Pieter Hintjens - The Psychopath Code - Cracking the Predators That Stalk Us

Mallory belongs to no tribe, and does not feel the tribal emotions. He can do a perfect imitation, within the limits we’ve already discussed. His act has several weaknesses that you can learn to see:

❂ For those emotions triggered by others' behavior, Mallory is blind and often does not react at all. For example, he feels no fear when confronted with a physical threat. If he does display such an emotion, the timing and strength will be wrong.

❂ For those emotions triggered by one’s own behavior, Mallory reacts the wrong way. So, we get the classic "anti-social" behavior. In a situation where Bob or Alice would feel jealousy , he shows nothing. Or, he shows a different emotion, such as anger or self-pity .

❂ For those cases where he has an innate response from his emotional palette, it is extreme. It goes from zero to 100% with no build-up. Then it switches off again, with no drop-off. You will see this most often with displays of fury . You also see it with his masks.

❂ For those emotions triggered by empathy, Mallory does not respond in the "right" way. He does not show disgust when eating something bad. He just spits it out and throws it away. He does not respond to disgust with his own disgust face. He just stops eating. Again, if he learns to mimic, timing and volume will be "wrong."

This dynamic can be confusing for anyone trying to establish normality with Mallory. In situations where he should be acting jealous, he shows nothing. Then, in minor and unremarkable situations, he will explode in a violent fit of fury . Seen from Alice or Bob’s side, this is incomprehensible. For Mallory it’s logical. He does not seek attention from his prey, any more than you seek attention from your lunch. Yet if he sees his lunch trying to sneak away, he attacks it with teeth and claws.

Around three million years ago, we began to evolve the emotions that accomodate arbitrary relationships. This happened before the development of spoken language. These emotions let us work with an unlimited number of people, and to build social networks that stretch over time and space:

❂ Like - the emotion of a positive relationship. In Attack and Capture I explained how social accounting works. When you like someone, you feel happy in their presence, or when you think of them. This shows in the usual ways: wide eyes and open pupils, smiles, open body language, shining face. This emotion is all about display, to the person involved, and to third parties. There is some empathic response. Thus we tend to like people who are happy, as they seem to like us. Yet most of the time we base our response off our internal accounting.

❂ Dislike - the emotion of a negative relationship. When you are with someone you dislike, or you think of them, you feel sad and often angry. You show this with a frown, closed pupils, closed body language, pale face, tight lips, and so on. Like like , this is a display emotion with some empathic response. If someone frowns when they see us, we’re concerned. Yet we don’t respond with dislike .

❂ Anxiety - the emotion of preparing for a future threat. You may feel dread, in the pit of your stomach. You may feel worry in your mind. You frown, and furrow your brow as you work through possibilities and plans. Your facial language is a signal to others that you believe something bad will happen. Depending on your age and track record, others may respond with anxiety of their own.

❂ Guilt - the emotion of breaking a social code. You want to confess, and for others to forgive you. You may want to also run away. Your body displays the former, and prepares for the latter. You feel dread in your intestines, blood flows to your legs and back. Your pupils narrow and your eyes close as if preparing for violence. Your focus flits from face to face, avoiding eye contact, to see if people are looking at you. You lose your sense of humor and become more paranoid. You interpret others' dislike as a personal statement.

❂ Shame - the emotion of humiliation. You feel sick in your stomach. You believe everyone is looking at you, and talking about you. Blood flows to your ears in a visible sign to others. You look at the ground. You avoid eye contact and do not engage in conversation. You want to hide. The social response to shame depends on the level of misconduct.

❂ Remorse - the emotion of apology. Remorse is close to defeat . Yet you feel it only in the context of being caught breaking a social code. You feel remorse when your actions evoke hate , anger , or disgust from others. You feel remorse as a strong desire to recreate balance. You want people to accept you again. The empathic response to remorse may be like , or it may be more anger .

❂ Impatience - the emotion of losing time. You feel irritated. You make repeated movements of the feet or hands. Your adrenalin is high, as you are eager to move. You gesticulate and make offended noises. The empathic response to impatience is to apologize and feel shame .

❂ Amusement - the emotion of a sudden understanding. You show surprise and happiness . You exhale, laugh, smile, clap your hands, nod or shake your head. Amusement is an empathy display evolved from glee . To feel amusement at the right moment and in the right degree requires empathy for the scene. When two people share the same amusement, it creates a double reaction, provoking laughter.

❂ Revenge - the emotion of punishing a rule breaker. You feel anger at first. Then you feel determined and justified in action, even if that means violence. You show neither happiness nor sadness. You tense the muscles around your eyes, your mouth, and your jaw to make it clear you are serious. Revenge can lead to the predator emotions, if the emotion spreads to a group.

The social emotions seem to exist to trip up Mallory. That suggests they evolved as a defense against psychopaths. That dates human psychopathy to at least the point in our history when we grew beyond the small tribe, between 3 and 2 million years ago. Psychopaths need a crowd. They do of course prey on family, yet their life-cycle depends on a fresh supply of naive faces.

Each is an adaptation to defend against various of Mallory’s talents:

❂ Like and dislike - they seem simple, yet these emotions are the output of long and complex calculations. The calculations take into account years of observations, transactions, and received knowledge. This translates into a simple "yes/no/maybe" value. We feel this value and show it as pleasure or distrust. It drives us to avoid bad actors, and invest more in honest players. Mallory cheats this by beaming love or dislike at his targets.

❂ Anxiety - the emotion which says something bad is happening, and asks others for help. Again, it can be a simple result of a complex calculation. Some anxiety is obvious: tomorrow I must meet important people, and that stresses me. Most anxiety is a vague "something is not right" gut feeling, that will not go away. I believe it’s often caused by our subconscious psychopath detectors shrieking at us.

❂ Guilt - the emotion which says, "I am not a psychopath, promise!" when someone catches us cheating. Everyone breaks rules at some point. Social groups need a way to distinguish casual criminals from professionals. Some people will reform, and others will not. This is the indicator: casual criminals can feel and display guilt. Mallory has evolved a good imitation of guilt. Yet it is not perfect, and it often leaves us unsatisfied.