The 8 traits that can help you identify a psychopath, according to experts

Durvasula told Salon that “lack of empathy” is a core characteristic possessed by sociopaths. Indeed, as Faris observed, “people who associate with sociopaths are likely to become their victims, or to victimize other people while serving the sociopath’s interests. At the very least, they will be thought of as doing so.”

As Durvasula elaborated to Salon, sociopaths perceive the world as owing them things and do not feel confined by moral codes when their sense of entitlement is denied. “If their belief of specialness or hypocritical belief that rules don’t apply to them isn’t honored, they will either become verbally or physically violent,” Durvasula warned. Not surprisingly, she noted that sociopaths tend to be “thin-skinned” and have trouble holding down jobs due to their “hot-headedness.”

If you have ever shared the road with a driver who is going 30 miles over the speed limit, weaving between lines of traffic and with passengers in their car, you have just picked up on the essence of this trait. People with ASPD and psychopathy tend to behave, as Durvasula put it, in a way best described as “chronically irresponsible,” with a tendency to “put others at risk via their behavior (e.g. driving drunk with kids in a car, leaving children without adequate supervision).”

Constant lying is another classic trait for psychopaths and people with ASPD. Even though people with these conditions can be charming, witty and even persuasive, they are also notoriously dishonest. Again, this is in no small part because of the lack of empathy or remorse, qualities that both keep healthy people from egregiously lying.

Sociopaths have “little capacity for close, mutually intimate relationships,” explains Durvasula. “Any relationships are superficial and transactional.” That said, this does not mean that sociopaths cannot fake close, mutually intimate relationships. After all, sociopaths can also be deftly manipulative. Tragically, many abuse victims find themselves in precisely that trap.

This quality has less to do with the sociopaths themselves than the milieu which cultivates them.

“You have no doubt encountered quite a few sociopaths in grocery stores and on airplanes, but if they stood out at all, it was probably for being rude or cutting in line,” Faris wrote to Salon. People with ASPD and psychopathy thrive in environments where they can act with impunity.

Faris noted that one’s respect for social norms affects this; environments with “soft rules” might be prime environments for sociopaths to thrive. Consider “the degree to which the context is governed by soft rules — either norms, or rules without enforcement teeth,” Faris said. “If we’ve learned anything from the past five years, it’s that even the most enduring, foundational traditions of our democracy can be tossed aside with impunity. It requires gumption and a certain bull-like force of personality, but norms often turn out to be the China shop.”