Sounds great to me.

Thanks for that link.

To be pedantic, the Hare checklist isn't used to diagnose psychopaths per se given that "psychopathy" isn't a mental illness under the DSM. I'm not sure that the DSM has it right in this instance.

Psychologists would never diagnose just from a "test" - that's the sort of crap that employers do because they want simplicity and psychology is a complex field. A diagnosis from a psychologist often includes tests, but this information is contextualized into a persons broader life. For example, one thing a psychologist would look at it of you turned up at hospital raving that google was spying on you would be how suddenly this belief started, since this type of paranoia could be a sign of anything (drug use or withdrawal, a stroke or brain tumor, a relapse into schitzophrenia, a personality disorder, chronic stress) all of which have a different pattern of onset. Family history, job history, medical records etc are also looked at. Plus they also ask you questions.

While I do agree with the broad point you are making, I think it is the misuse of science outside of the group of people who really understand the science that is the problem here. The fact that science may be misused doesn't make it bad science.Psychology is quite adept at understanding that (a) everyone is capable of "psychopathic" behaviour at times (b) in some situations behaving psychopathically is the expected, normal and sensible way to behave but (c) this doesn't change the fact that some people behave psychopathically with such consistency across situations, and in such inappropraite situations that a diagnosis is appropriate. While culture, learned behaviour and the environment all play a role, current knowledge strongly suggests that some people are "born psychopaths".

Why is there always such a knee-jerk reaction against these studies on Slashdot?

It's interesting that people's tweets reflect their personality. And before you say "well, duh!" to that, the way that people with different psychopathologies use language helps give insights into the part of the brain affected and helps map cognitions. There has been a lot of work on schitzophrenia and language, and I for one find it interesting that some personalitiy types might use more full stops when writing. Who knows, that little piece of information may add with other little bits to help psychologists discover something.

No, but it's about 40-75% of those who are in prison for violent crimes.

True, if by large you mean 2-7%

The majority of people who commit crimes are not psychopathic, but if you are talking about violent crimes, then I would think the number of people with (a) empathy deficits and (b) exploitative attitudes to others then the proportion would skyrocket.

This bit I agree with you.

I didn't take this as a troll - but I do think it's mean spirited.

Brilliant parody! You send up a total nincompoop really well. "I own my own software company". Sheezh!

Overall, I think that the comments being made in reply to your posts proves your general point about sexism being alive and well.

Damn, it's that self-depricating voice in my head again. It sounded like something a very sarcastic teacher used to say to me when my work was substandard: "You worked hard on that, didn't you?" Another one was "You always try hard, don't you?" And then she would look at what I had written and sigh.

Meh. The aliens will fiddle with the time space vortex so that they will have had the recordings before we would have had them.

Other planets? That's nothing. I read an article by a journalist who had gone undercover to audition for Australian Idol. According to her the waiver for the copyright on the footage extended to "this universe, any other universe and beyond".

Thanks you for explaining that. Just to point out, though, that in Australia you can still sue someone who knows they have an STD but does not disclose it to you.

It's not a crazy law. The problem isn't the law, and the problem for Assange isn't facing the charges - even if he is guilty it won't be a big deal. The problem is that there is still some chance that Sweden will extradite him to to the US. And Assange's fellow Australian's will miss out on a chance to vote him into the Senate.

But don't blame the Swedish law; it's just a more advanced country in regards to the human rights of women in this area.