What is the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath? – 09/29/2024 – Balance

Articles about people who don’t behave well and how to spot them are common. You don’t need to Google or scroll for ages to find headlines like “7 Signs Your Boss is a Psychopath” or “How to Avoid the Sociopath Next Door.”

You will often see the terms psychopath and sociopath used interchangeably. This applies to perhaps the most famously misbehaving fictional character of all – Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs.

In the book on which the film is based, Lecter is described as a “pure sociopath”. But in the film he is described as a “pure psychopath”. Psychiatrists diagnosed him with something entirely different.

So what is the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

As we will see, these terms were used at different moments in history and relate to some overlapping concepts.

What is a psychopath?

Psychopathy has been mentioned in psychiatric literature since the 1800s. But the latest edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (known colloquially as the DSM) does not list it as a recognized clinical disorder.

Since the 1950s, labels have changed and terms like “sociopathic personality disorder” have been replaced with antisocial personality disorder, which is what we use today.

Someone with antisocial personality disorder has a persistent disregard for the rights of others.

This includes breaking the law, repeated lying, impulsive behavior, getting into fights, disregard for safety, irresponsible behavior, and indifference to the consequences of one’s actions.

To add to the confusion, the section in the DSM on antisocial personality disorder mentions traits of psychopathy (and sociopathy). In other words, according to the DSM, the traits are part of antisocial personality disorder, but they are not mental disorders in themselves.

The first formal description of psychopathic traits was made by the American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley, in his 1941 book The Mask of Sanity.

He based his description on clinical observations of nine male patients in a psychiatric hospital. He identified several key characteristics, including superficial charm, untrustworthiness, and lack of remorse or shame.

Canadian psychologist and professor Robert Hare refined these characteristics by emphasizing interpersonal, emotional, and lifestyle characteristics in addition to the antisocial behaviors listed in the DSM.

When we bring all these strands of evidence together, we can say that a psychopath manipulates others, shows superficial charm, is grandiose, and is persistently deceitful. Emotional traits include a lack of emotion and empathy, indifference to the suffering of others, and not accepting responsibility for how one’s behavior affects others.

Finally, a psychopath is easily bored, takes advantage of others, has no goals, and is persistently irresponsible in his or her actions.

And a sociopath?

The term sociopath first appeared in the 1930s and was attributed to American psychologist George Partridge. He emphasized the social consequences of behavior that commonly violates the rights of others.

Academics and clinicians often used the terms sociopath and psychopath interchangeably. But some preferred the term sociopath because they said the public sometimes confused the word psychopath with psychosis.

“Sociopathic personality disorder” was the term used in the first edition of the DSM in 1952. And it aligned with prevailing views at the time that antisocial behaviors were largely the product of the social environment and that behaviors were only judged as deviant if they broke social, legal and/or cultural rules.

Some of these early descriptions of sociopathy are more in line with what we now call antisocial personality disorder. Others are related to emotional characteristics similar to Cleckley’s 1941 definition of a psychopath.

In short, different people had different ideas about sociopathy, and even today, sociopathy is less well-defined than psychopathy. Therefore, there is no single definition of sociopathy, even today. But in general, the antisocial behaviors that characterize it can be similar to those we see in psychopathy.

Over the decades, the term sociopathy fell into disuse. Starting in the late 1960s, psychiatrists began to use the term antisocial personality disorder.

Born or acquired?

Both “sociopathy” (what we now call antisocial personality disorder) and psychopathy have been linked to a wide range of developmental, biological and psychological causes.

For example, people with psychopathic traits have certain brain differences, especially in regions associated with emotions, behavioral inhibition, and problem solving. They also appear to have nervous system-related differences, including a reduced heart rate.

Sociopathy and its antisocial behaviors are, however, a product of someone’s social environment and tend to run in the family. These behaviors have been linked to physical abuse and parental conflict.

What are the consequences?

Despite his fictional representations – like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs or Villanelle in the TV series Killing Eve – not all people with psychopathy or sociopathic traits are serial killers or physically violent.

But psychopathy predicts a wide range of harmful behaviors. In the criminal justice system, psychopathy is strongly linked to recidivism, particularly of a violent nature.

In the general population, psychopathy is associated with drug addiction, homelessness, and other personality disorders. Some research even showed that psychopathy predicted non-compliance with Covid restrictions.

But sociopathy is less established as a key risk factor in identifying people at greater risk of harm to others. And sociopathy is not a reliable indicator of future antisocial behavior.

In a nutshell

Neither psychopathy nor sociopathy are classified as mental disorders in formal psychiatric diagnostic manuals.

Both are personality traits related to antisocial behaviors and are associated with certain interpersonal, emotional and lifestyle characteristics.

Psychopathy is believed to have genetic, biological, and psychological underpinnings that place someone at greater risk of violating the rights of others. But sociopathy is less clearly defined and its antisocial behaviors are the product of a social environment.

Of the two, psychopathy has the greatest utility in identifying someone who is most likely to cause harm to others.

* Bruce Watt and Katarina Fritzon are Associate Professors of Psychology at Bond University (Australia).

**This article was published on The Conversation and reproduced here under a Creative Commons license. See the original version (in English).