In a study of 200 people who listened to 260 songs, those with the highest psychopath scores were among the greatest fans of a few select songs. As it turns out, psychopaths likely have a very specific taste in music, according to the study.
Only about 1% of the general population meets the psychological description of a psychopath, but the figure is far higher in prisons, where about one in five has the disorder. One estimate, from Kent Kiehl, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico, suggests that psychopaths cost the US government (taxpayers) $460 billion a year.
According to The Guardian, contrary to the movie trope epitomised by Alex in A Clockwork Orange and Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs, psychopaths are no fonder of classical music than anyone else, though they do appear to have other musical preferences, psychologists say. Blackstreet number one hit No Diggity and with Eminem’s Lose Yourself rated highly among those who are considered “psychopaths.”
The New York University team that conducted the study says that the findings are still unpublished and preliminary, but so far, they are intrigued. The goal now is to launch a major study across the United States in which thousands of people at every point in the psychopathy spectrum will be quizzed on their musical tastes.
Tests on the second group of volunteers suggested that the desired songs could help to predict the disorder. Whatever their other personality traits might be, fans of The Knack’s My Sharona and Sia’s Titanium were among the least psychopathic, the study found. The researchers have a serious goal in mind: if psychopaths have distinct and robust preferences for songs, their playlists could be used to identify them.
“The media portrays psychopaths as ax murderers and serial killers, but the reality is they are not obvious; they are not like The Joker in Batman. They might be working right next to you, and they blend in. They are like psychological dark matter,” said Pascal Wallisch who led the research. “You don’t want to have these people in positions where they can cause a lot of harm,” said Wallisch. “We need a tool to identify them without their cooperation or consent.”
Scientists have already found gene variants that are more common in psychopaths, but they are hardly predictive of the disorder. They appear to alter people’s tendencies for empathy and aggression, but they do not determine people’s actions. Brain scans highlight distinct signs too, as the neuroscientist James Fallon discovered when he spotted the patterns of a psychopath in his own brain’s anatomy, but again, these do not set a person’s behaviour. Even if they did, the police cannot search for dangerous individuals by hauling people into brain scanners. –The Guardian
Wallisch recruited volunteers for the study on “musical tastes” but many of the participants had separately sat through a battery of psychological tests, including one called the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which ranks people’s psychopathic traits. By combining the volunteers’ answers from the music study with their results from the psychopath test, Wallisch identified songs that seemed to be most popular among psychopaths, and others favored by non-psychopaths.
Other than No Diggity and Lose Yourself, Wallisch declined to name the songs that did have predictive power to pick out a psychopath out of concern that doing so might compromise any future screening test or study.
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Poster Comment:
What, no Death Metal? I thought for sure that would be a favorite genre among psychopaths.
Blackstreet number one hit No Diggity and with Eminem’s Lose Yourself rated highly among those who are considered “psychopaths.”
No surprise there I suppose.
Whatever their other personality traits might be, fans of The Knack’s My Sharona were among the least psychopathic, .
That's encouraging news.
#7: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#3)
misterwhite posted on 2017-09-27 11:28:20 Reply Private Reply
#8: Deckard To: Tooconservative (#3)
One of the cover bands I was in played that song - the audiences loved it.
You'd have to be a psychopath not to.
Another big crowd favorite:
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 11:30:26 Reply Private Reply
#9: Deckard To: misterwhite (#7)
Don't ever listen to that song while tripping on acid!
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 11:34:00 Reply Private Reply
#10: Tooconservative To: Willie Green (#5)
Where is my ax?
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-27 11:48:20 Reply Private Reply
#11: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#8)
Mellencamp always made me think of fava beans with a nice Chianti.
Does that make me a bad person?
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-27 11:51:45 Reply Private Reply
#12: Tooconservative To: Deckard, misterwhite (#9)
Ah, I'm sure white will heed your helpful advice when planning his next trip.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-27 11:52:49 Reply Private Reply
#13: misterwhite To: Deckard (#8)
misterwhite posted on 2017-09-27 11:55:37 Reply Private Reply
#14: Deckard To: misterwhite (#13)
So does this one:
A lot of songs have the same chord progression.
