She studied extreme psychopaths. Here’s what it taught her about human nature | Abigail Marsh
Summary
TLDREl guion destaca la falsa percepción de que los humanos son inherentemente egoístas y presenta la psicopatía como evidencia contra esta idea. La profesora Abigail Marsh, especialista en empatía y altruismo, explica que la existencia de la psicopatía, un trastorno que afecta a un 1-2% de la población y se manifiesta por una indiferencia hacia el bienestar de los demás, sugiere que no todos somos egoístas. Además, menciona la existencia de individuos 'anti-psicopáticos', que muestran un altruismo extraordinario, y sugiere que la altruismo puede aumentarse a través de la práctica y la mejora de las condiciones personales y sociales.
Takeaways
- 🧠 La percepción común de que los humanos son fundamentalmente egoístas no es cierta, según la existencia del trastorno psicopático.
- 🌟 La psicosis existe en un espectro, lo que implica que hay personas que son 'anti-psicopáticas', capaces de un altruismo extraordinario.
- 🧬 Se han identificado áreas específicas del cerebro que codifican el valor del bienestar de los demás, lo que apoya la capacidad de cuidado por otros.
- 🌐 La comprensión de la naturaleza humana es importante para fomentar la confianza y el entendimiento mutuo, más allá del cinismo.
- 👩🏫 Abigail Marsh es profesora de psicología y neurociencia en Georgetown University, y estudia la base neural y cognitiva de la empatía, altruismo y agresión.
- 🎭 La 'Máscara de la Sanidad' de Hervey Cleckley describe a los psicópatas, quienes aparentan normalidad pero ocultan graves deficiencias emocionales.
- 🗡 La psicosis puede llevar a comportamientos antisociales extremos y violencia, como en el caso del asesino en serie Gary Ridgway.
- 🤔 La diferencia entre 'psicópata' y 'sociópata' radica en que el primero es un término científico y clínico, mientras que el segundo no lo es.
- 🧐 La psicosis es un trastorno neurodesarrollamental que afecta a un 1-2% de la población y se manifiesta desde temprana edad.
- 🌱 Los psicópatas presentan una disposición desconsiderada, una personalidad socialmente dominante y un comportamiento impulsivo o desinhibido.
- 🌈 Los altruistas extraordinarios son humildes, creen en la bondad de los demás y son sensibles al sufrimiento ajeno, ayudando a quienes están en necesidad, sin importar la cercanía.
- 📊 Existen pruebas que sugieren que la altruismo puede medirse y que las personas pueden volverse más altruistas a través de la práctica y el desarrollo personal.
Q & A
¿Por qué la existencia de la psicopatía es una buena evidencia de que las personas no son fundamentalmente egoístas?
-La existencia de la psicopatía es una buena evidencia de que las personas no son fundamentalmente egoístas porque muestra que hay individuos que genuinamente no se preocupan por el bienestar de los demás, lo que implica que la preocupación por los demás no es un mero producto de la autointeresado.
¿Qué es el espectro de psicopatía y cómo se relaciona con la capacidad de las personas para preocuparse por los demás?
-El espectro de psicopatía es una representación de que la psicopatía no es un estado binario sino que varía en grados, desde personas muy psicopáticas hasta personas que podrían ser consideradas 'anti-psicopáticas', las cuales tienen una gran capacidad para preocuparse por el bienestar de los demás.
¿Qué áreas del cerebro se han identificado como responsables de codificar el valor del bienestar de los demás?
-El guion no especifica áreas concretas del cerebro, pero menciona que se han identificado regiones específicas que codifican el valor del bienestar de los demás, implicando que hay una base biológica para la empatía y el altruismo.
¿Por qué es importante comprender la naturaleza humana basada en la literatura científica?
-Es importante comprender la naturaleza humana basada en la literatura científica porque fomentar la confianza mutua es una forma más agradable y precisa de convivir que ser cínicos, y nos ayuda a tener una visión más precisa de nuestra capacidad para el bien y el mal.
¿Quién es Abigail Marsh y qué tipo de investigación realiza?
-Abigail Marsh es profesora de psicología y neurociencia en la Universidad de Georgetown, y estudia las bases neurales y cognitivas de la empatía, el altruismo y la agresión.
¿Qué es 'The Mask of Sanity' y cómo se relaciona con la psicopatía?
-'The Mask of Sanity' es un libro escrito por el psiquiatra Hervey Cleckley, quien describió la psicopatía como un trastorno en el que los individuos parecen completamente normales o incluso sobresalientes en su comportamiento externo, mientras que internamente tienen grandes déficits emocionales.
¿Cuál es la diferencia entre los términos 'psicopata' y 'sociópata'?
