The “20 traits of a psychopath” come from the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), a clinical assessment tool created by Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare. It remains the most widely used instrument for measuring psychopathic personality traits in correctional and legal settings worldwide. Each of the 20 traits is scored on a 3-point scale (0, 1, or 2), producing a total score between 0 and 40 that reflects how closely someone matches the profile of a psychopath.
The 20 Traits on the PCL-R
The checklist covers a broad range of personality features and behavioral patterns. Here are all 20 items:
- Glibness or superficial charm: a smooth, engaging conversational style that feels rehearsed rather than genuine.
- Grandiose sense of self-worth: an inflated view of one’s own importance, abilities, or status.
- Need for stimulation or proneness to boredom: a constant craving for excitement and low tolerance for routine.
- Pathological lying: frequent, effortless dishonesty that goes beyond ordinary social lies.
- Conning or manipulative behavior: using deception, charm, or exploitation to control others for personal gain.
- Lack of remorse or guilt: no meaningful emotional response to having harmed others.
- Shallow affect: emotional reactions that appear flat, short-lived, or performed rather than felt.
- Callousness or lack of empathy: a deep indifference to the feelings, rights, or suffering of others.
- Parasitic lifestyle: financial or emotional dependence on others with little effort toward self-sufficiency.
- Poor behavioral controls: a tendency toward explosive anger, aggression, or overreaction to minor frustrations.
- Promiscuous sexual behavior: frequent casual relationships with little emotional attachment.
- Early behavior problems: a history of serious behavioral issues before age 13, such as persistent aggression, theft, or cruelty.
- Lack of realistic, long-term goals: drifting through life without stable plans, or setting wildly unrealistic ambitions.
- Impulsivity: acting on the spur of the moment without considering consequences.
- Irresponsibility: repeatedly failing to meet obligations at work, in finances, or in relationships.
- Failure to accept responsibility: deflecting blame, making excuses, or rewriting events to avoid accountability.
- Many short-term marital relationships: a pattern of brief, unstable romantic partnerships.
- Juvenile delinquency: formal contact with the justice system as a minor.
- Revocation of conditional release: violating the terms of probation, parole, or other supervised release.
- Criminal versatility: committing a wide variety of criminal offenses rather than specializing in one type.
How the Traits Are Grouped
Researchers organize these 20 items into two broad factors and four narrower facets. Factor 1 captures the core personality features of psychopathy: the interpersonal traits (charm, grandiosity, lying, manipulation) and the affective traits (no remorse, shallow emotions, no empathy, refusal to accept responsibility). Factor 2 captures the lifestyle and behavioral side: impulsive and irresponsible habits (need for stimulation, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic lifestyle, lack of long-term goals) and antisocial behavior (early behavior problems, juvenile delinquency, poor behavioral controls).
This distinction matters because it highlights a key difference between psychopathy and what psychiatrists formally diagnose as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The DSM-5, the standard psychiatric diagnostic manual, defines ASPD primarily through behavioral criteria, which map onto Factor 2. But the emotional and interpersonal traits in Factor 1, like the absence of empathy and the shallow emotional life, are not required for an ASPD diagnosis. Only about one-third of people diagnosed with ASPD actually meet the threshold for psychopathy. Psychopathy itself is not an official psychiatric diagnosis in any current diagnostic system.
How Scoring Works
A trained clinician scores each of the 20 items as 0 (does not apply), 1 (applies somewhat), or 2 (definitely applies). The maximum possible score is 40. In North American research and forensic settings, a score of 30 or above is the traditional cutoff for a psychopathy designation, though some researchers use a cutoff of 25.
The PCL-R is not a self-assessment quiz. It requires a lengthy semi-structured interview, a thorough review of institutional and criminal records, and a clinician with specific training. The manual recommends completing five to ten practice assessments and demonstrating reliable scoring before using it in forensic cases. Psychologists who use the PCL-R without proper training risk violating professional ethical standards.
How Common Is Psychopathy?
Using the PCL-R with its standard cutoff of 30, roughly 1.2% of the general adult population meets the criteria for psychopathy. When broader self-report questionnaires are used instead, that estimate rises to around 5.4%, likely because these tools capture a wider range of psychopathic personality traits rather than the full clinical picture.
Rates are significantly higher in prison populations. Approximately 15 to 25% of male prisoners and 10 to 12% of female prisoners score above the psychopathy threshold. Among people convicted of homicide, that rate climbs to roughly 28 to 34%, depending on which cutoff score is applied. These numbers reflect why the PCL-R became a central tool in forensic risk assessment: high scores are consistently linked to higher rates of reoffending.
What the Traits Look Like in Practice
Reading the list, some items might sound like ordinary personality flaws. Most people have been impulsive, told a lie, or avoided taking responsibility at some point. The difference with psychopathy is degree. A score of 2 on any single item means the trait is a defining, persistent feature of how that person operates, not an occasional lapse. Someone scoring high across the board shows a consistent pattern: they charm people to exploit them, feel no guilt about the damage they cause, act on impulse without learning from consequences, and cycle through relationships and jobs without developing genuine connections.
The interpersonal and emotional traits in Factor 1 are often the hardest to spot. People who score high on charm, grandiosity, and manipulation can appear confident, likable, and successful on the surface. The shallow emotional life underneath only becomes apparent over time, usually after someone has already been harmed. This is why clinical assessment requires collateral information like criminal records, employment history, and interviews with people who know the individual, rather than relying on the person’s own self-presentation.
Factor 2 traits tend to be more visible. A history of behavioral problems in childhood, trouble holding a job, impulsive decisions with financial or legal consequences, and a pattern of relying on others for support all leave a paper trail. These behavioral markers are what overlap with antisocial personality disorder and what often brings someone to the attention of the justice system in the first place.