Are you a misanthrope? 14 traits and attitudes of these people

Ours is an increasingly individualistic society, in which great efforts are made to differentiate itself from the crowd. Part of these efforts, which some people have come to call "posture", passes by pretending a studied contempt for other people in general.

However... To what extent is this misanthropy true or just a facade?

What are the characteristics of misanthropes?

Misanthropy is a psychological disposition that is defined by the rejection and contempt of the human species in general. In fact, etymologically this term means hatred of human beings.

That is, misanthropic people do not dislike a specific group of people, however broad, but rather by the entire collective of human persons in general, including individuals who are not known and who are not going to know. Misanthropy is, so to speak, the opposite of philanthropy.

Now, one thing is theory and another is practice. What are the specific characteristics that are peculiar to misanthropic people? The main ones are listed below. However, it must be borne in mind that none of them separately makes the person who presents it a misanthropic, but that this attitude occurs when several of them are present.

1. They manipulate without regrets

Misanthropic people do not have to remain isolated all day, since they know that by manipulating other people they can get rewards. In this sense, misanthropy is related to the traits associated with psychopathy, since if they can obtain personal benefits by exploiting others, there is no moral obstacle that prevents them.

2. They show sadism

A misanthropic person shows no mercy, because the suffering of others is not related to what is morally bad in itself, unless it results in something that hurts oneself. This makes the fact of generating discomfort or pain in others, sometimes, seen as a game, a space of possibilities with which it is possible to experiment.

3. They think they are superior

This is a totally subjective belief that does not depend on the skills or knowledge of others. For all misanthropes people in general are despicable a priori, so any skills they may have are irrelevant. The simple fact of being other people makes the misanthrope alienate his capacity to feel and to be entities with humanity. There is something similar to what someone who plays video games would feel for the characters that appear in them.

4. They spend their free time alone

When you are not working on or carrying out a strategy with long-term goals, misanthropic people spend a large part of their leisure time in activities that can be done alone or in the company of animals not human. The reason for this is that the company of others is not something pleasant in itself, and it can become a hassle.

5. They disregard the rules

Misanthropic people conceive of norms as a code of conduct that exists only to benefit society at large, but for them this goal has no value.

6. They do not feel sorry for the departure or death of others

In some cases, the social circle of people for whom you can feel sorry is reduced to the family, and in some cases there is not even a group that generates special sympathy. Death can come to be seen as liberating.

7. They look down on politics

Politics is an effort to manage social problems, and the latter are not in the interest of misanthropic people. So consider political participation a waste of effort and time unless this is exercised to avoid concrete threats born in the politics itself, and they will advocate for the non-intervention of public institutions. They are defenders of the idea that "each stick holds its candle."

8. They do not understand the spaces for citizen participation

For the same reason as before, misanthropic people fail to understand the meaning of parties, of collective rituals and forms of participation and political organization outside the institutions. It is considered that nothing good can come from the joint organization of several human beings.

9. They build their own morality

Misanthropic people very they seldom structure their morality by adopting it in already agreed ethical ways, such as Christian morality. Instead, they build a value system and an ethical scale to suit you, starting from scratch.

10. His way of expressing emotions is lonely and isolated

Misanthropic people do experience emotions, but these are reflected in solitary acts, which do not need the participation of others to be able to develop. For example, when they experience a feeling of loss, they do not hug someone to cry. The sentimental and emotional is something that ends in oneself, and therefore does not involve others (sometimes it may be possible to keep up appearances out of personal interest).

11. They can come to love other living beings

Misanthropy consists of a contempt that is limited to what is perceived to be human beings. That means yes I know may be attached to other animals, which on many occasions is idealized by attributing all kinds of positive psychological characteristics and relativizing the harmful actions they carry out.

12. His sense of humor is black and twisted

Much of his sense of humor consists of imaginary situations in which attacks, abuse or humiliation occur. It is rarely a sense of humor based on joint identification with everyday situations, but rather is based on crazy and sometimes aberrant scenes.

13. They easily indulge in actual or fictional acts of violence

The imagery of misanthropic people is well stocked with violence and, in general, with situations in which humans are treated as objects that are allowed to break. The reason, as with many other characteristics of misanthropic people, is that from a moral perspective there is no reasons for not doing it, and instead breaking those social norms generates a pleasure linked to crossing the line of the prohibited.

14. They tend to be arrogant

When they can, they are arrogant to others. They don't mind humiliating other people pointing out their flaws or even inventing them and exaggerating them.