-La principal diferencia es que 'psicopata' o 'psicopatía' son términos científicos y clínicos, mientras que 'sociópata' o 'sociopatía' no lo son. Los clínicos y científicos no usan el término 'psicopata' para referirse a una persona, sino que describen a una persona con psicopatía o que es psicópata.
¿Cómo se define la psicopatía y qué porcentaje de la población puede ser afectado en su forma extrema?
-La psicopatía se define como un trastorno neurodesarrollamental que afecta probablemente al 1% o 2% de las personas en su forma extrema. Se caracteriza por una serie de rasgos de personalidad que incluyen una disposición desconsiderada, una personalidad socialmente dominante y audaz, y una conducta desinhibida e impulsiva.
¿Qué son las dos categorías principales de agresión y cómo se relaciona la agresión proactiva con la psicopatía?
-Las dos categorías principales de agresión son la agresión reactiva, que se muestra cuando alguien te enfada o te amenaza, y la agresión proactiva, que es una agresión deliberada dirigida a alcanzar un objetivo. La agresión proactiva es un rasgo único de la psicopatía.
¿Cómo se puede medir la tendencia a la psicopatía o al altruismo en una persona?
-Se pueden usar tests autoadministrados como el TriPM para medir la psicopatía y el HEXACO para evaluar las tendencias altruistas. Estos tests ofrecen una evaluación de las características que definen a las personas con psicopatía o con un comportamiento altruista.
¿Cómo pueden las personas volverse más altruistas y qué tipo de acciones pequeñas pueden empezar a realizar?
-Las personas pueden volverse más altruistas comenzando con pequeñas acciones que ayuden a otros, lo que naturalmente puede aumentar con el tiempo. La empatía y el placer que se siente al ayudar a otros contribuyen a que este proceso se refuerce.
Outlines
🧠 La naturaleza altruista del ser humano
El primer párrafo desafía la percepción de que los humanos son intrínsecamente egoístas, argumentando que nuestra motivación no se basa únicamente en el beneficio personal. Se menciona la existencia del trastorno psicopático como evidencia de que no somos egoístas por naturaleza, ya que los psicópatas no sienten preocupación por el bienestar de los demás. Se destaca que el psicopatismo existe en un espectro, con personas 'anti-psicopáticas' capaces de mostrar un alto grado de empatía y altruismo. Abigail Marsh, profesora de psicología y neurociencia en Georgetown University, estudia las bases neurales y cognitivas de la empatía, el altruismo y la agresión. Se menciona el trabajo de Hervey Cleckley, quien describió a los psicópatas como personas que parecen normales pero ocultan graves deficiencias emocionales.
😈 Características y diferencias entre psicopatas y altruistas
El segundo párrafo explora las características clave del psicopatismo, que incluyen una disposición desconsiderada, una personalidad socialmente dominante y un temperamento atrevido, así como la falta de inhibiciones y la impulsividad. Se contrasta con las personas 'anti-psicopáticas', que muestran un altruismo extraordinario, realizando actos de gran sacrificio para ayudar a otros. Estas personas se caracterizan por su humildad, creencia en la bondad de los demás y sensibilidad hacia el sufrimiento ajeno. Se menciona que el altruismo no es un trastorno clínico, pero tiene rasgos distintivos, y se sugiere que los personajes de Iron Man y Superman representan diferentes versiones de altruistas.
🌐 Medidas para promover el altruismo y la generosidad
El tercer párrafo discute cómo las personas pueden volverse más altruistas y generosas. Se sugiere que los tests en línea, como el TriPM y el HEXACO, pueden ayudar a medir tendencias psicopáticas y altruistas. Se argumenta que el altruismo puede aumentar con el bienestar personal y que las políticas que promueven el bienestar también fomentarán la generosidad. Se enfatiza que comenzar a actuar de manera altruista, aunque sea en pequeñas formas, puede llevar a un aumento en la generosidad y es una fuente de alegría.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Autointerés
💡Psicopatía
💡Espectro de psicopatía
💡Área cerebral
💡Confianza
💡Empatía
💡Altruismo
💡Agresión reactiva vs. proactiva
💡Personalidad atrevida
💡Desinhibición
💡Humildad
💡HEXACO
💡Generosidad
Highlights
The common misperception that humans are fundamentally selfish is challenged by the existence of psychopathy.
Psychopathy is a disorder where individuals genuinely do not care about others' welfare, suggesting that non-psychopathic individuals can have genuine care for others.
Psychopathy exists on a spectrum, with people ranging from highly psychopathic to 'anti-psychopathic', who have an extraordinary capacity to care for others.
Brain regions have been identified that encode the value of other people's welfare, indicating a neurological basis for altruism.
Understanding the reality of human nature is important for fostering trust and combating cynicism.
Abigail Marsh, a professor at Georgetown University, studies the neural and cognitive basis of empathy, altruism, and aggression.
