Psychopathy and sociopathy are two types of personality disorder that fallen into the antisocial personality disorder or APD. Individuals that have psychopathy or sociopathy are characterized by a lack of morality and empathy. Psycho and sociopaths can be dangerous as they have no empathy, they are really good in manipulating the other subject, they are irresponsible, fearless and impulsive. They cannot get anxious as well (Weber, Habel, Amunts & Schneider, 2008). When we are talking about psychopaths or sociopaths, what probably comes in your mind is an individual that shows no emotion, looks "crazy" and spreads fear with his/her actions. It is not necessarily like that and I will further explain why.
For starters we have to specify that they are two different pathologies, even though they share some behaviours. People that are psychopaths tend to mimic other people's behaviours so that they will not be understood. They will try to blend in but at the same time due to their lack of empathy or morals or even rationality they will mostly be found in high positions: businessmen/women, politicians, leaders etc. This is how it basically works: Psychopaths will observe and mimic emotions and rationality so that they will be admired, at the same time they have an amazing talent to manipulate other people. This gives them the benefit of gathering people in favour of them. At the same time they are never anxious or stressed so they are taking huge risks (some risks also can be dangerous) but they will still be admired since they can manipulate the people. Psychopaths know how to gain the respect of the crowd. Sociopaths cannot feel anxious or stressed as well, they can manipulate people but they will never hesitate to show their "cruel" face. They will not try to mimic human emotions or empathy they will be cruel and cause harm just because they can. They have a sense of morality so they can understand what is right or wrong but they would still do it (Pemment, 2013). They will form bad behaviours, sometimes even dangerous, just because they can do it. Their lack of rationality and their ability to take risks while at the same time have not inhibition when it comes to punishment, can cause harm.
Let's talk a little bit of brain now. Researchers were wondering if brain function or some genes are responsible for either pathology. Some results show low activity on their limpic system (emotion) and serotoninergic impalance. Recent research has shown that the mutation or even the non existance of MAOA gene has to do with antosicial behavour. This gene is responsible for MAO-A enzyme which is basically breaking down the amines (dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine). To be more specific our brain works when neurons are communicating with each other. To communicate they need brain chemicals such as serotonin or dopamine. When one neuron releases serotonin the other neuron takes it in via the serotoninergic receptors. Not all of the serotonin though is taken in so some of the ammount that is left goes back to the first neuron and some other needs to be broken down by enzyme MAO-A. So, what basically this enzyme does is removing and braking down monoamines. There is research that blames the non-existance of MAOA gene for antisocial behaviour. If MAOA gene does not exist, then of course MAO-A doesn't exist either so serotonin will just stay there, gathered and this can be a predictor of antisocial personality. Some people now will argue that "how can big amounts of serotonin cause something bad since serotonin cause happiness?". Well, unfortunately brain function isn't that easy. A lot of chemicals are causing happiness and it needs only one imbalance to destroy the whole function. So big amounts of serotonin can cause imbalance. This is why we say that low or non-existance of MAOA gene is a predictor of antisocial personality and not defacto. What is being added to that are mainly environmental causes (Taylor and Kim-Cohen, 2007). That means that even some people that are lacking the MAOA gene but their environment as children was healthy they will probably never have antisocial personality.
Children's brain is very fragile and very flexible. Brain areas are starting to develop till 25 years old. The last area that matures is called dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or DLPFC (Steinbeis, Bernhardt, & Singer, 2012). This area is responsible of rational decision making and rationality in general. This is why children and especially teenagers are more susceptible in taking risks or following dangerous behaviours etc. Now, why is this area the last to mature and how it is maturing? This area is maturing the last because it needs to learn so that it can develop the rationality. Along all those years that the child or the teenager is being growing this area receives messages of how it can react from all the other areas of the brain. All the other areas of the brain are of course mirroring the environment of the child. If the child is experiencing emotional abuse, the brain's plasticity will form taking this into consideration. People that were born and raised in abusive environments and are lacking the MAOA gene will probably have low activation of the limpic system and all the other areas that have to do with empathy such as anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. If these areas are weak in their early ages they will not be able to send wires and messages to the DLPFC, as a result when their brain is totally matured their DLPFC will have never processed empathy or morality so these people will never have it. In other words DLPFC will be developed like it thinks that this is rational: to not have empathy and morality. This is an amazing result that not only shows us that childhood plays a super important role in brain plasticity but also how fascinating brain is that has thought of everything.
Taking everything into consideration, we can understand now why psychopaths and sociopaths act like they do or why people with antisocial personality are being dangerous. It is scary to realise -and it raises moral discussion- that psychopaths have such power just because they cannot feel empathy and it is even scarier to understand that most of the psychopaths don't show that they are or don't know it. Here we can think that this is an amazing opportunity for a moral and ethical descussion of what do we do if psychopaths or sociopaths cause harm. If it is a brain damage or a psychopathy we shouldn't punish them since they have no control of it.
Weber, S., Habel, U., Amunts, K., & Schneider, F. (2008). Structural brain abnormalities in psychopaths—A review. Behavioral sciences & the law, 26(1), 7-28.
Pemment, J. (2013). Psychopathy versus sociopathy: Why the distinction has become crucial. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18(5), 458-461.
Taylor, A., & Kim-Cohen, J. (2007). Meta-analysis of gene–environment interactions in developmental psychopathology. Development and psychopathology, 19(4), 1029-1037.
Steinbeis, N., Bernhardt, B. C., & Singer, T. (2012). Impulse control and underlying functions of the left DLPFC mediate age-related and age-independent individual differences in strategic social behavior. Neuron, 73(5), 1040-1051.