Caution! Psychopaths in the Netherlands are different from psychopaths in the US. And in Germany?

From the consumer-friendly department of Know your Weirdo. Actually, Quartz has it.

Just days ago we covered Get cover! Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion.

When you think of a psychopath, what qualities do you imagine? Your answer may depend on the country you’re from. Newly published research suggests that psychopaths are not the same worldwide: The most salient feature of psychopaths in the US seems to be callousness and lack of empathy, while the most central feature of psychopaths in the Netherlands is their irresponsibility and parasitic lifestyle.

An article published in Journal of Abnormal Psychology in January analyzed the level of psychopathy among three samples totaling 7,450 criminal offenders from the US and the Netherlands. A significant number from each sample met the criteria for clinical psychopath according to the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised, or PC-R.

There are 20 questions in the PC-R, and four broad areas of psychopathy, assessing a person’s affective characteristics (such as lack of empathy, callousness, shallow emotional experiences, and fearlessness), interpersonal problems (such as being detached, manipulating others, or pathological lying), lifestyle issues (such as being irresponsible and having poor behavioral control), and antisocial behavior (such as behavioral problems in childhood and criminal behavior.)

Moar here

They did not study German psychopaths so far. Pity.

THE PSYCHOPATH - The Mask of Sanity

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.

In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.

You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.

You may also want to learn about their tricks before you fall for them:
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work — Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare

"Amazingly, more often than not, victims will eventually come to doubt their own knowledge of the truth and change their own views to believe what the psychopath tells them rather than what they know to be true."

Emotionally empty, no conscience, cold-blooded

Sounds about right with these guys. And their customers as well.