Not all psychopaths are Hannibal Lecter. According to Kevin Dutton, a research psychologist at Oxford University's Department of Experimental Psychology, being a psychopath doesn't mean you're a serial killer or even that you'll break the law.
"In clinical psychology," he tells BuzzFeed, "a psychopath is someone with a distinct cluster of personality traits, including charm, charisma, fearlessness, ruthlessness, narcissism, persuasiveness, and lack of conscience." Those traits can be handy in many walks of life, not just crime.
Another misconception, he says, is that there is a sharp line between "psychopath" and "not psychopath". "A lot of people think that it's all very black and white," he says. "But this is not the case. In fact, psychopathy – like height, weight, and IQ, to take a few examples – lies on a spectrum."
We're all along the spectrum somewhere. "Some of us score higher on some traits than others," says Dutton. "But unless you score high on all of them, you don't really have anything to worry about."
The following test, set by Dr Dutton, will give you an idea of where you are on that spectrum. It's rigorous and scientifically well-founded.
However, it is NOT a diagnosis. "These questions do not in any way diagnose you as a psychopath," says Dutton. "Instead, they simply provide a rough guide as to where you might fall on the psychopathic spectrum."
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