or psychopaths, not onlya lack of affect but alsoinappropriate emotion

may reveal the extent of theircallousness. Recent researchsuggested that much can belearned about these individualsby close examination of theirlanguage. Their highly per-suasive nonverbal behavioroften distracts the listenerfrom identifying their psycho-pathic nature. For example,on a publically available police

interview with murderer andrapist Paul Bernardo, hispowerful use of communica-tion via his hand gesturing iseasily observable and oftendistracts from his spoken lies.2

The authors offer their insightsinto the unique considerationspertaining to psychopaths'communication.

PsychopathyRobert Pickton, convicted

of the second-degree murder of

six women in December 2007,initially was on trial for 26counts of first-degree murder.He once bragged to a cellmatethat he intended to kill 50 wom-en. Details provided in court re-vealed brutal and heinous mur-ders that often included torture,degradation, and dismember-ment of the victims. The authorsopine that Mr. Pickton proba-bly would meet the criteria forpsychopathy, a destructive per-sonality disorder that combines

28 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin

a profound lack of consciencewith several problematic inter-personal, emotional, and behav-ioral characteristics.

Consistent with psychopa-thy, Robert Pickton's self-reportand presentation during hisinterrogation showed a man de-void of emotion. His demeanorduring this lengthy questioningreflected detachment and bore-dom. During most of his trial,Mr. Pickton was described asemotionless. Individuals pres-ent in court expressed dismayover his lack of emotion duringthe reading of horrifying impactstatements.

With the nonchalant andemotionless demeanor of a psy-chopath, Robert Pickton wouldmake an interesting case study.Reviewing his videotaped self-report with the sound muted, itappeared that he was reportingsome mundane incident, ratherthan detailed accounts of theheinous murders he committed.

A psychopath recently in-terviewed by one of the authorsrecounted a vicious murder hehad committed. "We got, uh, wegot high, and had a few beers. Ilike whiskey, so I bought somewhiskey, we had some of that,and then we, uh, went for aswim, and then we made lovein my car, then we left to go getsome more, some more boozeand some more drugs." A recentstudy explained how this narra-tive might reveal important

information regarding the mind-set of a psychopath.3

Conning, manipulation, anda desire to lie for the sake ofgetting away with it-often re-ferred to as "duping delight"-are well known characteristicsof the psychopath. These be-haviors, combined with a self-confident swagger and ability todistract the listener with gran-diose self-presentation, make itdifficult to properly follow theirself-report.

Individuals'language is one of the

best ways to gleaninsight into their

thoughts and generaloutlook.

Analysis and TechnologyIndividuals' language is one

of the best ways to glean insightinto their thoughts and generaloutlook. Recent advances intechnology make it possibleto examine more closely thelanguage of various clinicalpopulations through automaticlinguistic analysis programs.These applications can dif-ferentiate between a varietyof individual and personalityfactors.' The tools range from

simple to sophisticated, butthey all essentially identify lin-guistic patterns and count theirfrequency relative to a controllanguage.

Considering the speech ofnarcissists, they use languagerelated to the self more thannonnarcissistic people becauseof their primary concern withthemselves. To analyze this, aprogram could count the num-ber of times the words "I,""me," or "my" occurred in aperson's speech and comparethat to the general population. Anarcissist's speech should havea higher percentage of thesetypes of words.

Until recently, these toolshave not been used to ana-lyze the speech production ofcriminals and psychopathicindividuals. A previous studyusing human coders foundthat there are differences inthe speech of psychopaths andnonpsychopaths. Experts foundthat psychopaths more likelywill exaggerate the spontaneityof their homicides. They maylabel a cold-blooded murderas a crime of passion and omitincriminating details of whatoccurred during the act.'

Research on speech acous-tics indicated that psychopathsdo not differentiate in voiceemphasis between neutral andemotional words. Other anal-ysis suggested that the speechnarratives of these individuals

July 2012 / 29

are organized poorly and inco-herent.6 This is surprising be-cause psychopaths are excellentstorytellers who successfullycon others.

