For the English psychologist Kevin Dutton, unpleasant encounters with psychopaths are like a lesson in life. He visits his country’s closed institutions on a mission: Dutton wants to find out how psychopaths manage to commit half of all serious crimes – even though they make up only one percent of the population.

Why do they continue to deceive or murder normal people? The results of Dutton’s interviews with the inmates of Broadmoor are as fascinating as they are chilling: the brains of psychopaths work differently. While this puts them at some disadvantage in everyday life, the reality is more complex. In some areas of life, psychopaths are even more gifted than average.

What makes psychopaths exceptional?

You could be the surgeon who saves someone’s life – or the man who smashed that someone’s skull. “A psychopathic personality is not a question of black and white. You have to think of it more like a scale or the faders on a DJ console,” says Dutton. If all the controls are turned up to full, you’ll probably end up behind bars for thirty years. But violence is not necessarily one of the criteria for a psychopath – nor is intelligence.

However, these traits determine how a person develops. People who are psychopathic and violent often become criminals. But when intelligence is used instead of violence, many psychopaths end up in parliament or as gods in white. The controls on the psychopath’s console should only be turned up in moderation and in the right combination to have a solid and successful career.

This is when having no remorse helps

Let’s consider the British neurologist Dr. Geraghty (Editor’s note: The names of Dr. Geraghty and all inmates have been altered): Thousands of people trust him and are willing to go under his knife. There are probably only a few characteristics that distinguish him from a dangerous criminal. Geraghty is one of the best in his field, not because of his compassion, but because of his lack of emotion.

“I have no compassion for my patients. I cannot afford myself that luxury. In the operating room, I am reborn as a cold, heartless machine, in tune with scalpel, drill and saw. When you are cutting away and outsmarting death, emotions have no place. They mean insecurity and are bad for business. I have erased my emotions over the years,” he explains.

In the operating room, his brain is focused only on his task. It ruthlessly filters out fear and all other factors that could distract it. Thanks to his ability to push his emotions into the background, Geraghty’s performances are exceptional.

How do I turn off the fear in my head?

Psychopaths would have no problem approaching any supermodel. They won’t be intimidated by anyone, not because of their exceptional social skills, but because fear is a foreign word to them. Their brains are wired differently. “The brains of psychopaths filter out fear. The fear center in the amygdala is never active. This means that a psychopath does not even perceive threats as threats,” Dutton explains.

This trait gives the psychopath nerves of steel and great resilience. This makes some psychopaths ideal soldiers. When selecting its SAS special forces, the British Army goes to great lengths to test the resilience of its recruits to the limit. “You don’t break the psyche with violence itself, but with threats,” one of their instructors is quoted as saying.

Particularly popular: the truck test. He waits for the recruits when they are already physically exhausted. Then the instructors tie up a soldier and place him in front of a truck. They blindfold him. The truck slowly moves forward until the engine is only centimeters away from the soldier’s ear. The noise is just the beginning: the driver jumps out and starts the engine.

Someone in the distance asks if the driver has pulled the handbrake. Now another instructor presses a spare tire to the recruit’s temple – the pressure is increasing. “After a few seconds, we take the tire away, pull off the eye shield and shout at them. At this point, many give up,” explains the instructor.

No fear of anything

Such stress tests are a joke to psychopaths. When Dutton visits the maximum-security Broadmoor prison, the inmates explain why: “It’s got nothing to do with courage. If you’re never afraid, you don’t have to be brave, right? The way I understand fear – and to be honest, I’ve never been afraid – is that it’s usually unfounded anyway. The truck stunt is just a mind game,” says psychopath Leslie.

His tip for everyday life: “Stop your brain from rushing into future scenarios. If you do that, you will gain courage.” Danny, another Broadmoor inmate, has another tip: “The next time you’re really scared, ask yourself: What would I do if I didn’t feel this way? And then just do it.

A psychopath’s motto: “Just do it!”

One example: Almost everyone wants a raise. “But very few people have the courage to ask for it,” says Dutton. “Many people are afraid of what their boss will think or what their colleagues will think of them,” he continues. A psychopath focuses on the positive consequences of the raise.

This makes him more confident and persuasive when he talks to his boss. The result: In all likelihood, he leaves the room with more money than his colleagues. The psychopath doesn’t care what they think of him – his motto is: “Just do it.” This mentality gives psychopaths another advantage: they never procrastinate and therefore work more effectively.

A look into a psychopath’s brain

Researchers at the University of Tübingen have even found a way to make stress training and psychological tricks unnecessary. Using so-called TMS technology, they can give anyone the nerves of steel of a psychopath.
TMS – transcranial magnetic stimulation – works like a light dimmer.

It can inhibit electrical signals in certain areas of the brain. “The emotional center, the amygdala, is crucial to the psychopath experiment,” Dutton points out. TMS literally turns it off, and with it, our fear. The drawback: The effect lasts only about half an hour.