A new study published in the Journal of Personality has found that people who are attracted to psychopaths actually tend to be psychopaths themselves. The researchers hypothesise that its’s nature’s way of ensuring the traits continue to exist within the human population, rather than dying out.
The researchers asked 696 participants to imagine an attractive man or woman and asked them to choose the desirable traits in a partner from a list of 70 personality traits the researchers had created for the study.
Although traits generally associated with psychopathy, such as manipulative behavior, impulsivity and irresponsibility, weren’t that popular among any of the participants, the participants who scored higher on psychopathic traits themselves were more likely to be attracted to psychopathic traits in a partner. Interestingly, men were more likely to be attracted to psychopathic traits than women.
However, it should be noted this study didn’t follow any actual relationships of the participants, simply their preferences when it comes to choosing a partner.
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