Washington, D.C. topped the list of areas with the most psychopaths in the United States, according to a recent research published by the Social Science Research Network.
While Virginia took the 11th spot, Connecticut, California, New Jersey, New York and Wyoming (the last two having a tie) ranked second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
The nation’s capital received a standardized score of 3.48, which is followed by Connecticut (1.89).
The study was conducted by Ryan H. Murphy from the Southern Methodist University and is based on the examination of five personality traits; extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism, and their relation to psychopathy in 48 states and the District of Columbia.
With respect to D.C.’s position, Murphy said that the reason could be “its very high population density” or “the type of person who may be drawn a literal seat of power.”
“The presence of psychopaths in the District of Columbia is consistent with the conjecture that psychopaths are likely to be effective in the political sphere,” according to Murphy.
The report prompted many comments from D.C. residents on Twitter, some of them political.
https://twitter.com/SetonMotley/status/1147462907619360768
And most of them are in the Trump administration.
— Dodie Smith (@DodieSmith1) July 6, 2019
When people ask how dating is in DC https://t.co/lRvlYgaSa4
— Miranda Green (@mirandacgreen) July 7, 2019
“This exploration of the data also suggests that the inclusion of the District of Columbia in future research should be done with care, since it is an outlier, at least in part due to it being an entirely urban geographic area,” the study added.
Murphy used the results of personality surveys responded by thousands of individuals in 48 contiguous states and D.C.
Five separate samples were utilized in the study to create a single estimate of each personality trait for each region and examine their connection with socioeconomic outcomes.
The combined analysis led to identifying three groups of personalities: “Friendly and Conventional” (the Midwest and the South), “Relaxed & Creative” (primarily the Southwest and Pacific Northwest), “Temperamental & Uninhibited” (the Northeast plus Texas).
The estimates were compared to “two variables related to psychopathy at a micro level – homicide rate and the percentage of the state living in an urban area.” Information on the nine professions positively correlated and eight negatively correlated with psychopathy.
It should be noted that the study has not been peer reviewed.