The 7 key signs of psychopathy in women
- Expressing violence verbally
- Emotional aggression
- Spreading lies/rumours
- Deceit
- Flirtation
- Seduction
- Manipulation
'For female psychopaths this may veer towards manipulation through seduction, relational aggression, and spreading rumours and lies about people aimed at gaining personal advantage and preferment over those people.'
What's more, people generally attribute general psychopathic characteristics to males rather than to females – such as being insincere, deceitful, antagonistic, unempathetic and lacking in emotional depth.
'Even when females display some of the key traits associated with psychopathy because these are seen as male characteristics they may not be labelled as such, even when they should be,' he said.
Current scientific evidence suggests that male psychopaths outnumber females by around six to one.
But Dr Boddy thinks the real ratio of male to female psychopathy is about 1.2 to one – up to five times higher than previously suggested.
The academic is concerned that studies may be failing to identify female psychopaths because they are largely based around profiles of criminal and male psychopaths.
Part of the problem is a widely-used method to diagnose psychopathy, known as the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which is biased towards identifying male psychopathy signs.
More women are psychopaths than thought - these are the 7 key signs
Dr Clive Boddy, an expert at Anglia Ruskin University, says female psychopaths use sexually seductive behaviour to gain social and financial advantage more than male psychopaths do.
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