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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Test for sociopathy

This is a test which was circulating on the internet a few years ago. It's actually quite well done:

Read this question, come up with an answer, then scroll down to the bottom for the result. This is not a trick question. It is as it reads.

A woman, while at the funeral of her mother, met this guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy that she believed him to be just that. She fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few months later she killed her sister. Question: what is her motive in killing her sister? (Give this some thought before you answer.)






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Almost there.......





Answer: She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again. If you answered this correctly, you think like a sociopath. A famous American psychologist used this test to see if someone had the same mentality as a killer. Many arrested serial killers answered the question correctly.

If you didn't answer the question correctly, good for you.

The basic idea is that a normal (nonsociopathic) person could never even conceive of taking someone else's life so lightly that they would snuff it in order to gain what they want.

I know of exactly one person who got the answer correct, a woman who used to work on Wall Street. (I didn't ask her the question directly, but someone I had passed the question along to asked her, and told me the result.) This woman was a marvel of plastic surgery, including a pair of double D implants which she would flaunt at every opportunity. She would throw herself at men to get business from them. She always struck me as completely lacking in shame and embarrassment.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got the answer. Can I now get a job on Wall St., or in Congress, or maybe as Governor of Illinois? Or maybe a part in the "The Talented Mr. Ripley Part 2"? But how can you tell the difference between sociopaths and good criminal profilers?
G

John Craig said...

Guy --
You qualify for all of those jobs. But now that I think of it, didn't you used to work in The City? And aren't you and your wife well connected in sports/political circles?

Hmm, this is a little scary....

Anonymous said...

John,
Good post...great test !! I would never, even in my wildest immagination come up with that answer. I thought maybe her sister was dating the guy or her sister was constantly on her butt for being so infactuated with a stranger at a funeral...but murder, never. I guess I'm not a sociopath.....allthough I have a saying on my computer monitor that says " Be Polite, Be Professional, But Have a Plan to Kill Everyone You Meet "
Mad Dog

John Craig said...

Tom --
Turns out everyone I know has a secret scary side....

What's your plan for me by the way?

Anonymous said...

Hey John, Purely hypothetical, but if I killed you would miss double D show up @ the funeral?

hoff

John Craig said...

Let me think....Hmm, yeah, I think Jane would come.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Thats justnotsaid. But just to be sure, I'll forward this link and ask her to weigh in.....

John Craig said...

Please don't feel obliged to do so on my account....In fact, you could probably blackmail me on this one.

Hess said...

yeah, so I couldn't get the answer, but my girlfriend did in about zero seconds flat.

John Craig said...

I'd be worried, but I'm guessing that's pretty much the story with any test you two take.

Diane said...

I thought of the answer in 2 seconds. Doesnt it just mean Im good with riddles? What other answer on earth could be given? It doesnt mean you would do the this. Its just being creative. Right? I hope or else I have serious issues. Lol. Oh woops, lol at the end of a sentence was a bad sign right?

John Craig said...

Diane --
Hate to tell you this, but it's not really a riddle. It's more a test of your way of thinking. Of the two other people I know who got the right answer, one is definitely a sociopath and the other has some of the symptoms. I don't know you, so can't pass judgment, but it's been shown to be a pretty fail-proof test elsewhere.....

If you want to know if you're good with riddles, go to the two listed in this blog at the very beginning of October 2010.

Diane said...

I know for a fact im not a sociopath. Which is why I wanted to ask where you got this from, cause this could be a question on an IQ test so to speak...If youre asked a question you know there is an answer to, like the 'test', then your brain will figure something out. Whether its a math test or you substitute the numbers with human beings. In a TEST that is, in real life, this would obviously be unfathomable.

I really enjoy your blog and I think your explanations on the sociopath alerts are highly interesting. I agree with most and your posts are definitely eye openers ( dont wanna get too paranoid though, its still not that easy to spot them at all). For some you give a more thorough analysis with 'proof' than others ( Clinton analysis was great and I wish the public eye would have more attention for this)...The post about the adopted babies, you also made a link to sociopathy, but I really doubt Nicole Kidman is one, and Angelina Jolie I would rather place in the borderline corner....Anyhow, thanks for your response.

John Craig said...

