Just as suspected - D.C. top spot for psychopaths

It's not a joke. Our nation's capitol really is full of psychopaths - and your state might be as well, according to a new working study from Southern Methodist University.

The new analysis, which has not gone through full peer review but was published to the Social Science Research Network, ranked the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia by the psychopathic personality markers — or "traits" — of their residents.

“These results are the first estimates we have, to the best of my knowledge, on the degree of psychopathy found in each state," Ryan Murphy, author of the study, told Newsweek.

Murphy computed each state's ranking by building on a previous study that ranked each state based on each of the "Big Five" personality traits: agreeableness, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism.

Murphy wrote that people should take the capitol's top spot with a little bit of skepticism. The D.C. area is small, and entirely urban, so it is inherently different than comparing a state, which has a more diverse geography and population, he wrote.

Still, Murphy said in his study that the finding is consistent with a different study that found "psychopaths are likely to be effective in the political sphere" and could be tempted to work in the "literal seat of power."

In general, Murphy writes that areas of the northeast are the most psychopathic, while rural areas are the least psychopathic, and that D.C. appears to be "far more" psychopathic on its own than any state in the country.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article213437319.html#storylink=cpy