Research has also shown that staying friends with an ex could make you a possible psychopath. In fact, you can take online quizzes to see if you might have the traits of one (or if you just really, really idolize Hannibal Lecter). RELATED: 1 In 100 People Are Psychopaths — The 3 Personality Traits That Give Them Away According to one particular 2015 study published in Personality and Individual Differences, researchers found that there is a link between being a psychopath and yawning. To be more specific, when you yawn. Baylor University researchers gathered 135 subjects, had them take the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, and then conducted an experiment where they exposed the subjects to yawning. Before we explain further, test yourself with the above video of different people yawning and see how long you can last watching without yawning. How long did you last without yawning? The first 5 seconds? Or all the way to the end? If you gave in to your yawns before the end, congratulations! You are not a psychopath. But, if you didn’t, however, then you might just be one. According to researchers, it all has to do with empathy. One of the signs of being a psychopath is their lack of empathy towards another person. Empathy is known to be one of the core psychological factors that can lead to catching a yawn. Prior studies have noticed this same lack of empathy on children on the autism spectrum (that does not mean, however, that autistic individuals are psychopaths — it just means that they are less likely to catch a yawn). RELATED: Signs Of A Psychopath & The Extremely Painful Aftermath Of Loving One And it wasn’t just the test subjects’ lack of a yawn that researchers tested. They were also tested on how easily they were startled (psychopaths tend to lack fear). The less likely that someone was startled, the less likely they were to yawn. “Of course, this is not a diagnostic tool for psychopathy, but it is an interesting connection, showing how these personality traits affect various behaviors in unexpected ways,” says professor and scientist, Jennifer Golbeck. So, you can relax! Just because you didn’t yawn throughout that whole video doesn’t mean that you’ll start cooking up human flesh like Hannibal. It probably just means that you tend to be ruthless, you don’t usually let your emotions get in the way of what you need to do, and you can easily make tough decisions. It’s still a very interesting study, however. RELATED: 10 Subtle Signs You (Or Someone You Love) Is An Actual Psychopath Caithlin Pena is an editor for YourTango who enjoys books, movies, and writes about astrology and lifestyle topics.
