The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson, has been on my radar for a long time. I’m not sure why I never picked it up but through a serendipitous scroll through the audiobooks available online at my public library and listening to an episode of QAnon Anonymous* Ronson appeared on, I checked it out and put Libby to work. Readers, I was absolutely hooked. Between Ronson’s Anglo-Welsh accent and self-deprecating humor, I had a fantastic time riding along with the author as he learned how to spot psychopaths and pondered their effects on the rest of us.
Ronson’s journey into the world of psychopathy began in a strange place: a book-based hoax that had scientists and academics around the world scratching their heads about its meaning. Ronson was asked by someone who was roped into the hoax (prank?) to find out what’s going on. When he finally finds the person mostly likely responsible for the prank (trick?), Ronson has the realization that sometimes there is no rational meaning to strange things. Sometimes, the answer is that someone’s brain works on a fundamentally deeper way from most folks. Before long, Ronson starts calling around to talk to psychologists about psychopathy…and to the psychopaths themselves to try and understand what makes them different. He is fascinated by the ripple effects of the actions of people who are playing from a completely different set of directives than the rest of us.
Much of the book revolves around the work of Bob Hare, a Canadian forensic psychologist who created the Psychopath Checklist in the 1970s. Ronson even signs up to take a three-day workshop taught by Hare and pesters the psychologist more than once to get confirmation about whether something is psychopathic or “normal” human behavior. As Ronson interviews potential psychopaths (criminal and corporate), he refers back to the many characteristics and behaviors enumerated on the Checklist. He also wonders about when his own thoughts might score him a few points on the Checklist. He is assured by one psychologist that, if he worries about being a psychopath, he categorically isn’t one. At one point, he even wonders if his anxiety makes him kind of the opposite of a psychopath. Psychopaths feel no fear; their amygdalas don’t function that way. Ronson sometimes feels nothing but fear.
Ronson has a lot of the same energy as Alie Ward, the host of another of my favorite podcasts, Ologies. Both of them give their curiosities full freedom. They pepper experts with all kinds of weird questions to find out the answers to things they’ve always wondered. I love that energy. I learned so much from The Psychopath Test and I enjoyed every part of this bonkers ride into a world of people who are so very, very different because they don’t feel the same emotions as most, who crave stimulation, and who can be dangerous if you don’t spot them until it’s too late.
*A valuable (and hilarious) resource in my continuing efforts to understand why people believe conspiracy theories with zealous fanaticism.