Psychopath or sociopath, both can cold but manipulatively charming and kind of emotionless.
But what is the difference between the two terms?
Hey guys, Julia here for DNews
Until very recently “psychopath” and “sociopath” could be used interchangeably.
The terms described someone who was maybe aloof, manipulative, and just couldn’t empathize
with other people.
But lately even Sherlock Holmes debates the difference, he tells his pesky coworker, “I'm
not a psychopath, Anderson.
I'm a high-functioning sociopath.”
And scientists are also quick to draw a distinction.
Jack Pemment, a biology graduate student at the University of Mississippi, wrote in the
journal Aggression and Violent Behavior, that “psychopathy is a developmental disorder
that is associated with specific kinds of behavior”.
Psychopathy is mostly biological.
Psychopaths have abnormalities in the brain.
Although childhood upbringing might have some effect, a traumatic home life might reshape
the growing brain.
One study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that many areas
of the brain associated with empathy fail to respond to emotional situations.
The researchers used FMRI on 121 inmates in a medium security prison.
They were shown situations where someone else is getting hurt like getting their fingers
slammed in a car door.
(If you just winced when i said that, you are probably not a psychopath).
The researchers looked at brain regions associated with empathy for pain, regions like the anterior
insula, the anterior midcingulate cortex, somatosensory cortex, and the right amygdala.
These areas activate when the inmates thought about themselves in pain.
But these area failed to activate when they saw someone else in pain.
But another area did light up, the ventral striatum, an area that might be associated
with pleasure.
So yeah psychopathic brains kind of like when other people are in pain.
Psychopaths also respond to rewards more strongly than most people, according to research published
in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Their brains release four times more dopamine in response to drugs like amphetamine.
So they seek a reward, like drugs or maybe that CEO position, no matter what the cost.
Sociopaths on the other hand, still exhibit many of the same personality traits like manipulation
and disregard of others’ feelings, but not because they don’t have any sense of morality
like psychopaths, it’s that their moral compass might be a little off the mark.
This could be because of upbringing or a belief system.
Pemment used the example of Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway.
He did it not because he felt like it and didn’t care about those people, which I
mean he probably didn’t, but that wasn’t his reason for it.
His reason was tied to his belief system.
He saw himself as a martyr for his cause.
And Pemment wonders if these beliefs might change the brain or if the sociopathic brain
might be inherently wired differently.
He suggests that more research is needed.
Sherlock Holmes, while not a mass murder, tries to do what he thinks is right, but he
goes about it by lying and manipulating because he really struggles to empathize with anyone.
So basically, the both psychopaths and sociopaths have brains wired a bit differently from the
rest of us.
but psychopaths don’t have a sense of right and wrong and don’t feel fear.
While sociopaths do understand right from wrong, but their right might just look a little
wrong to the rest of us.
So maybe Sherlock is right - maybe he really is a high-functioning sociopath.
Now that you’ve watched this video, do you understand the difference a little better?
Let us know if there are other topics you want us to explain and maybe we’ll make
a video about it.
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