Why is it so easy to fall in love with psychopaths?

Psychopaths are used to being shown in series and movies as characters who only act out of their thirst for cruelty and sadism.

They think coldly, do not show empathy and are often not only violent, but also engage in activities considered aberrant. Definitely, They are at the antipodes of what could be considered a partner with whom to share a love relationship.

However, people with a high degree of psychopathy who inhabit the real world They are known precisely for their capacity for seduction, so it is easy to fall in love with them. Why is this happening?

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The manipulative character of psychopaths

People who stand out for their level of psychopathy do not have to feel the need to kill or harm people, but there is something about them that is almost always fulfilled: manipulate others, even without realizing it. And they are also very good at this task.

This is for two reasons. On the one hand, psychopaths objectify people

, which means that they do not perceive them so much as beings with a mental life of their own with which they can empathize, but rather as very complex robots or characters in a video game. This characteristic is present in different intensities according to the psychopath: some of them reify totally to others, while others only do so to a significantly greater degree than the average of the population.

On the other hand, reification makes you feel no compunction when lying and manipulating. The only concern when doing it will be that it is not discovered that something is being done socially frowned upon, but beyond this hardly there will be moral limitations that make the behavior of the manipulating or lying psychopath appear unsafe because of an internal struggle.

In other words, in people with a high degree of psychopathy, lies can flow like the water, and saying something that is not true can pose the same moral challenges as snapping fingers.

This makes psychopaths have a very wide range of action when it comes to pretending something they are not, which means that they have more advantages when it comes to seducing and get someone to fall in love with them by deception. All this, in addition, without the need to train in lying.

Detecting the weaknesses of others

In addition to having the ability to offer a totally unreal face of themselves, psychopaths have another trick up their sleeve when it comes to navigating the world of lovemaking by doing traps: are very adept at detecting psychological vulnerabilities in others.

That means that these kinds of people have an amazing ability to know what kind of Actions and initiatives can be appreciated by someone, either due to certain shortcomings or fears and insecurities.

For example, in an investigation it was found that people who obtained high scores on a psychopathy scale were able to intuitively detect who had suffered sexual abuse in the past... just noticing how they walked. This did not happen in people who did not obtain significantly high levels in that test.

In this way, psychopaths start with a type of inside information about the weaknesses of others that can use for their own benefit by offering elements that others need and that they rarely find in other potentials couples Although it sounds cruel, using intimate information to be more desirable can be something that works when it comes to seduction.

Hybristophilia

So far we have seen the seductive potential that psychopaths are able to offer through a mask that hides their propensity for manipulation; that is, in cases where the couple is not fully aware of the psychological singularities of their lover.

However, even in cases where the person with a high degree of psychopathy has become used to acting violently, it is possible to be attracted to this fact. When aggressiveness is rationally articulated in pursuit of an end, it can appear hybristophilia, which is the sexual attraction to violent people willing to commit crimes.

Especially if the person with psychopathic traits is male, the fit between this aggressiveness and gender roles Men contribute to this tendency to harm others to be seen as an expression of manhood and autonomy.

However, hybristophilia is very rare and certainly does not occur in everyone. This does not mean, however, that certain degrees of hostility and aggressiveness cannot be used to find a partner.

The dark thriad and love

Even if aggressiveness and hostility do not turn into crimes, for many people they can be more attractive than the peaceful character; in fact, a concept known as dark thriad, which has many times been related to a pattern of sexual preference for narcissistic, manipulative and psychopathic men.

Why is this happening? It is difficult to find a rational logic beyond the possibility that certain people may be predisposed to feel attracted by extremely individualistic people, whose paradigm is psychopaths.

From an evolutionary perspective, it is reasonable to assume that the genes of some individuals predispose them to seek the company of this class of personalities, since in certain contexts having offspring with people of this class can increase the chances of passing on genes successfully.

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