This finding leads to theinteresting question of howpsychopaths can have suchmanipulative prowess. Inaddition to their skilled use ofbody language, recent researchindicated that they are skilled atfaking emotional expressions,approaching the skill level ofemotionally intelligent individu-als, despite being largely devoidof emotion.' They are capableof adopting various masks,appearing empathetic and re-morseful to the extent that theycan talk and cry their way outof parole hearings at a higherrate than their less dangerouscounterparts.

Language analysis toolsindicate that many aspects oflanguage are not consciouslycontrollable by the speaker.Words that linguists call func-tion words are unconsciouslyproduced by people. Theseinclude pronouns, such as"I," "me," and "my"; preposi-tions like "to" and "from"; andlikewise, articles "a" and "the."Words can reveal the innerworkings of a person's mind,such as the narcissist's focus onthe self While word patternseasily are measured by comput-er programs, they are difficultfor human coders to determinebecause people tend to ignore

function words and focus oncontent words (verbs and nouns,such as "kill" and "knife").Because psychopaths are skilledat manipulating, deceiving,and controlling their self-pre-sentation, a computerized toolexamining subtle aspects oftheir language represents a newavenue to uncover importantinsights into their behavior anddiagnosis.

Two automated text analy-sis tools-Wmatrix and theDictionary of Affect and Lan-guage-were used by research-ers to examine for the first timethe crime narratives of a groupof psychopathic and nonpsycho-pathic murderers.' The resultsindicated that when describ-ing their murders, psychopathsmore likely would provideinformation about basic needs,such as food, drink, and money.For example, in the earlier nar-rative, the offender talked abouteating, drinking, and taking

drugs the day he committed themurder.

Psychopathic murderersdiffer in other ways of speaking.Compared with nonpsycho-paths, they make fewer refer-ences to social needs relatingto family and friends. Researchindicated that the selfish, instru-mental, goal-driven nature ofpsychopaths and their inabilityto focus on emotional aspects ofan event is discernable by close-ly examining their language.'Psychopaths' language is lessemotionally intense. They usemore past-tense verbs in theirnarrative, suggesting a greaterpsychological and emotionaldetachment from the incident.

The authors' study was thefirst step in using automatedlanguage analysis to furtherthe understanding of thepsychopath's mind-set and tobegin developing a programfor suggesting an individual'spsychopathy. An ongoingstudy is attempting to examinelanguage differences in non-criminal individuals who havehigh psychopathic indicators.

Interrogators andInvestigators

Considering the nature ofpsychopathy and the fascinat-ing aspects of the psychopath'slanguage, law enforcement offi-cials should keep certain pointsin mind when interviewing orinteracting with these individu-als. During an interview, Ted

30 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin

Bundy once said, "I don't feelguilty for anything. I feel sorryfor people who feel guilt."

Psychopaths are incapableof identifying with or caringabout the emotional pain thatthey have caused victims ortheir families, so any strategyto appeal to the psychopath'sconscience probably will bemet with failure and frustration.This type of strategy will provea waste of time. It may irritatepsychopathic individuals andcause them to be less inclinedto continue to engage with theirinterviewers.

Interrogators should remainaware of the psychopath's non-verbal skills-body languageand facial expressions that cre-ate displays of sincerity-usedfor deceit in the interview room.Psychopaths are master manipu-lators who have fooled manyprofessionals. To facilitate theidentification of an individualas a psychopath, it is importantto collect as much language aspossible. Interviews with sus-pected psychopaths should berecorded for analysis.

Social MediaAs the number of people

online increases, so does theamount of criminally mindedindividuals using the Web. Thisincludes psychopathic indi-viduals aware that this may be afruitful environment for victim-izing others. Individuals moti-vated to lie do worse when they

are face-to-face with a potentialvictim. Recent research illus-trated that computer-mediatedenvironments, such as text-based chatrooms, enhance theability of liars to get away withtheir lies."