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 12:28:58 Reply Private Reply
#15: Deckard To: Tooconservative (#11)
Okey-dokey Doctor Lechter.
Does that make me a bad person?
Nah - you are the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 12:34:32 Reply Private Reply
#16: no gnu taxes To: Deckard (#0)
If you can stand more than 2 minutes of that, there is obviously something seriously wrong with you.
no gnu taxes posted on 2017-09-27 12:56:04 Reply Private Reply
#17: Deckard To: no gnu taxes (#16)
I'll raise you - anything by Yoko Ono.
EDIT
OK, I went ahead and tried to listen to the Lou Reed album - made it for about a minute.
I'll have to agree with Rolling Stone's original review - sounds like "the tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator" and as displeasing to experience as "a night in a bus terminal".
I like some of Reed's other stuff.
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 13:02:36 Reply Private Reply
#18: no gnu taxes To: Tooconservative (#11)
His worst was Jack and Dianne (also his probably most successful song). I just wanted to jump through the radio and slap those idiots around. I just wanted to jump through the radio and tell them to get a job, get a life or whatever.
Mellencamp himself was only around 30 at the time. Did he really think life peaks at age 16? If so, I'm sure he could afford a pistol or cyanide or something.
However, this premise was refuted a couple of years later in his only really good song, "The Authority Song." At least the protagonist of this song accepts what happens to him because of his behavior and will continue to live his life this way.
no gnu taxes posted on 2017-09-27 13:09:48 Reply Private Reply
#19: no gnu taxes To: All (#16)
Don't know what Lennon was thinking.
no gnu taxes posted on 2017-09-27 13:14:04 Reply Private Reply
#20: Deckard To: no gnu taxes (#18)
Pretty sure Jack and Diane were teenagers.
Mellencamp himself was only around 30 at the time. Did he really think life peaks at age 16?
Never been a 16-year-old kid in love? Mellencamp was known as "John Cougar" at the time - apparently his real name was too "hillbilly-ish..
Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.
The meaning is that your teenage years will probably be the most thrilling years for many people, especially a small town kid who dreams of being a football star.
FWIW - Mellencamp was interviewed by Charlie Rose and said that this song is about an interracial relationship between a black high school boy and a white girl, as Mellencamp himself has at least one black ancestor (great-grandfather?)
He said his record company persuaded him to omit all racial references in the lyrics and the video to avoid controversy and white backlash, which there definitely would have been, especially back in '82. You can see that interview on youtube, from 2014 I think.
YMMV.
Deckard posted on 2017-09-27 13:26:54 Reply Private Reply
#21: Tooconservative To: no gnu taxes (#18)
Me too. I just could not grasp the fawning over him as some musical genius that was like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin rolled into one. A few of his music vids were okay but if you just listened to the songs by themselves...derivative stuff. Musically, he had nothing to say and his lyrics were pretty dull. Like a cheap punk playing air guitar and pretending he's Bruce Springsteen. Not that I am a big Springsteen fan but at least he did some fairly original stuff and had his own voice.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-27 13:28:04 Reply Private Reply
#22: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#15)
That might make a nice tagline.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-27 13:35:35 Reply Private Reply
#23: no gnu taxes To: Tooconservative (#21)
I liked him in the late 70s/early 80s. Then he became just another leftard activist.
no gnu taxes posted on 2017-09-27 15:03:13 Reply Private Reply
#24: Hondo68 To: Deckard, Rick Roll (#0)
Hondo68 posted on 2017-09-27 15:06:01 Reply Private Reply
#25: sneakypete To: Deckard (#0)
There is something seriously wrong with those people.
sneakypete posted on 2017-09-27 20:21:20 Reply Private Reply
#26: sneakypete To: no gnu taxes (#19)
Yoko Ono. Best argument EVER on the dangers of taking drugs.
sneakypete posted on 2017-09-27 20:26:48 Reply Private Reply
#27: sneakypete To: Deckard (#20)
Sounds to me like Mellencamp is looking for traction to play the pity card.
