Unlikely heroes: how psychopaths could save lives

Psychopaths can be beneficial for society because in morally dubious situations they make pragmatic choices for the greater good, a new study suggests.

Although psychopaths are often viewed as dangerous, cold or lacking empathy, in certain situations such traits can be helpful.

It means they would not think twice about shooting down an aircraft to prevent it crashing into a tower-block, or throwing a stranger under a bus to prevent it crashing into five people down the road.

A study led by the University of Plymouth compared people's judgments in moral dilemmas to how they scored in measures of psychopathy. Around one in 100 people are thought to exhibit psychopathic traits.

In each dilemma, participants had to decide whether to sacrifice one person in order to save a larger group of people.

In one moral quandary they were asked to push a victim off a footbridge into the path of a train to stop it hitting several workmen further down the track.

In another scenario, they had to decide whether to stab to death a wounded soldier to avoid him being tortured by enemy troops and giving away secrets that could jeopardise the platoon.

Participants gave their response by squeezing a robotic handle that measured the strength of their action.  A weaker squeeze suggested they would not carry out the morally dubious action.

The research showed that people with strong psychopathic traits were more likely to generate harmful actions with greater physical power, meaning there was a greater chance they would go through with it.

The authors say that in certain circumstances, psychopathic traits could be considered beneficial.

Dr Kathryn Francis, who carried out the study while at Plymouth's School of Psychology, said: "For the first time, we demonstrate how personality traits can influence the physical power of our moral actions. We found that the physical power of simulated utilitarian responses was predicted by individual levels of psychopathy."

Psychopathy is generally characterised by antisocial behaviour and impaired empathy. It is thought that such individuals are, on the whole, bad for society. Psychopathic traits have often been blamed for decisions that have led to financial crises or amoral political behaviour.

Dr Sylvia Terbeck, lecturer in social psychology at Plymouth, said: "This study opens up the possibility to assess psychopathy using virtual reality technology - which is vital to better understand how and why people with these behavioural traits act in certain ways." - The Telegraph, London