Experts have revealed the key sign that indicates a woman might be a psychopath.
If you've ever wondered how to tell apart a woman with a strong personality from one who's dangerous then keep reading.
Study authors at the University of New Mexico's Department of Psychology in Albuquerque have conducted groundbreaking research that reveals a woman's psychopathic traits.
The new study - which claims to be the first linking women psychopaths and nonverbal communication - reveals that psychotic women have one tell-tale sign.
For the research paper, the experts used head-tracking algorithms to examine the nonverbal tendencies of 213 female inmates. The participants ranged in age from 21 to 57 and were serving time at a medium- and maximum-security correctional facility in the states.
"Nonverbal behaviors (i.e., head dynamics) represent an important, yet understudied, form of communication that may enhance our ability to detect certain forms of psychopathology, including psychopathy," they penned, per The New York Post.
Using the automated detection algorithm, the team discovered that women who showcase very little or no head movement while in conversation possess high levels of psychopathic propensities.
“Here, we utilized an automated technique to detect, extract, and analyze head position and dynamics in relation to psychopathic traits in a sample of incarcerated women,” the scientists said.
In this context, researchers defined "psychopathic traits" as a range of interpersonal issues including a lack of guilt, impulsiveness, manipulation, pathological lying, callousness, irresponsibility, and a broad range of criminal behaviors.
In addition to this, the research team analyzed video interviews of each female convict for the study.
"The head position was extracted frame-by-frame from [the] interviews," they wrote. "Average head position (AHP) was calculated using the spatial information from all extracted frames."
They then ranked the head movements into one of three categories: minimal, moderate, or extreme movement. It was then decided that the less a person moves their head, the more psychopathic they might be.
To work out the levels of psychopathy, the scientists incorporated a common assessment called the 'Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised' (PCL-R), originally developed in the 1970s by Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare.
The 20-point checklist calculates antisocial behaviors on a scale from one to 40, with lower scores showing less psychopathic attributes. Anyone scoring 30 or above is generally deemed a psychopath.
The PCL-R is "validated for use among incarcerated women" as well as jailed men, the team said, per Daily Mail. This chillingly suggests that men with less head movement could also harbor psychotic traits.
What do you think about the findings? Let us know in the comments.