Maybe he thinks he can get more bookings as a minority?
sneakypete posted on 2017-09-27 20:28:41 Reply Private Reply
#28: Stoner To: misterwhite (#4)
Stoner posted on 2017-09-29 21:07:30 Reply Private Reply
#29: Stoner To: sneakypete (#26)
Right there with you Pete! I don't think Lennon was thinking, I think he was doing some serious heavy duty drugs, in massive quantities.
Stoner posted on 2017-09-29 21:11:22 Reply Private Reply
#30: Stoner To: misterwhite (#7)
Stoner posted on 2017-09-29 21:16:36 Reply Private Reply
#31: Liberator To: misterwhite (#7)
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:00:32 Reply Private Reply
#32: Liberator To: Deckard, Tooconservative, misterwhite (#8)
Ok, Rock In The USA -- EXCELLENT song and vid that captured the mid-60s pop music essence.
Yes, Neil Diamond's other tune MW posted could well be the inspiration for ROCK In The USA (as well as the Romantics 'What I Like About You'), but I believe Cherry Cherry is the inspirational chord progression for both:
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:09:39 Reply Private Reply
#33: Liberator To: Deckard, misterwhite (#9)
That is IN-SANE!! /Crazy Eddie
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:10:48 Reply Private Reply
#34: Liberator To: Tooconservative, Deckard (#11)
It begs the question: What were you doing, and where you from '81-'85? Cougar-Mellencamp or whomever splashed a nice batch of iconic rock during that stretch.
You gonna tell me yo don't like THIS? (ok, so the video is low budget, sleazy, and homo-erotic, but that's besides the point ;-):
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:15:52 Reply Private Reply
#35: Liberator To: misterwhite (#4)
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:17:07 Reply Private Reply
#36: Liberator To: no gnu taxes, Deckard (#16)
Ok, I'll give you that. I think I read where he create that dreck because he was jealous of Roll and Roll Animal and the fancy live guitar work of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner on Sweet Jane (best rock intro IMO ever.)
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:20:51 Reply Private Reply
#37: Liberator To: Deckard, no gnu taxes (#20)
'Jack and Diane' was iconic-Americana.
The best tunes for me have an element of bitter-sweet nostalgia.
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:36:41 Reply Private Reply
#38: Liberator To: Tooconservative, no gnu taxes, Deckard (#21)
(IMO, REAL "Pop/Rock" died by 1987 or thereabouts.)
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:38:18 Reply Private Reply
#39: Liberator To: sneakypete (#25)
In the year 2017? Sure.
In the year 1967? Not so much.
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:39:17 Reply Private Reply
#40: Liberator To: sneakypete, no gnu taxes (#26)
Yes...
OR, best argument AGAINST 1965's 'Third World Invasion Act'.
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 10:41:00 Reply Private Reply
#41: Tooconservative To: Liberator (#32)
The article says it is less attractive to the psychos.
Oh, shit, now everyone is gonna think I'm a teacher's pet and that I actually read the articles. I'm totally screwed.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 11:44:31 Reply Private Reply
#42: Tooconservative To: Liberator (#34)
Hurts So Good made Mellencamp's reputation, both the song and the video. He never did anything else as good.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 11:46:24 Reply Private Reply
#43: Tooconservative To: Liberator, sneakypete, A K A Stone (#40)
That would explain a lot. LOL
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 11:49:28 Reply Private Reply
#44: misterwhite To: Stoner (#28)
Surfin' Bird by the Trashmen (appropriate name) was a combination of the Rivingtons' "The Bird's the Word" and "Papa Oom Mow Mow." Both wonderful songs.
misterwhite posted on 2017-09-30 12:18:33 Reply Private Reply
#45: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#43)
Is that similar to The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique?
misterwhite posted on 2017-09-30 12:24:24 Reply Private Reply
#46: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#24)
misterwhite posted on 2017-09-30 12:28:01 Reply Private Reply
#47: Liberator To: Tooconservative (#41)
D'oh.
