Psychopaths are most likely to live in these 4 states, a frightening new study reveals
A recent study conducted by Ingo Zettler, Lau Lilleholt, Benjamin E. Hilbig, Morten Moshagen, and Martina Bader at the University of Copenhagen found that humans display different levels of dark personality traits depending on their location and the concentration of aversive societal conditions (ASC) that place possesses.
4 Human rights conditions and gender inequalities were also considered as factors within the study.
Christopher Sadowski
Advertisement
Dark personality traits, or the dark triad, are recognized by psychologists as psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism — the desire or urge to exploit others.
Meanwhile, ASC can be defined as societal circumstances that occur on a large, collective scale, such as exploitation, fraud, corruption, inequality, and violence, among others.
'It is relatively well known that both genetic and socio-ecological factors shape individuals' personality. However, respective research has hardly considered ethically or socially aversive personality characteristics,' Ingo Zettler, co-author and point-person on the study, told Newsweek.
Advertisement
The study, published in 2025, took place across a period of 20 years, in which researchers studied global correlations between general living conditions and the percentage of the population that possesses dark traits.
4 States with high rates of both poverty and crime, large income disparities, and minimized healthcare access tend to produce people who exhibit more dark personality traits as a result of individual hardship.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
The study probed 183 countries across the world with a total of 1,791,542 participants.
In their exploration of the correlation between dark personality traits and aversive social conditions, the researchers examined the U.S. through the lens of individual states.
Advertisement
Data was gathered via survey, and for the U.S.-focused portion of the study, used Census data on socioeconomic disparity and poverty, FBI homicide rates, and Justice Department corruption sentences to draw conclusions.
Within the U.S., researchers looked into all 50 states and compiled responses from 144,576 Americans.
4 (A) Aversive Societal Conditions Index (ASCI) across countries. (B) Differences in mean levels of D across countries with at least 100 participants. (C) Scatterplot of ASCI and mean levels of D by country with at least 100 participants. (D) ASCI across US states. (E) Differences in mean levels of D across US states with at least 100 participants. (F) Scatterplot of ASCI and mean levels of D by US state with at least 100 participants. Except for panels (A) and (D), we excluded countries/states with fewer than 100 participants to avoid potentially misrepresenting a country/state based on very few participants only. The theoretical range of the ASCI is 0 to 100, and the theoretical range of D is 1 to 5. The means of the ASCI were 38.26 (SD = 23.24) for the worldwide and 46.26 (SD = 17.09) for the US analyses, and the means of D were 2.52 (SD = 0.74) for the worldwide and 2.17 (SD = 0.74) for the US analyses. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500830122
Zettler et al., PNAS
'The more adverse conditions in a society, the higher the level of the dark factor of personality among its citizens,' Zettler summarized. 'Aversive personality traits are associated with behaviors such as aggression, cheating, and exploitation — and thus with high social costs. Therefore, even small variations can lead to large differences in how societies function.'
Advertisement
Urban areas of the United States tend to house extraordinarily economically diverse populations — cities like Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco — in close concentration, which can lead to tensions and concerns over quality of life and equal access to essential resources, resulting in higher D levels.
4 Often, studies of personality view dark traits as predominantly genetic, or inborn, but these findings suggest it can be more flexible.
Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
On the other hand, rural areas — like much of Vermont, Utah, Maine, and Oregon, the four states with the lowest probability of producing individuals as a result of living conditions — are more likely to be geographically isolated and relatively economically balanced, per findings from the study.
'Because you might grow up in a country with a high ASC, you're not necessarily fated to become an immoral, exploitative, and self-centered individual,' wrote Susan Krauss Whitbourne in Psychology Today. 'What the findings suggest, instead, is that consistent with the adaptational hypothesis, people may acquire a tendency toward high levels of D if that's what they see around them, or if their own economic deprivation and hardship are particularly pronounced.'
'Our findings substantiate that personality is not just something we are born with, but also shaped by the society we grew up and live in,' Zettler concluded.
