The Psychopath Next Door :: James Fallon | Big Think

The Psychopath Next Door
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Every day you're likely to meet a psychopath. Dr. James Fallon of UC Irvine explains what a psychopath is, how they work, and what they want from you -- and he ought to know (but you'll have to watch to find out why).
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JAMES FALLON:
James Fallon teaches neuroscience at the University of California Irvine, and through research explores the way genetic and in-utero environmental factors affect the way the brain gets built -- and then how individuals' experience further shapes its development. He lectures and writes on creativity, consciousness and culture, and has made key contributions to our understanding of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Only lately has Fallon turned his research toward the subject of psychopaths -- particularly those who kill. With PET scans and EEGs, he's beginning to uncover the deep, underlying traits that make people violent and murderous.
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TRANSCRIPT:
James Fallon: Go to a party with fifty people in it, there’s a psychopath, a full-blown psychopath there. There’s probably five borderline psychopaths there. They’re not going to kill you, rape you, or maybe even take your money, but they’re going to manipulate the situation, make you look bad, or use you in some way. Something bad is going to happen.

And if you sense that… people have a sense that something is wrong with somebody, you walk away,you don’t fight these guys, because they’re masters at manipulation. The psychopath, in its simplest form, is an intraspecies predator, is a predator on other humans. It is hard to look at the actual behavior of a psychopath and say that thing is psychopathic or not, because psychopaths will come to the rescue of people. “Can I help you up, ma’am?” They, they can see the outward behaviors, and they just can mimic it to get along. But fundamentally, they don’t feel it.

You know, some psychopathic traits and what goes along with it can be very advantageous. First of all you’re fearless. You walk into a room, you own everybody, and you look like you own everybody, and they let you own them because you have that aura around you, that charisma, that light. That’s why elect people president, because they have that light around them. Another thing is you’re not very susceptible to pain. Pain doesn’t bother me, and also when you’re caught doing something, you have no tells. You could be caught red handed, you know, having an affair with somebody, and you could say, ‘no that’s not me’, it’s like, are you going to believe me or your lying eyes. And so it’s this ability to lie, without any tells, because in fact it doesn’t cause any anxiety.

Two main areas of the brain of a psychopath that are not regulated correctly: orbital cortex and the amygdala. Orbital cortex is involved in inhibiting your behavior. Now, the amygdala, on the other hand, really causes behavior. And normally they’re in balance. They inhibit each other. Now, in a psychopath, they’re both turned off, so they don’t inhibit each other, and they don’t regulate it. So the normal balance of animal drives and your social interactions, your morality, are not right. It’s never right. I mean, there’s a time for aggression. There’s a time for killing, even. There’s a time for sex. And part of it is how the rest of the brain is able to tell your orbital cortex the social context is correct now. Psychopaths don’t have that.

They’re doing things completely out of context, out of social context, and that’s the problem. Usually the question is, what percent do you think is due to genetics, and what percent is due to environment? And it turns out not to be the great question to ask. Because it looks like the answer is, if you are born with the biological markers for psychopathy, for example, that is the genetics and the altered brain pattern, early on. If you are a susceptible kid, then environment means everything. It means a lot. Maybe eighty percent. Because those kids can be really thrown off track, and they can be helped by a good environment too. Back in the early 90s, some of my colleagues were studying these killers, real bad guys, some serial killers, nasty guys. And they asked me to come in to look at the brains. So I put myself and some other people in as normal. And I got to the last scan, and I looked at it, and it was like completely pathological.......

[MadHatter]

This is why I'm inherently distrustful of "charismatic" people; I don't want them to manipulate me.

[aaaatttt]

Whoever was interviewing him was slowly backing out the room in the final moments

[TheSpazModic]

Psychopaths aside, just spending time around someone who merely has very low empathy can be an eye-opener.  You could drop dead right in front of them, and they would be mostly concerned about how this might "inconvenience" them.

[BadgerBotherer]

I know someone who comes from a loving, two-parent family, is intelligent, well-educated, has had no childhood traumas, and has all the advantages of a well-to-do bourgeois upbringing. Yet, he has been manipulating and emotionally abusing me for his own sadistic pleasure for twenty years; he is devious, a pathological liar, cheats on his wife, and has virtually all the other traits (except violence) typically associated with psychopathy. He is a former social worker and vicar, and now a pastor (all jobs that give him access to vulnerable people whom he can manipulate for his own pleasure), and so is able to hide behind a veneer of public respectability. It is pretty obvious that this person's psychopathy is not caused by childhood trauma, but that he was born that way, and therefore can probably never be 'cured'. It is quite frightening to think that these 'intra-species predators' walk among us, hiding behind their 'mask of sanity'. Fallon is not a psychopath, although he may have some of the traits. You will know a true psychopath when you've met one, although the trouble is it may take several years to unmask them, but which time they have done their damage.