Diane --
Thank YOU very much for reading the blog and for your comments. To tell the truth, I'm not sure exactly where this test came from; it's been floating around on the internet for a while. It says it was used by "a famous American psychologist," but I obviously can't verify that. But, as I said, from what I've seen it's pretty much worked before. Of all the people I know personally who took it, none of the non-sociopaths got it (except for one, whom I'll describe shortly), and the one person I know is a sociopath got the answer immediately (I was told this by someone else who gave her the question). The sociopath was a woman I used to know from Wall Street, who basically used to trade her body for commissions. She was very skillful at flattery, and would throw herself at guys, thrusting her enhanced double D's at them in hopes of winning business from them; she was utterly without shame. (She was also known for boasting about her possessions.) The guy I know who got the answer right is actually a friend, and is not a sociopath, but may be a couple steps up that ladder. I've known him for a long time, and he is completely fearless, always calm, and seems immune to the types of social pressures most of us feel. I witnessed him arguing with black people about race and IQ back in the 1980's; he was right, of course, but most of us would have been too cowed to do that, especially back then. He's been with a lot of women, but I've never heard him once even pay lip service to the concept of romantic love. (Most of us, at least when young, are swayed, or at least think we're swayed, by that concept.) On the other hand, he's also completely honest, about himself as well as others, and that's obviously not a sociopathic trait. But his sangfroid does make one think he's a couple steps in that direction. BTW, the "G" who made the first comment after this post is also a friend, and shows absolutely no sociopathic traits, but I don't know if he was joking with his comment (now that I think of it, I never even asked him). He is, however, very smart.

I'll take your word that you're not a sociopath (is that naive of me?) -- but part of the reason I believe you is that you've shown an interest in sociopathy, and the sociopaths I've known have no interest in the subject; they actually find it a little boring, and seem to get impatient when I talk about it (I've had this experience twice, both times before I realized the person was a sociopath). Let me put it this way: if you are a sociopath, you'd have to be an awfully clever one to describe some of the posts herein as "eye openers," most sociopaths think -- and claim -- that "sociopathy" describes everyone in the right circumstances. Anyway, my only advice to you is, stay paranoid, they are very difficult to spot at first, usually you either have to get to know them over a period of time, or witness them do something really destructive, and you could be the victim of that destruction.

As far as Jolie, I've heard enough about how poisonous she is to come to a conclusion. With Kidman, I guess there's room for doubt.

Diane said...

Thank you again. I could easily respond and respond cause I find all of this so fascinating. instead Ill keep reading your blog and comment on the way;-)

One thing though: wasnt Jolie a cutter? And cutting suggests emotional pain thats so overwhelming the cutter hurts him or herself...

John Craig said...

Thanks Diane.

Yes, that's right, Jolie was a cutter. And generally sociopathic aggression is directed outwardly, not inwardly. But are the two mutually exclusive? I don't know. And all of her self-aggrandizement (UN Goodwill Ambassador, all those adoptive children, etc.) could just be the manifestations of a garden variety narcissistic personality. But I've also heard that she is controlling, temperamental, and downright vicious with those around her, which means she has probably crossed the line.

John Craig said...

PS -- If you're enjoying the blog then please pass it along to your friends. (I'm not above begging for readers.)

Anonymous said...

Apparently, this test is nonsense. There was a post about it on sociopathworld.com, where people said they would never have come up with that answer.

Gethin

John Craig said...

Gethin --
Was is sociopaths who said they would never have come up with the answer?

I think the test has some validity. A commenter named Diane above said that she is not one but came up with the answer, and I'm sure there are some sociopaths who don't come up with the answer, but I'm guessing that just because of projection there is a strong correlation. As I said in the post, of the people I know personally, the only one who got the answer right is a likely sociopath. And I've probably shown this question to roughly 15 or 20 people.

Steven said...

I thought the sister started a relationship with the man and kept it from her or maybe killed the mum and I thought that still made her a bit of a psycho to kill for those reasons. When I read the answer it was a little scary and shocking that somebody would kill their own sister just for that reason. To have such little regard for her own sisters life is the scary thing. So yay I passed.

John Craig said...

Steven --
Yes, the absolute coldness of the sociopath is just beyond what most people can even imagine.

Glad you passed. Or failed, I guess.

Anonymous said...

I'm struck by the shallow understanding of cause and effect depicted in the test.

From observation (albeit a small statistical sample), I think normal people can come to similarly cruel/baffling conclusions by a shallow understanding and analysis of a situations variables, maybe not in the exact terms of the question in the post, but closely related. A normal person does so out of ignorance that can be eliminated with effort (usually of the Socratic sort), a sociopath out of insurmountable perceptual deficits.

Another reason one might get the answer is if the question resembled a character in a book or movie and they recognized the pattern.

B

Anonymous said...

"Um....because she's a crazy bitch?"

YESSSS! Not a sociopath!

John Craig said...

Anon --
Congrats, you passed. (Or failed, depending on which way you want to look at it.)