'This means that reforms that reduce corruption and inequality not only create better living conditions just now, they may also contribute to mitigating aversive personality levels among the citizens in the future.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
8 hours ago
- The Hill
MAGA, MAHA split on pesticides
MAHA, a movement aimed at tackling the nation's chronic disease epidemic through food, health and environmental reforms, has been deeply skeptical of Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, and Big Chemical. MAHA groups have been strongly aligned with the Trump administration's actions to date on vaccines and food. But cracks are beginning to form. MAHA-aligned groups and influencers are raising alarms about provisions in a House appropriations bill they say will shield pesticide and chemical manufacturers from accountability — and ultimately make Americans less healthy. Meanwhile, a draft of the administration's 'MAHA Report' on children's health reportedly omits any calls to prevent pesticide exposure, also disappointing advocates. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his disciples espouse stricter environmental protections, while also bucking mainstream science on vaccine safety. Conservatives have traditionally sided with big business, supporting fewer regulations on potentially toxic substances. So far, business interests appear to be winning. The industry-friendly draft of a report from a commission run by Kennedy shows just how much the White House has been able to rein him in. 'It's obvious that there are tensions within this newfound coalition between MAHA and MAGA, and there are some big issues there,' said Mary Holland, CEO of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy. While the pesticide issues have generated some sparks between MAHA and MAGA, the administration has taken a number of other actions to also reduce restrictions on the chemical industry more broadly. Trump himself exempted from environmental standards more than 100 polluters, including chemical manufacturers, oil refineries, coal plants and medical device sterilizers. The EPA, meanwhile, has put chemical industry alumni in leading roles and has said it wants to loosen restrictions on emissions of various cancer-linked chemicals. 'Those factions, if you will — more protective of corporate and more challenging to corporate — are both striving to get the president's ear, and I don't think they've come to a complete, sort of settlement agreement,' Holland said.
Atlantic
8 hours ago
- Atlantic
Bring on the ‘MAHA Boxes'
Millions of Americans might soon have mail from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The health secretary—who fiercely opposes industrial, ultraprocessed foods—now wants to send people care packages full of farm-fresh alternatives. They will be called 'MAHA boxes.' For the most part, MAHA boxes remain a mystery. They are mentioned in a leaked draft of a much-touted report the Trump administration is set to release about improving children's health. Reportedly, the 18-page document—which promises studies on the health effects of electromagnetic radiation and changes in how the government regulates sunscreen, among many other things—includes this: 'MAHA Boxes: USDA will develop options to get whole, healthy food to SNAP participants.' In plain English, kids on food stamps might be sent veggies. The idea might seem like a throwaway line in a wish list of policies. (Kush Desai, a deputy White House press secretary, told me that the leaked report should be disregarded as 'speculative literature.') But MAHA boxes are also referenced in the budget request that President Donald Trump sent Congress in May. In that document, MAHA boxes full of 'commodities sourced from domestic farmers and given directly to American households' are proposed as an option for elderly Americans who already get free packages of shelf-stable goods from the government. When I asked the Department of Health and Human Services for more information about MAHA boxes, a spokesperson referred me back to the White House; the Department of Agriculture, which runs the food-stamp program, did not respond. MAHA boxes are likely to come in some form or another. Some of the packages might end up in the trash. Lots of people, and especially kids, do not enjoy eating carrots and kale. Just 10 percent of U.S. adults are estimated to hit their daily recommended portion of vegetables. But if done correctly, MAHA boxes could do some real good. For years, nutrition experts have been piloting similar programs. A recent study that provided diabetic people with healthy meal kits for a year found that their blood sugar improved, as did their overall diet quality. Another, which provided people with a delivery of fruits and vegetables for 16 weeks, showed that consumption of these products increased by nearly half a serving per day. It makes sense: If healthy food shows up at your door, you're probably going to eat it. 'Pretty much any American is going to benefit from a real healthy food box,' Dariush Mozaffarian, the director of the Tufts Food Is Medicine Institute, told me. Sending people healthy food could be a simple way to deal with one of the biggest reasons why poor Americans don't eat more fruits and veggies. The food-stamp program, otherwise known as SNAP, provides enrollees with a debit card they can use for food of their choosing—and a significant portion of SNAP dollars go to unhealthy foods. Research finds that has less to do with people having a sweet tooth than it does the price of a pound of brussel sprouts. Several studies have found that, for food-stamp recipients, price is one of the biggest barriers to eating healthy. Many states already have incentives built into SNAP to encourage consumption of fruits and vegetables. MAHA boxes would be an even more direct nudge. Most nutrition experts I spoke with for this story were much more supportive of MAHA boxes being sent to Americans in addition to food stamps than as a replacement for them. Exactly how the care packages would fit into other food-assistance programs isn't yet clear. Despite its shortcomings, SNAP is very effective at limiting hunger in America. Shipping heavy boxes of