Streams of Psycho

A colleague today told a about a recent work trip where he was in Austin, Texas. He likes to run and as the days were long (with other colleagues of mine), he would jog after dinner, in the evening. But, after a couple days, he heard that where he was running along the river, is also the hunting ground for a potential serial killer, the Rainey Street killer, who may be responsible for a dozen or so deaths in the area over the last couple years.

The estimate from the FBI is that at any given time, there are over 20 active serial killers in the United States, and possibly far more. Which if you think about it, is pretty incredible really, until you do the math.

The estimate is that between 1-4 percent of people are psychopathic. This doesn't mean that they are evil people, it is just that they have some of the tendencies of a psychopath. However, if we use the lower limit of 1 percent for ease of calculation, the numbers are pretty interesting.

8 billion people on earth = 80,000,000 psychos.

That sounds like a lot, but at the same time, most of these aren't necessarily violent, at least not in the traditional sense of the word where they are killing people with their bare hands. However, psychopaths make for good politicians and business leaders, so they might be killing people via proxy. But, that is something I might get to later. But, if we assume that 1 percent (likely closer 10 percent) of the psychos are indeed violent, we would have 0.001% of the population.

80 million psychos = 800,000 violent psychos.

800 thousand sounds like a lot of violent people, but spread between 8 billion people, they probably just mostly blend into the news and of course, some of them are in prison already. For example in the US, there are currently about 1.2 million people in prison, which is 0.03 of the population. Perhaps 30% of the prison population are psychos? I have no idea.

But, what is interesting is to be considered genius enough to get into Mensa, it requires an IQ of about 130. This translates to 2% of the population. It is likely that psychopathy, like intelligence, is a trait from birth, but it could be affected by environmental conditions. Regardless, what this means is that about 2 percent of the psychos are also considered genius, with IQs above 130.

800,000 violent psychos = 16,000 genius, violent psychos.

That is on a global level of course, but it is a pretty bloody high number to think about. And then, what kinds of violence do they perpetrate? They likely aren't all going around in the middle of the night hunting their prey, but they could be in militaries, militias, drug cartels, organized crime and the like. They can use their genius psychopathy to earn a living, and not get caught.

But, what this means for the US with a population of about 350 million people, is that right now on the lower limits, there are 3.5 million psychos, 35,000 violent psychos, and 7,000 genius, violent psychos. And, if one percent of the genius-level violent psychos are indeed serial killers, that would mean that there are about 70 in the US right now, which is pretty close to the estimate by the FBI.

And, I would like to point out, that this is being pretty conservative with the numbers, because it is likely that there are more percentage-wise than the numbers I have used here. And, remember that genius level is on a scale, so that can mean that some percentage of that 7,000 are very, very smart.

But, it is also good to remember that while 2 percent of the violent psychos are geniuses, the other 98 percent are not. This means that they are mostly just normal people in the midrange, and very stupid in the low range - but still violent psychos.

I wonder, while the prospect of being hunted and killed by a serial killer is scary for most of us, especially since they make such good characters in films and books, is it the other 98 percent that we really should be worrying about? The ones that are indiscriminately violent, the ones that lose their temper in the moment and reach for the nearest weapon, no matter who is around to see?

The other question is, that while psychopaths might be part of us by nature, are we also creating psychopathic tendencies through nurture? Is our culture encouraging the development of psychopaths and sociopaths, or the mimicking of their behaviors?

This is a list of "psychopathic traits" taken from a search:

Lack of Empathy: Psychopaths have difficulty understanding and sharing the feelings of others.
Callousness: They show little concern for the well-being of others and may even take pleasure in causing harm.
Detachment: Psychopaths often appear emotionally flat, lacking in emotional response or depth.
Manipulativeness: They may use charm, lies, or coercion to achieve their goals.
Self-absorption: Psychopaths tend to be overly focused on their own needs, desires, and interests.
Entitlement: They may believe they are above the law and deserving of special treatment.
Conceit: Psychopaths often have an inflated sense of their own abilities and importance.
Impulsivity: They may act on sudden urges without considering the consequences.
Premeditated Offenses: Psychopaths are more likely to plan and execute deliberate, calculating crimes.
Lack of Remorse: They show little to no guilt or regret for their actions, even when harming others.
Constant Lying: Psychopaths may engage in habitual deception to achieve their goals or maintain a false image.
Sensation-Seeking: They may be drawn to risky or thrill-seeking behaviors.

Scroll through social medias, influencers and generation-Z in general, and how many can you tick off on your bingo card? A lot of the social media incentives tend to bring out a lot of these behaviors.

We might call it a social feed, but for some of us, it might be more a menu.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]