Explaining the Empathy Switch in Psychopaths

Are psychopaths' brains hardwired to be emotionless? SourceFed's Lee Newton joins Anthony to talk about a new study that show how they might have the ability to feel empathy after all.

Read More:
Psychopathic criminals have empathy switch
"Psychopaths do not lack empathy, rather they can switch it on at will, according to new research."

Reduced spontaneous but relatively normal deliberate vicarious representations in psychopathy
"Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with a profound lack of empathy."

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[DrexisEbon]

The kind of empathy that they can turn on is called intellectual empathy. They were asked to see if they can imagine how the people portrayed felt, not if they could try to feel the emotions that the person they were witnessing was feeling and imagine it at the same time. This study actually showed that mirror neurons are not the cause of the shared emotional component of empathy, but rather the understanding how the other person feels. Psychopaths and sociopaths are actually quite adept at manipulating the emotions of others because their judgement about what others are feeling is not clouded by actually feeling the emotions of the other person, leaving them more able to focus on understanding why that person feels as they do. However, since the tendency to even bother with this whole process is not natural for Psychopaths, it is in fact possible to train them to experience the thought of consideration for the feelings of others, but it will never be possible to make them feel the feelings of others. So, I am writing this to say that you almost represented the related studies that you reported on, but to you misconstrued several points leading to the false conclusion that psychopathy is a choice and that they are just jerks. Rather, they are born that way and incited to maladaptive behavior when encountering a twisted world that simply doesn't accept their innate inability to feel others emotions due to a biological handicap. Then again, Psychopaths tend to do very well for themselves in business and leadership positions, so maybe it isn't much of a handicap and more of a performance enhancement. Debate away.

[thefancyagenda]

That's a pretty small number of participants for a study.

[blaow]

Haha, psychopaths have cognitive empathy, not emotional empathy. People need to learn how to differentiate between the two.

[joshuaperry]

"Psychopaths don't lack empathy."

"Psychopaths can access those emotions just fine, they just need to be trained to."

So I guess I don't lack a PhD, I just haven't gotten one yet...thanks for the clarification.

[knowthetruth]

Dexters just a single dad, trying his best. TRUTH!

[Lucien-iz]

I remember some guy saying "if a child was hurt most people would hear the scream of the mum but be staring at the child to see if he is okay, a psychopath will be staring at the mum's face in order to better help understand the emotional responses of such a situation" meaning most people already know how to react emotionally to certain situations but psychopaths are constantly learning how to react to those situations so they can implement those responses in their everyday lives in order to feel normal.
It's called cognitive empathy and it's a learnt empathy that uses logic to understand empathy instead of a gut feeling.
Ofcourse Psychopaths can switch it on and off because if they aren't cognitively (through logic) producing empathetic responses, they aren't experiencing empathy. In short if they aren't thinking about empathy, they can't experiance empathy.

[TheSailenc]

Spock could be considered a psychopath.
P.S - not all psychopath are jerks or murderers.

[DianaPham]

I've suppressed my emotions throughout my childhood to the point were I do it subconsciously and have to make an effort to feel. I consider myself a 'controlled' sociopath, and I don't actually want to wipe out the human race, so this is a good thing. I can make logical decisions, and only feel emotions when they become useful for my own happiness or people I want to protect.

[anonymoussegion]

I was going to post my personal experiences but nobody would take me seriously based on the comments I've read here. I won't bother wasting my time on a majority of ignorant fools.

[heathers]

Observing 26 people may be useful in sparking more studies. However, it seems premature, possibly irresponsible, to relate it as groundbreaking proof. The presentation smacks of sensationalism, at least at first. Too bad. Feels unnerving and distracting.

[mynamewhatis]

I've always seen myself as detrimentally empathic. As a kid realizing this I would try to train myself to shut it off. I would try and watch gore all the way through without flinching and not to care about emotions. I think it did help a bit, but it was like trying to be something you are not. But I think in the end I'm glad I thought this way even though I don't anymore because it's given me a lot of insight.

[setoman]

More interestingly, can we train normal people to turn their empathy OFF? :D

[Michelle-iqyp]

OK, that explains things, I am psychopath, And I have always confused when people say I lack empathy, Times when I do feel empathy is when I choose to and that always confused me. people say I don’t have empathy but yet here I am with empathy that is automatic, and that is due to the fact that I have been practicing it, now empathy comes to me like everyone else, but unlike everyone else I can turn it off when I want to, and it won’t come back unless I want to. :)
[edit] oh, I decided to learn empathy because I was curious, that’s all.
Btw: it’s gotten to the point where I just stopped saying I’m psychopath (there’s this reaction when people find out you’re a psychopath, and it’s really annoying.) and just tell people that I can’t feel emotions properly, it’s not that I care, it’s just really annoying when something happens and they have to explain an emotion to me. I said I can’t feel it probably, I didn’t say I didn’t know what it was. >:[

[chuckecheese]

I have ASPD, and basically I can understand that someone is upset, I know what made them upset, I know why they're upset, but I just don't feel much empathy. I can be like "damn, that sucks" but I don't feel anything about the situation.

[MrTooEarnestOnline]

This study says a lot more about our society than anything. Think about how many societal horrors we choose to be okay with because it’s normal to not care: wars, poverty, etc. I think we all lie on that psychopathic spectrum.

[bboyization]

I think its a learned skill they developed in childhood and adolescence. ! in 10 people suffer from it. So making it such a dirty word and treating them like they are martians dont help their situation much. Only shows them why they turn that switch off in the first place. We are talking about someone who as a child found a way to cope with abandonment, abuse, alienation, trauma and just a hard life. Most arent violent and are capable of jumpping in front of a bus to push someone out the way.

[tiko]

I always knew they didnt lack empathy. Simple analogy.

[NoWay]

I defy anyone to give me an example where emotionality causes better decision making.   Just because the majority of people have excessive empathy doesn't make it desirable.   Are people fair to each other? that is the question we should ask not whether their mirror neurons fire in the same way as everyone else's.

[fantasyfanatic]

It is true you can switch what you want to feel. Like sometimes you can kind of amplify how you feel certain emotions or things

[xkiruiy]

why am i so interested in psychopaths? it's worrying