Psychopaths, Politicians Share Some Traits, Psychologist Says

Politicans and criminal psychopaths share some important behavioral traits, a leading British psychologist said Wednesday. "Psychopaths lie easily. They get pleasure from duping people, whereas politicians lie for a purpose," David Cook, lecturer at Glasgow's Caledonian University, said at the British Psychologial Society's annual conference in York. Cook and colleagues interviewed 105 repeat offenders in Scottish prisons and found that a combination of social and biological factors contributed to psychopathic behavior. "Difficult childhoods tended to be a common thread," Cook said. "Psychopaths tend to be grandiose, they don't feel guilt and they dont maintain stable relationships," he added. Politicians share those characteristics, he said.