Due to their often duplicitous nature, it can be hard to identify a psychopath.
.jpg)
But a new study suggests looking at a woman's head movement during a conversation could be a giveaway.
Using head tracking algorithms, experts in New Mexico analyzed recordings of women being interviewed by police. They found that the biggest psychopaths kept their heads very still, just like men.
A stationary stance may be a tactic employed by psychopaths to hide potential clues about their personality or intentions given away by body language. The new study – which claims to be the first linking women psychopaths and nonverbal communication – was led by researchers at the University of New Mexico's Department of Psychology in Albuquerque.
'Nonverbal behaviors (i.e., head dynamics) represent an important, yet understudied, form of communication that may enhance our ability to detect certain forms of psychopathology, including psychopathy,' they say.
'We believe our results help identify a unique pattern of head dynamics characteristic of women scoring high on psychopathy, specifically, exhibiting more stationary head positioning during clinical interview administration.'
Generally, people who are described as psychopaths show traits such as antisocial behavior, untruthfulness, irresponsibility and lack of remorse or empathy.