Hervey Cleckley's work on psychopathy emphasizes the 'Mask of Sanity' that conceals profound emotional deficits.
Serial killers like Gary Ridgway exemplify extreme psychopathy, where outward normalcy masks a lack of regard for others' welfare.
The difference between 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' is that the former is a clinical term, while the latter is not.
Psychopathy is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting about 1-2% of the population, with early brain development differences.
Three key traits of psychopathy are a mean, callous disposition, bold and socially-dominant personality, and disinhibited or impulsive behavior.
Proactive aggression, aimed at achieving a goal, is a unique characteristic of psychopathy.
People with psychopathy lack fear responses, which is one reason polygraph tests may not be effective for them.
Anti-psychopathic individuals are extraordinarily altruistic, often risking their own safety to help others.
Altruistic individuals are characterized by humility, belief in the goodness of others, and sensitivity to others' distress.
Extraordinary altruists value the welfare of even distant acquaintances or strangers, unlike most people.
Tests like the TriPM and HEXACO can measure psychopathy and altruism, helping individuals understand their tendencies.
Global trends show increased generosity over time, suggesting that societal well-being promotes altruism.
Starting small acts of kindness can lead to increased altruism, as helping others is a source of joy that reinforces further generosity.
Transcripts
- It's a very common misperception
that humans are fundamentally selfish-
meaning every motivation that drives us
is based in a desire for what will benefit us,
that we don't have any capacity
for truly caring about other people.
I think there are reasons to be confident
that can't be true,
and I think one of the most compelling
is the existence of the disorder called 'psychopathy.'
So people who are highly psychopathic genuinely don't care
about other people's welfare.
And so I think the fact that psychopathy exists
is pretty clear evidence
that people are not fundamentally selfish.
In addition, we now know that psychopathy exists
on a spectrum:
so there's very psychopathic people, people in the middle,
but also people who are sort of anti-psychopathic.
Most of that distribution of people
definitely have the capacity to care for other people,
and we've identified regions of the brain
that specifically seem to encode the value
of other people's welfare.
I think it's really important
for the reality of human nature
based on the scientific literature to be better understood,
because trusting one another
is a lot more enjoyable way to be,
and it's more accurate, frankly, than being cynical.
And so to try to understand that better,
I have been studying extreme populations of people
who have done things in the real world
that suggest they're unusually caring or unusually uncaring.
My name is Abigail Marsh.
I'm a professor of psychology and neuroscience
at Georgetown University,
and I study the neural and cognitive basis of empathy,
altruism, and aggression.
The way we think about psychopathy now derives
from the work of a psychiatrist named Hervey Cleckley,
who was a really legendary clinician
who spent many, many years studying people with psychopathy.
He wrote a book called "The Mask of Sanity,"
and I think that title perfectly captures what it is
that makes people with psychopathy unique,
which is that they outwardly appear completely normal,
even super normal.
They seem just like anybody else,
but that really is a mask
that's concealing inner profound deficits in emotion
and the way that they engage with other people.
In its extreme form,
psychopathy can drive
some of the most serious antisocial behavior
and violence that we see.
So for example, the serial killer, Gary Ridgway,
is perhaps the most psychopathic criminal.
He killed dozens of young women
over the course of a few decades.
We'll probably never know exactly how many.
His behavior, and also the way he talked about them,
made it clear just how little he valued their welfare.
He didn't think that they mattered.
The thing that I think unnerves people the most
about serial killers like Gary Ridgway
is just how normal they seem to everybody around them.
They had families,
they were known members of their community
that were not caught for many years,
in part, because nobody suspected
that they could be doing such horrible things
under the surface.
And that's a really good example of the mask of sanity.
There's somebody doing things
that are so awful under the surface
that you would think
there must be some sign of it externally.
But in the case of some people with psychopathy,
there really isn't.
I get asked a lot, "What's the difference
between the term psychopath and sociopath?"
The main difference
is that the term "psychopath" or "psychopathy"
is a scientific and clinical term,
and the term "sociopath" or "sociopathy" is not.
It's really important to emphasize
that no clinician or scientist would ever refer to a person
as a psychopath.
We don't refer to people as their disease
or as their disorder anymore.
And so I refer to people who have psychopathy
or who are psychopathic.
So what we know about psychopathy
is it's a neurodevelopmental disorder,
in its extreme form affects probably 1% of people,
maybe 2%.
And it's pretty clear
that people who go on to develop psychopathy are different
from a very early age
because their brain is developing differently.
Psychopathy is best thought of
as a constellation of personality traits,
and the three key traits that compose psychopathy include,
most importantly, a mean, callous disposition.
They really don't care about other people's welfare,
and they'll do things that hurt other people
to benefit themselves.
They're certainly more likely to engage
in various forms of aggression,
especially when that aggression
is aimed at achieving a goal.