[LeeboProductions]

If it's advantageous to be nice - a psychopath will be nice. Simple. I have high empathy, bipolar, and GAD, and sometimes I wish I were a psychopath. Must be nice not caring what other people think.

[writerconsidered]

The interview was cut off at the most important part. his friends and family tell him point blank your a narcissistic bully.
Now he knows the truth!!! What did he do with that information???

[TheDenverOmelette]

Wow... Idk why I'm so moved and don't know how to feel about him admitting to his psychopathy at the end.

[G_G]

"Psychopaths dominate the halls of power in both the United States and throughout the world. The current economic, political, military and legal system breeds psychopaths, rewarding psychopathic behavior and punishing those with conscience and integrity. Psychopaths will naturally be drawn to and converge at the apex of the power pyramid as much from their own drive for ambitious power as the hierarchical system that both requires and reinforces those who can comfortably operate without conscience, guilt or any genuine level of empathy toward others."

"Most people think of a psychopath as a rare creature found only in the lowest levels of society. However, the reverse is true. They are not rare, but actually quite common, and you are more likely to find psychopaths in the boardroom than on the wrong side of the tracks. The reason is that the more competitive a particular environment is, the more ruthless the use of the Cheating Strategy becomes. Within the highest circles of power and wealth, a lack of pity and remorse is practically a prerequisite to success, and only the psychopathic mentality can thrive." (from "Defense Against The Psychopath")

[haxhole]

I just realised my friend is a psychopath...

[GAMRMJ]

very good video, I'm quite interested in psychopaths and their behaviour, and I'm always intrigued by individuals diagnosed as being psychopathic, but do not go down the 'killing', 'Violent' path in their lives

[DrWarman]

I hold some psychopathic traits but they could also be seen as borderline autistic traits as well go figure. Some things just are not in my line of sight until it's to late . Such as I sometimes lack empathy because it just does not cross my mind at the time.

[thelastofthebrohicans]

I’m not a neurologist. But I’ve been researching personality disorders for quite awhile. Isn’t it safe to say that the amount of psychopathic traits in an individual, rest along a spectrum? Couldn’t the amygdala be deadened a bit, instead of remaining fully inactive.

Even if that’s not possible, with each interaction I’ve had socially. Empathy levels fluctuate within each individual. Be it nature, or by nurture.

[yoontiddies]

3:16 I don’t know how many of you watch this in 2020, but definetly red is the impostor. Red is always the impostor

[Mariomario-gtoy]

I've actually seen a documentary of him during my studying in neuroscience. pretty interesting

[fishypaw]

I'm pretty sure I'm 'borderline' but I've been told I have too much empathy to be full blown. I have met at least one true psychopath. They were an Incredibly charming person but you didn't want to get in their bad books. They are currently serving life in prison for murder. It's interesting and slightly worrying to think that it only takes a room of fifty people to almost guarantee that there's a psychopath present.

[brentmacdonald]

I am a musician. You rarely find psychopaths in entertainment unless they are behind the scenes. There is well documented evidence psychopaths lack creativity bc they lack emotional empathy. How can one sing or play with feeling if they have no true feelings, eh? Reading the comments before I wrote this, I noticed that I seem to be one of the few commenters proud to have no psychopathic tenancies at all. Strange, that.

[ericnolle]

So you walk into a room and you own it. You get people to do what you want them to do. Sounds pretty good actually.

[codediporpal]

1:50 what do you mean not regulated "correctly"?!? Why does every human trait outside the mean get labeled as "incorrect" or a "disorder"?

It's quite likely psychopathic traits are in the gene pool for a very good reason, just like autistic spectrum traits, conservative/liberal (individual/collectivist) inclinations, etc, or there is an interplay with the environment that will bring out the traits in some people.

[anaibarangan]

Whatever could be harmful effects on my life, gets cleared out next door to me. Of course I was seeing or finding out about it.

[jtburney]

Does the amount of empathy you show to other people decline if you are tired?