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Human Element
A Space Daily column

Human Element

Human performance under pressure

Human Element covers the psychology of discovery. How astronauts hold up under pressure, why people believe what they believe, and what research on the human mind can and cannot tell us.

Psychology

Psychopathy may be two different things, not one

A study at Erasmus University Rotterdam measured what people's brains and eyes actually did in front of disturbing pictures, and found the two darker sides of the psychopathic personality behaving in opposite ways. The fearless trait went with attention that seized on the images, at least in the men tested; the cold trait went with a blunted flinch and muted feeling. The volunteers were healthy young adults, not diagnosed psychopaths, and the effects were modest, so the finding is a lead to follow, not a verdict.