Psychopath Test Determines Fate of Some Criminals

A psychopath checklist developed by a Canadian psychologist is determining the fate of criminals in America. Robert Hare developed the test based on his study of psychopaths that began in the 1960s, NPR reports. At the time, he tells NPR, the conventional wisdom was that environment, not inborn personality, made people into criminals. Hare didn’t agree. “We have individual differences in intelligence,” Hare said. “Well, we should have individual differences in the personality traits that are responsible or related to crime.” Hare’s studies of prisoners found that psychopaths showed hardly any emotions, measured by differences in heart rate, when they knew they were about to face an intense…