produce to the nation's poor is a much bigger undertaking than putting cash on a debit card. There's also the question of what exactly these MAHA boxes will include. If the 'whole, healthy food' in each care package includes raw milk and beef tallow —which Kennedy has promoted—that would only worsen American health. (His own eating habits are even more questionable: Kennedy once said that he ate so many tuna sandwiches that he developed mercury poisoning.) In May, after the Trump administration mentioned MAHA boxes in its budget request, a White House spokesperson told CBS News that the packages would be similar to food boxes that the first Trump administration sent during the pandemic in an effort to connect hungry families with food that would otherwise go to waste. According to a letter signed by Trump that was sent to recipients, each box was supposed to come with 'nutritious food from our farmers.' News reports at the time suggested that wasn't always the case. One recipient reportedly was shipped staples such as onions, milk, some fruit, and eggs, along with seven packages of hot dogs and two blocks of processed cheese. Another described their box as 'a box full of old food and dairy and hot dogs.' The COVID-era program did eventually deliver some 173 million food boxes. But it was still a failure, Gina Plata-Nino of the Food Research & Action Center, an organization that advocates for people on food-assistance programs, told me. The logistics were such a mess that they prompted a congressional investigation. Nonprofits, which helped distribute the packages, received 'rotten food and wet or collapsing boxes,' investigators were told. And the setup of the program was apparently so rushed that the government did not bother to check food distributors' professional references; investigators concluded that a 'company focused on wedding and event planning without significant food distribution experience' was awarded a $39 million contract to transport perishables to food banks. This time around, the White House doesn't have to navigate the urgency of a sudden pandemic in its planning. But questions remain about who exactly will be responsible for getting these boxes to millions of Americans around the country. The White House will likely have to partner with companies that have experience shipping perishable items to remote areas of the country. And although the White House budget says that MAHA boxes will replace a program that primarily provides canned foods to seniors through local food banks, it remains to be seen whether these organizations would have the resources to administer a program of this size. Perhaps the Trump administration has already thought through all these potential logistical hurdles. But trouble with executing grand plans to improve American health has been a consistent theme throughout Trump's tenures in office. In 2020, for example, he pledged to send seniors a $200 discount card to help offset rising drug costs. The cards never came amid questions about the legality of the initiative. Americans do need to change their eating habits if we hope to improve our collective problems of diet-related disease. Getting people excited about the joys of eating fruits and vegetables is laudable. So, too, are some of Kennedy's other ideas on food, such as getting ultraprocessed foods out of school cafeterias. But Kennedy still hasn't spelled out how he will deliver on these grand visions. The government hasn't even defined what an ultraprocessed food is, despite wanting to ban them. The ideas are good, but a good idea is only the first step.
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
At least 600 CDC employees are getting final termination notices, union says
NEW YORK (AP) — At least 600 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from layoffs but not others. The notices went out this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at CDC. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday did not offer details on the layoffs and referred an AP reporter to a March statement that said restructuring and downsizing were intended to make health agencies more responsive and efficient. AFGE officials said they are aware of at least 600 CDC employees being cut. But 'due to a staggering lack of transparency from HHS," the union hasn't received formal notices of who is being laid off,' the federation said in a statement on Wednesday. The permanent cuts include about 100 people who worked in violence prevention. Some employees noted those cuts come less than two weeks after a man fired at least 180 bullets into the CDC's campus and killed a police officer. 'The irony is devastating: The very experts trained to understand, interrupt and prevent this kind of violence were among those whose jobs were eliminated,' some of the affected employees wrote in a blog post last week. On April 1, the HHS officials sent layoff notices to thousands of employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies, part of a sweeping overhaul designed to vastly shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans' health. Many have been on administrative leave since then — paid but not allowed to work — as lawsuits played out. A federal judge in Rhode Island last week issued a preliminary ruling that protected employees in several parts of the CDC, including groups dealing with smoking, reproductive health, environmental health, workplace safety, birth defects and sexually transmitted diseases. But the ruling did not protect other CDC employees, and layoffs are being finalized across other parts of the agency, including in the freedom of information office. The terminations were effective as of Monday, employees were told. Affected projects included work to prevent rape, child abuse and teen dating violence. The laid-off staff included people who have helped other countries to track violence against children — an effort that helped give rise to an international conference in November at which countries talked about setting violence-reduction goals. 'There are nationally and internationally recognized experts that will be impossible to replace,' said Tom Simon, the retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention. ___
