New Study Reveals Most Children Unrepentant Sociopaths

Monday, December 7, 2009, 06:01 PM GMT [General]

A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.

According to Dr. Leonard Mateo, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, most adults are completely unaware that they could be living among callous monsters who would remorsely exploit them to obtain something as insignificant as an ice cream cone or a new toy.

"The most disturbing facet of this ubiquitous childhood disorder is an utter lack of empathy," Mateo said. "These people—if you can even call them that—deliberately violate every social norm without ever pausing to consider how their selfish behavior might affect others. It's as if they have no concept of anyone but themselves."

"The depths of depravity that these tiny psychopaths are capable of reaching are really quite chilling," Mateo added.

According to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a clinical diagnostic tool, sociopaths often display superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulative behaviors, and a grandiose sense of self-importance. After observing 700 children engaged in everyday activities, Mateo and his colleagues found that 684 exhibited these behaviors at a severe or profound level.

The children studied also displayed many secondary hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, most notably poor impulse control, an inability to plan ahead, and a proclivity for violence—often in the form of extended tantrums—when their needs were not immediately met.

"Children will use any tool at their disposal to secure gratification," Mateo said. "And as soon as the desire is fulfilled, be it some material want or simply an insatiable and narcissistic desire for validation, they quickly become bored and lose interest in their victims, all the while thinking only of satisfying whatever their next hedonistic craving might be."

Mateo added that even when subjects were directly confronted with the consequences of their inexplicable behavior, they had little or no capacity for expressing guilt, other than insincere utterances of "sorry" that were usually coerced.

Because children are so skilled at mimicking normal human emotions and will say anything without consideration for accuracy or truth, Mateo said that people often don't realize that they've been exploited until it is too late. Though he maintained that anyone can fall victim to a child's egocentric behavior, Mateo warned that grandmothers were especially susceptible to the self- serving machinations of tiny little sociopaths.

Despite the overwhelming evidence presented in the study, its findings have been met with heavy criticism from people who associate with children on a regular basis.

Batavia, NY resident and 38-year-old mother Mary Corcoran echoed the sentiments of many other adults who refuse to believe they are sharing their homes with merciless predators.

"Not my Jimmy. Just this morning, he told me I was the best mommy in the whole world," Corcoran said of her son, 5. "In fact, he's been such a sweet little boy this month that Santa just may bring him everything he asks for."

According to renowned child psychologist Dr. Pritha Singh, author of Born Without Souls, diagnosing preadolecents as sociopaths is primarily a theoretical interest, as the disorder is considered untreatable.

"We've tried behavior modification therapies, but children actually learn from our techniques and become even more adept at manipulating others while concealing their shameless misanthropy," Singh said. "Sadly, experience has taught us there is little hope for rehabilitation."

 

That's why they are called children, I thought.

After watching my boys treat each other like garbage this doesn
't surprise me one bit!

Kurt

 

What a waste of money on that study. All you have to do is ask the parents if they should be the child's friend or the child's parents. I will place 99.99% of the blame on the parenting of the parent.


The bottom line is your children will learn what you do, and if what you do does not match what you say you get all the problems you deserve.


To me it seems blatantly clear that Dr.Mateo or Dr. Singh have no children.

Any parent, (and I mean parent) knows that when multiple kids are placed together in the same environment that they will all via for position in the hierarchy. Humans, like wolves, are pack animals, they will seek to establish the rules of order naturally.


Thanks for sharing that Paul.

 

Former school bus driver, not surprised at all.

That's why we don't let them drive cars or carry guns.

 

Must've been a slow week in the psychological community. Or they needed astimulous check?

 

LOL, perfect.

 

parenting is right. I was involved in a pyscho-social prison case involving a murderous eight year old on a two year old. basically, any child that is left to themselves with no rules, can do whatever without repercussions.

in this age of both working adults, electronic babysitters (tv) and cell phones as replacement for direct supervision/involvement; it is not hard to argue with a report outlining the actions of those kids. I wholely agree with tim that it goes to supervison, education and love/interest to that kid.

 

Big words to say kids will be kids. Of course they will manipulate parents and grandparents to get what they want. That's how they are.

Of course this condition is treatable irregardless of what the study says. It's called "parenting" . Usually works pretty well when used correctly.


Someone just made a pile of $$$$$ on that one.

 

I overheard a dog trainer state the obvious one day to a woman whose dog was clearly lacking supervision and interaction. She said "puppies make poor choices when left by themselves. I had to laugh for a second but the same applies to kids. If you don't socialize them, interact with them or discipline them or set an example for them to follow then they will make poor choices and when left to their own devices they will fail. Good parenting, nuturing and supervision are the common denominators here in both cases.

 

Lord of the Flies.

 

I been trying to think of that title all day...good book....

 

Glad I could help.

 

Several years ago, Texas A&M spent a small fortune studying the affect of a hard hat on a rabbit. They studied rabbits without them, then studied rabbits let loose wearing tennis ***** split in half.