Psychopaths - Choosing When to Empathize

One CrowdScience listener finds herself unconcerned about much of the world’s problems, it leaves her wondering: am I a psychopath?

Inspired by a previous episode on empathy, this listener asked is it true that psychopaths don’t empathise and what are the character traits of psychopathy?

Marnie Chesterton talks with a diagnosed pro-social psychopath to find out.

She also pays a visit to the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and gets into an MRI scanner to discover what is happening in her brain when she empathises.

Studies suggest around 1 percent of the general population exhibit traits associated with psychopathy and that rises to 3-4 percent in the world of business. But is this really the case?

Why is there so much stigma associated with psychopathy and do psychopaths even exist or is it just a convenient term to label those whose emotional range sits outside of the “norm”?

Presented by Marnie Chesterton and produced by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service.

Guests: Julia Shaw Jim Fallon Valeria Gazzola Kalliopi Ioumpa

[Image credit: Getty Images]