In general, I don’t spend a lot of time exploring the dark side of human personality. As a psych nerd, I tend to focus more on neutral or positive functioning. And there’s a reason for this: I was in my mid 20s before I realized that psychology wasn’t just primarily concerned with illness and disease.
That’s because most of what tends to make it into common discourse re: psychology is concerned with abnormal psych. I had routinely run into lots of folks who either had a diagnosis themselves and talked about that. Or, more commonly, I ran into people who had taken one abnormal psych course in college — or had read one book on the subject — and thought that qualified them to walk around diagnosing other people.
I was thrilled to learn later on in life that this wasn’t all psychology had to offer. I found social psychology — the study of how people think, feel, and behave in groups. And I was immediately hooked and fascinated.
But every now and then, there does come a time where I’ll find an interesting personality study that intrigues me. And occasionally, I’ll even enjoy one whose roots are tightly wrapped around abnormal psych. For example, I previously covered a study in which sexist beliefs were linked to the dark triad of personality traits.
Sociopathic Personality Traits Linked with Shunning Face Masks & Other COVID-19 Mitigation Measures #
Today’s study also fits the bill. It found that people with lower mask compliance are also higher in sociopathic personality traits. In particular, this study found that those that shunned COVID-19 containment measures had higher levels of callousness, deceitfulnuss, and risk-taking. They were also lower in empathy.
I can’t say that I’m surprised exactly. I had suspected that lower empathy levels would be linked to a refusal to wear masks, as the act belies a lack of concern for other people’s health and wellbeing.
And once you’re into low-empathy territory, many of those other traits often follow.
Still, it’s an interesting study and something I thought I’d cover and share with you folks.
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This post is part of an ongoing Poly Land feature called Psyched for the Weekend, in which I geek out with brief takes about some of my favorite psychological studies and concepts. For the entire series, please see this link.
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Fiction by Page Turner:
Psychic City, a slipstream mystery
Non-Fiction:
Dealing with Difficult Metamours