When most people think of psychopaths, they think of uniformly monstrous characters who lack empathy and conscience.But my guest says that those characteristics are just one part of the spectrum of traits that make up psychopathy, and while always having these traits turned up high is indeed bad, when employed to certain degrees in certain circumstances, they can actually be utilized for adaptive, positive ends.Kevin Dutton is a researcher of experimental psychology at Oxford and the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success. Today on the show, Kevin first defines what makes psychopaths, psychopaths, and how they differ from sociopaths. He describes how psychopathic traits can be particularly useful in some professions and which professions attract the most psychopaths. In the second half of our conversation, Kevin lays out his argument for why he thinks the Apostle Paul was a psychopath and how that’s actually what made him such an effective evangelist. At the end of our conversation, Kevin offers a test that assesses psychopathy; stay tuned to find out if I’m a psychopath and take the test yourself to see if you are.Connect With Kevin DuttonKevin on TwitterKevin on IGKevin’s website

Dr Kevin Dutton is a psychologist, author, and elite performance consultant whose research focuses on persuasion and social influence, psychopathic personality and elite cognition.Psychopaths get a bad rap. Perhaps understandably. They have a branding problem to say the least. But there are some personality traits like emotional control, focus, drive and single-mindedness that elite performers can model off of psychopaths to improve their effectiveness.Expect to learn how psychopathy exists at all, why teams kicking second in a penalty shootout have a 30% greater chance of missing, why psychopath pilots in world war 2 didn't make it home even though they won their fights, how different accents can be more prejudiced against than different races, why splitting the world into categories creates a foundation for huge biases to occur and much more...Sponsors:Get 7 days free access and 25% discount from Blinkist at https://blinkist.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM)Get 20% discount on House Of Macadamias’ nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom (use code MW20)Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied)Extra Stuff:Buy Kevin's Book - https://amzn.to/3fmAm9ACheck out Kevin's website - https://www.drkevindutton.com/ Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom-Get in touch.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillxTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillxYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcastEmail: https://chriswillx.com/contact/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Kevin Dutton is a research psychologist, bestselling author, and elite performance consultant. His principal research interests are persuasion and social influence, the psychopathic personality, elite cognition, black and white thinking, and how the fusion of psychology and art can enhance and support mental health. He has authored several books including 'The Wisdom Of Psychopaths', 'Flipnosis' and 'The Good Psychopath’s Guide to Success'. Join our exclusive TRIGGERnometry community on Locals! https://triggernometry.locals.com/ OR Support TRIGGERnometry Here: https://www.subscribestar.com/triggernometry https://www.patreon.com/triggerpod Bitcoin: bc1qm6vvhduc6s3rvy8u76sllmrfpynfv94qw8p8d5 Music by: Xentric | info@xentricapc.com | https://www.xentricapc.com/ | Channel ID: UCo_8zzSxKeL3arKWVuP8wdQ Buy Merch Here: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/shop/ Advertise on TRIGGERnometry: marketing@triggerpod.co.uk Join the Mailing List: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/sign-up/ Find TRIGGERnometry on Social Media:  https://twitter.com/triggerpod https://www.facebook.com/triggerpod/ https://www.instagram.com/triggerpod/ About TRIGGERnometry:  Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@francisjfoster) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Dutton (@therealdrkev) is a psychologist and author known for his research on the psychology of evil and the science of charisma. His latest book is The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success. [This is part one of a two-part episode. Keep an eye out for part two later this week!] What We Discuss with Kevin Dutton: How having a con artist father who never lost his cool sparked Kevin's interest in understanding the mindset of the psychopath. What Kevin means when he says that psychopaths understand the "words but not the music" of emotion. Contrary to popular belief, psychopaths aren't necessarily violent. They could be a surgeon or a killer, a firefighter or an arsonist. (Or even a professor or an ax murderer.) Why psychopaths are often excellent at persuasion and identifying weakness in others. What percentage of the population exhibits psychopathy, and how psychopaths can actually be useful for society. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/776 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

The Psychology Guy. Research Psychologist, Bestselling Author, and Elite Performance Consultant.Dr Kevin Dutton FBPsS is a research psychologist, bestselling author, and elite performance consultant. His principal research interests are persuasion and social influence, the psychopathic personality, elite cognition, black-and-white thinking, and how the fusion of psychology and art can enhance and support mental health.Kevin’s first book, Flipnosis – The Art of Split Second Persuasion, first published in 2010 and since translated into 18 languages, documents his quest – from the political genius of Winston Churchill to the malign influence of some of the world’s top con artists – for the psychological ‘DNA’ of persuasion.His other books are: Black and White thinking The Wisdom of Psychopaths The Good Psychopaths guide to successSorted Follow on Twitter Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thestorybox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.