How To Tell If You’re A Psychopath With This Simple Test

Would you push one person in front of a train to save a larger group of different people? If you answer yes, then you may be a psychopath. The key difference between a psychopath and average person's brain is their ability to make a decision in a personal dilemma. The emotional part of a psychopath's brain has a neural curfew which limits them from thinking twice about ending one person's life to save others.

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[katyhernandez]

If a key characteristic of a psychopath is their lack of responsibility and empathy, why would they even bother to intervene in this situation in the first place?

[sadgiraffe]

If someone is fat enough to stop a train, they're too fat for me to push off a bridge and is probably too heavy to be on a typical bridge to begin with.

[keanu]

I’m not strong enough to push someone off a bridge let alone a larger person even if I were a psychopath.

[Momma_Chai]

Just because I'd PUSH THE MAN doesn't mean I'd be happy about it 😂

[jawofajackass]

Who else said hell no because they thought the 5 people under the Bridge put themselves in that position and its not the big dudes fault that they were that stupid

[NotHPotter]

This question is so contrived it makes it hard to suspend disbelief enough to be taken seriously.

[mikew.]

I would be worried about being charged for a murder. If it was just the moral implications, I would push … but the thought of the 5 people seeing me push him, and the thought that it may not even work.

[TheFriendlyPsychopath]

As someone diagnosed with primary psychopathy personally I wouldn’t give a sh*t what happens to any of them, there’s nothing that benefits me out of the situation but watching what happens.

[scunge]

This is entirely wrong and completely stupid.

EDIT: I wrote this comment as an arrogant kid and left no explanation. Here's my reasoning, 3 years later:

If a non-psychopath chooses to push the man they will feel awful afterwards. However, that doesn't mean you cannot push the man without being a psychopath. Some people may believe it to be the objectively right thing to do, an may still choose to act in this way, regardless of how sad and guilty they'd feel after committing the act.

In my opinion, once you are a part of the situation, it is your responsibility to act for the greater good. You cannot expect to be able to suddenly opt out of the situation and take no blame for the outcome. It is up to you to make the right choice as YOU have the power to do so. Hiding from responsibility when you think you should be acting for the greater good doesn't make you definitely NOT a psychopath, it makes you indecisive. Acting doesn't automatically make you a psychopath (although a psychopath is still probably still more likely to act), it means you are doing what you believe to be the right choice. What IS the right choice is another debate, and if you make what you truly think is the right choice then that's all you can do. In my opinion, of course.

You can push the man without being a psychopath, and to say otherwise is extreme tunnel vision.

[ivo]

Why would the psychopath even care to contemplate saving the 5 people in example two?

[davidgriffiths]

Notice that the test also shows that the psychopath would have saved four people. This fact should not be lightly dismissed. The psychopath would have served a socially useful purpose in survival terms, though most of us find it repugnant and would not bring ourselves to push the guy off the bridge. The psychopath would have been a useful guy in an evolutionary context, and there is a reason why they are born as a predictable ratio.
Also there are seemingly plenty of psychopaths working in universities and as surgeons etc who reportedly do a great job. They are potentially dangerous but then aren’t we all? Stupidity is extremely widespread and dangerous in the hands of criminally minded political system and media.

[hamesjargreaves]

Anybody else come here for reconfirmation?

[visibleconfusion]

what would happen instead is you would push the guy, no match for a fast speeding train it will kill him and the other 5 people and you go to jail

[hexagon-nebulous]

I would if laws didnt arrest me for a murder. That's 80% net gain. And it's huge.

[spiderjerusalem]

Wait,

why would psycopath care about the 5 people though?

[zindhuzanjo]

It's not the person who pushed the large human a psycho, it's the person who tied the 5 people on the tracks

[henzzz_]

I'd probably gonna ignore that scenario and wait until someone deals with it

[tonibalogun]

Honestly, I won’t freaking care. I’d just go over the five people and pretend I didn’t notice.

[_Bit]

This isn't much of a psychopath test than a ethical dilemma question which is usually used in court studies and what not.

[mojo]

What if you cant push him cause youre too small in comparison so you just let the scenario happen as it should?