People unhappy with their height are ‘more likely to be psychopaths’

Many people just want to be a few inches taller.

But it’s very much a matter of being careful what you desire, as a new study suggests that people with such desires are more likely to have darker personality traits.

Known as the “Dark Triad,” these traits include psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.

The research suggests that people who are relatively short may exhibit hostile behavior in an attempt to compensate for their height deficit.

“Shorter people, especially those who wish they were taller, are more characterized by traits that make them more likely to show off, engage in confrontation and be interested in power,” said lead author Peter K. Jonason of the University of Padua in Italy.

People with psychopathic traits have a lack of empathy, impulsiveness, and a disregard for social norms and rules, while narcissists have an inflated sense of self-importance, entitlement, and a need for admiration.

Machiavellianism, meanwhile, pertains to someone who is manipulative, cynical, and lacking in morality.

Jonason added, “One of the reasons these traits have become so popular to study is the claim that they may be adaptive – if socially undesirable – solutions for status/partner/survival attainment, calibrated on both dispositional characteristics such as the ability to compete as the context. people grew up in (mainly) and current circumstances (less).’

Short men generally had more narcissistic traits than short women, but there was no significant difference between the sexes in terms of psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

“We expected these relationships to be stronger in men given evolutionary and Freudian considerations, but we found little evidence for differentiation of these correlations by sex,” Jonason said.

The researchers used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to recruit 367 US adults for their study.

They then asked them to complete the Dirty Dozen Dark Triad Questionnaire, which is designed to assess levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.

The researchers also asked the participants about their actual height and how much they agreed with the statements “I wish I were taller” and “I’m happy with my height.”

The research suggests that people who are relatively short may exhibit hostile behavior in an attempt to compensate for their height disadvantage (Pictured: Christian Bale as gentle killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)

Their findings revealed that shorter people and those who wanted to be taller tended to show more psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.

The question is why sHorter people tend to have more dark features?

The authors said: ‘These relationships are best understood from an evolutionary framework, suggesting that when humans cannot be physically formidable, they may instead be psychologically formidable.’

In other words, if someone is physically inferior or weaker, they try to find a psychological advantage to get back on a level playing field.

This may also provide benefits in survival and mating, the researchers suggest.

For example, shorter men may demand respect, gain resources, and impress romantic partners with their personality traits, while shorter women may use trickery to appear more attractive or gain protection and resources.

The new study is published in Personality and individual differences.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DISCOVER A PSYCHOPAT?

Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder.

Common symptoms include superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, the need for stimulation and impulsiveness, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others, and a lack of remorse and empathy.

But despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become murderers.

Experts claim people usually find psychopaths intriguingbut can’t put a finger on why.

This is due to incongruous behavior, because psychopaths tend to do a lot to deceive, or mimic normal reactionssometimes rapidly changing their views and reactions.

For example, self-proclaimed psychopath Jacob Wells said that when he meets someone he tries to “become the most interesting person they know” and presumably assumes appropriate interests and responses to do so.

His reaction also betrays another common trait – a grandiose sense of self – in that he can be the most interesting person in the room.

Psychopaths occasionally have a tendency to show unconvincing emotional responseswith slips including intonation or body language.

This may be because they cannot understand emotions such as fear and love, but they can mimic them.

Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder, but common symptoms include superficial charm and the ability to manipulate others. Despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become murderers (stock image)

In general, psychopaths’ “emotions” are superficial and short-lived, and there is a manipulative ulterior motive for showing them.

Mr. Wells, for example, said that he offers to do favors and tells false secrets to gain people’s full trust.

He also shows insincere charm – another characteristic associated with psychopaths.

He says, “I keep secrets and tell them fake secrets to further gain their trust, and once they trust me enough, I ask for favors and remind them of the favors I’ve done them. I can literally get anything from them, which is really handy.”

Psychopaths usually exhibit a incredible ability to manipulate others and sometimes enjoy it.

Psychopaths often have an air of superiority about them, perhaps showing Mr. Wells’ belief that he can recognize other psychopaths

Even expert Dr. Hare, who devised the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), which is used as a diagnostic tool to determine where someone lies on the psychopathy spectrum, warns that anyone can be tricked during a brief interaction with a psychopath .