Despite the difficulties pre-sented by Internet exchanges,several opportunities exist. Themajority of online communica-tion is text based, which meansthat unlike face-to-face con-tact, online interactions leave a

To facilitate theidentification of

an individual as apsychopath, it is

important to collectas much language

as possible.

record of the actual words. Forexample, the Long Island SerialKiller used a Web site to attracthis victims and communicatewith them. The language fromthese interactions gave lawenforcement officers an advan-tage when assessing the motiva-tions and needs of the perpetra-tor. Words provide a windowinto the minds of criminals,helping to determine whetherthey fit any particular personal-ity profile, such as psychopathy.

ConclusionConsidering some of the

unique aspects of psychopathiclanguage, it might be pos-sible to detect the psychopathin online environments whereinformation is exclusively textbased. To catch a psychopath inthis context, law enforcementagencies need to be aware ofthe subtleties of their deceptivecommunication styles. Overall,there is a need for further sci-entific research on the languageof psychopaths and training instatement analysis and decep-tion detection techniques.+

Endnotes1 S. Porter, L. ten Brinke, and K.

Wilson, "Crime Profiles and ConditionalRelease Performance of Psychopathicand Nonpsychopathic Sexual Offenders,"Legal and Criminological Psychology 14,no. 1 (February 2009): 109-118.

2 Convicted Killer Paul Bernardo Inter-view on Elizabeth Bain, released for publicviewing June 10, 2008, http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=V6F4 KIU55I.

3 Y. Tausczik and J.W. Pennebaker,"The Psychological Meaning of Words:LIWC and Computerized Text AnalysisMethods," Journal ofLanguage and SocialPsychology 29, no. 1 (2010): 24-54.

4 Tausczik and Pennebaker.S. Porter and M. Woodworth, "I'm

Sorry I Did It ... But He Started It: A Com-parison of the Official and Self-ReportedHomicide Descriptions of Psychopathsand Nonpsychopaths," Law and HumanBehavior 31, no. 1 (2007): 91-107.

6 C.A. Brinkley, J.P. Newman, T.J.Harpur, and M.M. Johnson, "Cohesionin Texts Produced by Psychopathic andNonpsychopathic Criminal Inmates,"Personality and Individual Differences 26(1999): 873-885.

July 2012 / 31

I S. Porter, L. ten Brinke, A. Baker,and B. Wallace, "Would I Lie to You?'Leakage' in Deceptive Facial ExpressionsRelates to Psychopathy and EmotionalIntelligence," Personality and IndividualDiferences 51, no. 2 (2011):133-137.

8 J. Hancock, M.T. Woodworth, and S.Porter, "Hungry Like the Wolf: A WordPattern Analysis of the Language ofPsychopaths," Legal and CriminologicalPsychology http://onlinelibrarywiley.com/doi/10.]]]]j.2044-8333.2011.02025.xfull(accessed 5/10/12).

9 M.T. Woodworth and S. Porter, "InCold Blood: Characteristics of CriminalHomicides as a Function of Psychopathy,Journal ofAbnormal Psychology 111, no.3 (2002): 436-445.

10 J.T. Hancock, M.T. Woodworth, andS. Goorha, "See No Evil: The Effect ofCommunication Medium and Motivationon Deception Detection," Group Decisionand Negotiation 19 (2010): 327-343.

About the Authors

Dr. Woodworth is a registered psychologist and an associate professor at theUniversity of British Columbia, Okanagan.

Dr. Hancock is an associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Dr. Porter is a professor of psychology and the founding director of the Centre for theAdvancement of Psychological Science and Law (CAPSL) at the University of BritishColumbia, Okanagan.

Dr. Hare is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver,and a psychopathy researcher.

Dr. Logan, a retired staff sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and apsychologist, provides forensic behavioral consultation and training for the lawenforcement and criminal justice communities.

Dr. O'Toole has served with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit and is a privateforensic behavioral consultant and an instructor at the FBI Academy.

Dr. Smith, a retired special agent with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, is aconsultant on criminal and corporate psychopathy for intelligence- andsecurity-related government and law enforcement agencies.