The woman who says you can spot a psychopath at three years old

Telegraph

5 days ago

There is little Prof Viding, 50, hasn't seen in the 25 years she has been researching psychopathy and young people's mental health, and she spent two years conducting studies on inmates at Wormwood Scrubs prison and Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital.
'It struck me that when you read prisoners' case histories, there were warning signs that had been there long before they committed their crimes,' she recalls.
Ted Bundy, the notorious American serial killer, was a prime example of this: as a child he liked to dig holes in the ground, laced with spikes, for passers-by to fall in and hurt themselves. He also used to buy mice at the pet shop and pull them apart.
Over the years, there have been even more alarming reports: babies who repeatedly bite their mother's breasts; toddlers who pretend to hug their parents and headbutt them instead.
One of Prof Viding's studies looked at the genetic predisposition to psychopathy in seven-year-old twins, finding that CU traits have a 'strong genetic influence'.
In other words, some children are born more likely to develop personality features that could be red flags.
'No one is born a psychopath'
'You see families where there are concentrations of these traits,' Prof Viding explains. 'No one is born a psychopath and the genes are not a blueprint, but there are people whose genetic makeup means that they are at higher risk than others.'
Our genes and our early social environment shape how the brain processes emotional and social information – and the brains of children at risk of developing psychopathy are different from those of other children, showing little response to emotional stimuli that would normally induce fear. They also tend to have a low resting heart rate, typically associated with stress resilience. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in 2021 found that children whose hearts beat faster at the age of eight were at lower risk of developing adult psychopathy, despite having adverse childhood experiences.
'Children with conduct problems and CU traits, and adults with psychopathy, are poor at feeling what others are feeling, known as emotional empathy,' Prof Viding adds. 'On a conceptual level, they understand it, but that is not the same as feeling it.
'They are better at cognitive empathy, so they can work out what makes someone tick, but they don't care if they make others distressed. This combination makes for a powerful tool for manipulation.'
The latter will chime with most parents – my three-year-old certainly has me wrapped around his little finger – but, if anything, my kids feel too many big emotions, not too few.
'Interventions can work'
It's not all bad news, however, even if a child displays these traits from a young age.
Several studies around adoption show that children at risk of developing worrying behaviours because of their biological family history, if they go on to be adopted by warm, loving parents, are less likely to see those behaviours worsen as they get older. Treatment, Prof Viding says, is effective, such as adapting parenting styles, learning how to help a child regulate their differing reactions, and seeking ongoing professional help in which a therapist works with both child and parents.
'With any behaviour, the more rooted it gets, the more difficult it becomes to intervene. But we know that interventions in adolescents and adults can also work, so the message should not be that if you don't get there in the first five years, it's useless.'
Unfortunately, she adds, getting help to the children who need it is easier said than done, as those who exhibit these tendencies often come from families where their parents have complex issues of their own (such as addiction, mental-health difficulties or problems with the law).
'It is harder to elicit sympathy for children who don't play by the rules and behave in ways that can be unpleasant or downright dangerous,' she says. 'It is an uphill battle to get funding to help these children, even though it would be in society's interest.'
A mother herself, to two teenagers aged 15 and 17, Prof Viding understands only too well the parenting rollercoaster – and how difficult dealing with an unruly child, let alone one showing worryingly abnormal personality traits, can be.
'I get emails on a weekly basis from parents who are concerned and don't know where to turn,' she admits. 'It's heartbreaking.
'At the moment in the UK, the health service is incredibly reluctant to diagnose conduct disorder, so the parents often have to wait until things are so bad they can no longer cope or their child is in trouble with the law.'
But, she insists, no child is beyond reprieve – nor is anyone's little darling 'destined' to become a psychopath. Cue a collective parental sigh of relief.