing up in that environment. Thanks for sharing your story. *hugs*

      You’re spot-on. Psychopaths can fool almost anyone. They’re masters of deceit. And yes! Women are not immune. Some female psychopaths can be even more cunning than their male counterparts.

  • Vivienne Sang

    September 16, 2018 at 11:43 AM

    Disturbing and fascinating. Some people with psychopathic tendencies can become successful, though. Highly successful people such as doctors, CEOs, sales people, lawyers etc. often have psychopathic traits in their personalities. It seems to me that it’s a case of when the personality traits meet with these other factors you mention that we get people with a criminal tendency.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 16, 2018 at 11:55 AM

      Very true, Vivienne. All psychopaths are not criminals. I agree! The deadly cocktail of psychopathic traits mixed with an abusive environment seems the most likely cause in creating a murderous monster.

  • Lindsey Russell

    September 16, 2018 at 9:03 AM

    Very informative. But the pathological liar para had me scratching my head. We (writers) may not lie in real life but aren’t we pathological liars when writing fiction and on a scale far in excess of psychopaths – or does this ability not show up a ‘white matter’?
    🙂

  • Tuttle N. Texas

    September 12, 2018 at 10:02 PM

    I listened to an NPR report on child-psychopaths and efforts to rehabilitate them. They discussed much of the neurological findings you cite. It is frightening to consider. Thanks for sharing this.

  • Harry Husted

    September 11, 2018 at 4:04 PM

    Hi Sue,
    Great post. I believe that people are born sociopaths and psychopaths. I studied human behavior and the brain for years. I even wrote a book on the brain. I know pretty much how it works. I agree that people can be born with brains that don’t mature or develop properly. This is especially true if the mother is an alcoholic or drug addict.
    Either way, it is sad that people have to live with such conditions.
    The good thing is that it gives us writers many ideas for book and scripts.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 12, 2018 at 6:13 AM

      Hi, Harry! You seem firm that nature is always to blame. Interesting. I doubt this debate will ever be resolved.

      Indeed! These conditions do give writers lots of ideas. 😉

      • Harry Husted

        September 17, 2018 at 12:57 PM

        Actually, Sue, nature is not always to blame. I was just pointing out that in many cases, sociopaths and psychopaths were born that way. However, I do know cases of where people were turned into sociopaths or psychopaths, by brainwashing, or indoctrination. So, such a condition can occur either way or both.

  • Paul Dale Anderson

    September 10, 2018 at 1:39 PM

    The human brain, plastic throughout the life cycle, is constantly being shaped and reshaped by experiences (interactions with the environment). But physical abnormalities, often genetic but also caused or exacerbated by chemicals or dietary influences, affect the brain’s ability to create or utilize appropriate neural pathways. Nature can inhibit nurture. Cognitive neuroscience is fascinating stuff.

  • Brenda Watterson

    September 10, 2018 at 12:47 PM

    Terrifying stuff. I’ve never really understood the difference between a psychopath and sociopath. Thanks for the in depth research. Always fascinating!

    • Sue Coletta

      September 10, 2018 at 2:16 PM

      It’s a common misconception, Brenda. The media often lumps psychopaths and sociopaths into the same category, so it’s only natural for others to do the same. Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂

  • Garry Rodgers

    September 10, 2018 at 12:24 PM

    Great stuff, as usual, Sue. I think you really nailed the physiological side of psychopaths. You make an interesting point about some psychopaths being able to “pass/beat” a polygraph test. I have some first-hand experience with that (no, I’m not a psycho who passed a pg exam 🙂 Rather, I witnessed a polygraph exam where a later-convicted guy failed to register any deceptive symptoms. The examiner called it at the time, saying he thought the reason for failing to trigger the charts was because the subject was a psychopath.

    Polygraphs work by monitoring non-controllable body function responses to stressful emotional stimuli like specially formulated questions aimed at knowledge, guilt and remorse. Like you said, it’s subconscious functions like heart rate, respiration, perspiration and galvanic skin conduction. I think you’re 100% right about the brain dysfunction.

    Speaking of dysfunctional people, someday I’ll tell you about a cop I worked with who we called “Psycho Nick”. He’s now doing life for murdering his wife, and he’s a viable suspect in several unsolved homicides.

  • Mae Clair

    September 10, 2018 at 10:51 AM

    Scary stuff. I often wondered if people can be “born bad” or if environment makes them that way. I always believed the latter, but clearly that’s not always the case.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 10, 2018 at 11:29 AM

      I do believe that some children are “born bad,” that no amount of love and attention can change that fact due to their brain deficiencies and/or deformations. It must be frightening for the parents.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 10, 2018 at 10:15 AM

      My pleasure, Elsa. The media has a lot to do with psychopath and sociopath becoming interchangeable words, but there are important differences between the two. Psychology Today has a few posts on the subjects, if you’re interested in learning more.

  • John Grant

    September 10, 2018 at 8:30 AM

    A most interesting and useful post — many thanks! One qualm:

    An asymmetric hippocampus is also common in both successful (uncaught) and unsuccessful (arrested) psychopaths.

    How can they tell if it’s common in the ones they haven’t caught?

    • Sue Coletta

      September 10, 2018 at 10:20 AM

      I had the same question, John. Apparently, the successful psychopaths were still in the community and volunteered for the study. Which is textbook psychopathic behavior. Their egos would compel them to come forward, as long as they could take the test in a way that wouldn’t “out” them.

  • Margot Kinberg

    September 10, 2018 at 7:49 AM

    Oh, this is really fascinating, Sue! What I find especially interesting is the blend of ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ that makes up the psychopath’s profile. It shows (at least to me) that people are a lot more complicated than we may seem at the surface.

    • Sue Coletta

      September 10, 2018 at 10:28 AM

      You nailed it, Margot. The deeper I dig into psychopaths, the more fascinated I become. Some psychopaths are successful in business and moderately well-adjusted in life. Take that same individual as a child and add a volatile environment, and the end result could be a lethal killing machine. The right mixture of nature vs. nurture seems key, IMO.