Oh, shit, now everyone is gonna think I'm a teacher's pet and that I actually read the articles. I'm totally screwed.
Which means you'd NEVER make it as an Elite Freeper.
8-P
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 12:53:35 Reply Private Reply
#48: Liberator To: Tooconservative (#42)
'Jack and Diane' was his first hit I believe; 'Hurt So Good' and its riffs did seem to cement his rep.
'Small Town' was especially good. Then there was 'I Need A Lover'. 'Wild Night.'
Not an especially yuge fan of Cougar/Mellencamp, but his stuff was more than enough to make his mark on the music/pops scene.
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 13:02:11 Reply Private Reply
#49: Liberator To: Tooconservative, sneakypete, A K A Stone (#43)
Def.
"Death Metal," Marilyn Manson, etc.
Liberator posted on 2017-09-30 13:03:15 Reply Private Reply
#50: Tooconservative To: Liberator (#48)
Same album, it seems. Seems you're closer to right than me though. Since Jack & Diane is a watered-down racial song, you can have it. I'll just say I never met a black woman named Diane. Blacks go for Dion or Dionne as names. Hurts So Good is just a better party/dance song. And it was a better music video too.
Wiki:
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 13:31:02 Reply Private Reply
#51: Deckard To: Liberator (#38)
On the radio? Absolutely! It's still alive and well if you look for it.
The only "artists" who get their songs promoted and played on the radio are those who have sold their souls and are pushing the Illuminati agenda in one form or another.
Here's a few I've found:
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, The Posies, The Connells, The Legal Matters, really too many to mention - you just have to search.
Corporate radio today is another tool for the NWO elites to disseminate controlled propaganda.
Others may call this an urban myth, but I've read that the major recording studios have a special room where there is a satanic altar and the recordings of all the big-name musicians are satanically "blessed".
DEMONS ON RECORDS
"I attended special ceremonies at various recording studios throughout the U.S. for the specific purpose of placing Satanic blessing on the Rock music recorded. We did incantation which placed demons on EVERY record and tape of rock music that was sold.
At times we also called up special demons who spoke on the recordings - the various backmasked messages. ALSO, in many recordings, we were ourselves recorded in the background (masked by the over-all noise of the music) doing chants and incantations to summon up more demons every time one of the records or tapes is played.
As the music is played, these demons are summoned into the room to afflict the person playing the music, and anyone else who is listening. The purpose of all this? MIND CONTROL! Mind control not only to give the listeners understanding of the messages about Satan conveyed to them by the music, but also to prevent them from recognising their need of Jesus. (See II Corinthians 4:4)
Somehow this rings true to me.
Deckard posted on 2017-09-30 13:44:25 Reply Private Reply
#52: Deckard To: Tooconservative, Liberator (#42)
Rain On The Scarecrow, Small Town, Paper in Fire, Pink Houses.
Yeah - he peaked in 1982. < / sarcasm >
Deckard posted on 2017-09-30 13:50:56 Reply Private Reply
#53: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#52)
Never heard any of them.
And you are right that he peaked in 1982.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 14:03:16 Reply Private Reply
#54: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#45)
I was just tweaking Stone. He's off to the KY rock festival this weekend.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 14:05:45 Reply Private Reply
#55: Deckard To: Tooconservative (#53)
Then how can you say "He never did anything else as good"?
Deckard posted on 2017-09-30 14:12:52 Reply Private Reply
#56: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#55)
Using 34 keystrokes. It's easy.
Should I pretend that I care deeply? Would you feel better if I did?
You're very needy, high-maintenance. You seem to resent it if others don't share your tastes.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-09-30 15:55:46 Reply Private Reply