Children as young as three years old can display the signs that will lead them to become psychopaths later in life.
That’s the warning by Professor Essi Viding, a scientist who has studied how certain behaviors in very young children can put them at a higher risk of developing the condition known as psychopathy.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder where people lack empathy, act selfishly, and may behave in harmful or criminal ways.
Viding’s research doesn’t mean kids with certain alarming traits will definitely become dangerous psychopaths, but it did identify the early warning signs that could lead to problems if not addressed.
These behaviors were different from the typical actions of a ‘naughty child,’ such as throwing tantrums or not sharing with friends.
Instead, these children have what’s called conduct disorder combined with callous-unemotional (CU) traits.
This means they don’t feel bad when they hurt others, struggle to connect their actions to the punishments they receive, and don’t enjoy making others happy.
For example, Viding said if a child hits another kid and takes their toy, most children will feel guilty seeing the other child cry, but these kids wouldn’t.
Researchers found 3 key traits that appear as early as the age of 3, which could lead someone to psychopathic behavior
Viding and her team studied young children, including twins, to see if these behaviors are influenced by genetics, traits passed down from parents to their offspring, or the environment in which each child was raised.
They observed how the kids reacted to someone else’s emotions and how they handled frustration.
The researchers also analyzed brain activity and physical signs, such as heart rate, to see how the children processed emotions differently.
Viding highlighted three specific red flags that children between three and four years old were already displaying, which could eventually lead to psychopathic behavior.
The first was a lack of emotional reaction to another person’s pain. These kids didn’t feel bad when they saw someone sad or hurt, like not seeming to care if they stole someone’s toy or made them cry.
The second trait was having difficulty connecting their actions to the consequences. These children didn’t learn from punishments such as receiving time-outs or losing privileges, and they kept doing harmful things.
The final trait was not caring about pleasing others. Most children liked to make their parents or friends happy. However, these kids focused only on what they wanted and didn’t appear to get any joy from anyone else’s happiness.
‘You do not get a full-blown personality disorder as a birthday present when you turn 18, so there are clearly children who have these sorts of traits from a very young age,’ Viding told The Telegraph.
One of the alarming traits was a mental disconnect in children between their actions and the punishments they received
‘Identifying these children early on doesn’t mean you can definitely predict that someone will become an adult psychopath, but these are the children likely to be at an increased risk compared with their peers,’ she added.
A study by Viding and her team, published in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, also revealed that these psychopathic traits were strongly influenced by family genes.
Identical twins, who share nearly all their genes, were more likely to both have CU traits than fraternal twins, who are born at the same time but look different from one another.
The study also identified differences in the brain activity of children with CU traits, specifically in areas like the amygdala, which processes emotions.
‘No one is born a psychopath, and the genes are not a blueprint, but there are people whose genetic makeup means that they are at higher risk than others,’ Viding noted.
Although researchers have found three key traits that can lead to the development of psychopathy, Viding also noted that there are three ways parents can prevent their children from going down a dark path.
The first is providing warm and loving parenting. Studies have found that adopted children, who share no genes with their new parents, were still less likely to develop psychopathy in a positive home environment, even if they had genetic factors putting them at risk for CU behavior.
In fact, a 2016 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found ‘positive reinforcement’ from adults protected children against the inherited traits in their genes that could cause serious antisocial behavior.
Another key intervention was therapy. Working with a therapist was found to help kids learn to manage their emotions and behaviors. The researchers noted that therapy could also support parents in handling challenging kids.
Finally, early action can prevent psychopathy. The sooner these behaviors are identified and addressed, the easier it is to change them.
‘With any behavior, the more rooted it gets, the more difficult it becomes to intervene,’ Viding warned. ‘But we know that interventions in adolescents and adults can also work, so the message should not be that if you don’t get there in the first five years, it’s useless.’
