Dr. Leanne Tenbrinke

And there is also a component of our environment.

So we do know that harsh parenting practices and outright abuse as children can also increase the likelihood that kids start to show these callous and unemotional traits.

And that tends to continue throughout their lives.

So I think this is one of the most pervasive myths about psychopathy in particular.

We tend to think that individuals with these traits are completely unchangeable.

Now, granted, it is very difficult to change.

It is very difficult to change any aspect of our personality.

And people with these traits tend not to be particularly motivated to change.

But there is evidence that if they get involved in therapy,

And if they stick it out long enough, we do see decreases in violent recidivism rates.

So usually this research is done in the prison population.

And the goal there is to decrease the likelihood that they will reoffend and come back to prison.

A more hopeful kind of outcome is what we see with kids who have some of these emergent traits.

You know, we don't call kids with some of these traits psychopaths.

We don't use that term for them because of that stigma, that concern, you know, that they cannot change because that's not true because kids with these traits actually can become more empathic, less aggressive over time with the right treatment.

And the answer is both yes and no to what you just asked.

Yes, they do.

They are quite aware of their personality traits.

And one of the ways that we measure these personality traits often is with self-report questionnaires.

So we literally ask someone about how callous they are, how often they lie to other people, how impulsive they are.