So aggression can be divided into two broad categories:
Reactive aggression,
which is the kind of aggression you show
when somebody has made you mad,
when you've been threatened, when you're frustrated,
and then there's proactive aggression-
it's deliberate aggression aimed at achieving a goal.
So you threaten to hurt somebody
in order to take their money
or to take something that belongs to them.
You threaten to reveal somebody's secrets
so that they do what you want them to do.
That kind of aggression is really uniquely psychopathic.
Second is a bold, socially-dominant personality.
That boldness really reflects a fearless core.
They don't seem to understand why other people feel fear.
They're not good at recognizing when they're afraid,
and if you have that problem,
you're much more likely to do things
that cause other people to feel fear
without really understanding what the big deal is,
and they just don't respond to risk
and threat and punishment the way that other people do.
That happens to be one of the reasons
that the polygraph doesn't work,
because that's one of the things the polygraph
is picking up on is fear responses when people are lying;
people with psychopathy don't have those responses,
not nearly as strongly, at least.
And third is being disinhibited or impulsive.
They'll steal things from people,
they'll steal things from stores.
They'll lie often easily,
and not really even for any reason.
It's not really your fault if you have these traits.
That's not to say that you don't deserve consequences.
If you hurt somebody and you're psychopathic,
I would never argue that-
but I think it's really important
that we balance our desire,
that they experience some consequences
from what they've done
with our understanding
that they didn't choose to be this way.
On the other end of the spectrum
are people who are anti-psychopathic,
people who are, in some cases, extraordinarily altruistic,
who do things to help others
at real risk and cost to themselves,
like rescuing people from drownings or fires
or donating organs or bone marrow to other people.
They're genuinely unselfish.
And I hesitate to say that
because the image that that conjures up
in most people's minds
is if somebody who's sort of saintly, right,
they think of them as like a guardian angel
or somehow superhuman.
It's not like they never swear.
It's not like they never get, you know, mad
when they're stuck in traffic.
They're just ordinary people in most ways.
The character of Iron Man is a really interesting example
because, of course, he is very altruistic.
He does a lot of things to help other people,
but he doesn't seem like an altruist should seem, right?
He's kind of a wise-cracker.
He's done some things that are less than savory in his past,
but at core, you can tell
that he really does care about the other people around them,
and he will go to great lengths to help them.
And so in some ways,
I think that's a more realistic depiction
of a genuinely altruistic person
than the more sort of flat,
one-dimensional old-school character like Superman.
Although extraordinary altruism
is not a clinical condition, obviously,
it is typified by traits
that set altruists apart from other people.
So first, their humility.
They tend to think of themselves as just the same
as anybody around them,
despite the fact
that they have actually done some pretty unusual things,
and that seems to be a really core feature of altruism.
If you think that everybody is equally special,
helping others makes more sense.
They tend to believe in the goodness of other people.
They're much less likely to believe
that others can be truly evil.
Finally, they seem to be more sensitive
to other people's distress.
They're more likely to empathize with
and recognize other people's fear and also their pain.
What's really unusual about extraordinary altruists
is that even when it comes to people
who were very distant from them,
people who were only acquaintances or even strangers,
they still seem to value their welfare.
We're supposed to help people who are close to us
if they're in trouble,
but if it's a perfect stranger,
most of us don't see it as an obligation in the same way.
And yet extraordinary altruists,
I don't think really see it that way.
They really do think,
"Well, this is a human being
whose, you know, welfare is fundamentally important."
If people are interested
in knowing how altruistic versus psychopathic they are,
there are a couple tests out there on the internet
that you can use to test yourself.
One of the better self-report tests of psychopathy
is called the TriPM,
and it's available on the website of PsychopathyIs.
It is a brief but very well validated test
of that bold, dominant, relatively callous personality
that typify psychopathy.
And you can get a percentile score
and find out where you fall.
If you get a very low score on a psychopathy test,
it may be a sign that you're highly altruistic.
But another way to test that
is using a personality test called the HEXACO.
What it really captures is the degree to which you believe
that other people fundamentally matter
versus are exploitable for your own good.
There's really good evidence
that people can become more altruistic.
If you look at global trends,
you see generally
that people are donating more money over time.
They're helping more strangers over time.
One of the things
that seems to make people become more generous
is when they themselves are doing better.
And I think because they have the psychological
and physical resources to do so,
so that's really good news
because it means that policies
that promote flourishing and well-being
will probably also promote generosity.
But the best evidence
for how people can become more generous is by just starting.
And so I generally recommend
that if people would like to become more altruistic,
you think of some small feasible way to do things
to help other people,
and it should naturally proceed upward from there-
because one of the absolute best things about altruism
is how incredibly pleasant it is.
It's such a source of joy for most people to help others.
And that becomes a self-reinforcing process.
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