Experts Link Childhood Traits To Higher Psychopathy Risk
August 27, 2025
2:49 pm
Children as young as three can show patterns of behavior that, left unchecked, may later harden into psychopathic traits. That is the conclusion of Professor Essi Viding, a psychologist who has spent years studying how empathy, or the absence of it, takes root in the earliest stages of life.
Psychopathy is not a disorder that suddenly appears in adulthood. Rather, researchers say, it is shaped over time, blending inherited tendencies with lived experience. The hallmarks include a chilling lack of empathy, disregard for others, and, in severe cases, a slide into harmful or criminal behavior.
What Viding and her …
