Psychopaths and their natural “seduction” on some people

Introduction

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Psychopaths tend to be shown in series and movies as people who only take action according to their hunger for cruelty and sadism.

They think in a cold way, with no empathy whatsoever and often they are not only violent, but they also engage in activities that can be considered aberrant. In short, they are the total opposite of what a companion with whom to share a loving relationship would look like.

Psychopathy is defined as:

A constellation of traits that comprises affective features, interpersonal features, as well as impulsive and antisocial behaviors. The affective features include lack of guilt, empathy, and deep emotional attachments to others; the interpersonal features include narcissism and superficial charm; and the impulsive and antisocial behaviors include dishonesty, manipulativeness, and reckless risk-taking. | Source

However, if a person has a high level of psychopathy, he can very well develop with ease the ability to seduce, so it is easy for some people to inadvertently get to feel attracted by them.

Why does this happen?

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People who have a considerably high level of psychopathy do not have to feel the need to kill or harm people, but there is something about them that is almost always a constant, they manipulate others like it wasn’t even a big deal, almost like it was a natural thing to do. And, in addition, they are very good doing it.

This is due to two reasons. On one hand that they do not perceive people as living beings with a mental life of their own with which they could potentially empathize, but rather they see people as very complex robots or characters in a video game. The intensity of this can vary depending on the psychopath, some of them are exactly like this, while others only do so to a degree considerably greater than the average of the population.

On the other hand, that fact allows them to not feel bad when lying and manipulating. The only concern at the time of doing those things will be about not being discovered that something is being done badly according to what is morally right, but beyond this there will be hardly any moral limitations that make the behavior of the psychopath, that is manipulating or lying, to look insecure because of a potential internal struggle.

In an office environment, overly emotional individuals are often at a disadvantage because their judgement is clouded by a desire to protect those they care about. Inversely, "lacking empathy, more often than not, will help you in an environment where you have to make decisions that create negative consequences by necessity for other people,”. | Source

In other words, in people with a high level of psychopathy, lies can progress with no difficulty whatsoever, and saying something that is not true can end up with zero moral challenges, these people feel completely fine deceiving others time after time.

This allows psychopaths to develop a wide range of acting when pretending to be something they are not, which means that they have more advantages when it comes to seducing and getting someone to feel attracted towards them through their deceptions. All of this, in addition, without the need to train the way they lie, it comes natural for them.

Besides having the knowledge about how to offer a completely dishonest face about themselves, these people have another trump card when it comes to interacting in the world of relationships because they are very skilled at detecting mental weaknesses in others.

That means that they have a surprising capacity to quickly realize what type of actions and gestures can be appreciated by someone, either due to certain shortcomings or fears and insecurities by the individual in question.

For example, psychopaths can more accurately tell if a person has been a victim of a sexual assault, simply by observing the way they walk. ^Source

In this way, psychopaths start with a kind of privileged information about the vulnerabilities of others that they can use for their own benefit by offering elements that others need and rarely find in other potential partners. Although it sounds cruel and very dishonest, using intimate information to be more desirable is obviously something that works when seducing.

Therefore, the seductive potential that psychopaths are able to offer through a mask that hides their propensity for manipulation is out of the ordinary, and will remain so as long as the partner doesn’t realize this, and as long as the peculiarities of the psychopath remain hidden.

However, since the hallmark of these personality traits is interpersonal exploitation, it is only a matter of time before those closest to them get wise to their ways and start to avoid them. Source

Nonetheess, if the person with a high level of psychopathy has become used to behave violently, it is possible for there to be individuals who are attracted to this fact. When aggressiveness is committed in an analytical way by pursuing an end, there is a concept called Hybristophilia that can manifest itself, which is the sexual attraction for violent criminals.

Hybristophilia was defined by the sexologist Professor John Money as a sexual paraphilia in which an individual derives sexual arousal and pleasure from having a sexual partner who is known to have “committed an outrage or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.” This type of paraphilic behaviour is sometimes colloquially known as ‘Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome.’ In some cases, the person who is the focus of the sexual desire is someone who has been imprisoned. In some cases, the hybristophile may urge and coerce their partner to commit a crime. | Source

Especially if the person with psychopathic tendencies is a male, the possible similarity between this aggressiveness and males traditional role can help this habit of harming others to be seen as an expression of manhood, strength and autonomy.

Nonetheless, Hybristophilia is very rare and doesn’t happen too often. That does not mean, however, that certain levels of hostility and aggressiveness can not be used to attract a partner.

Even if aggressiveness and hostility do not amount to crimes, for many people they may be more attractive than peacefulness.

Conclusion

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It is hard to find a rational logic beyond the possibility that certain people are simply prone to be attracted to extremely selfish individuals to say the least, whose ultimate expression are the psychopaths.

From an evolutionary point of view, it is understandable to consider the fact that the genes of some individuals incline them to seek the company of this kind of people, since in certain contexts having offspring with people like this can increase the chances of transmitting the genes successfully.

Nevertheless, this is no longer the case in our modern world, in which skills and knowledge are probably the best qualities we can have to face our rapidly changing civilization.

The more humble among us can take heart in knowing that despite these initial advantages, narcissists’ popularity tends to decline over time. | Source

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Have you ever someone that acted like a psychopath?

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