we know from other research that dark personalities are very interested in power and status. And so,

you know, who has more power and status than people at the upper echelons of our government?

So it would be, it would be unsurprising to see higher levels of these traits there.

Hey, everyone, it's Adam Grant.

Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast with Ted on the Science of What Makes

Us Tick.

I'm an organizational psychologist and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people

to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.

The N10 Brink is a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia, and an

expert on narcissists, psychopaths, and liars.

Her debut book, Poisonous People, debunks misconceptions about these kinds of dark personalities,

replacing common myths with real information about how to expose a lie,

how to spot the early signs of psychopathy, and how to deal with narcissists.

I've long been a fan of her research, which is full of surprising clues on how to recognize dark traits and others.

One of her favorite signals is yawning.

Hmm.

So there's a set of studies that show people with various levels of psychopathic traits

yawns, and they just watch them and see how they react.

And the research shows that people with higher levels of these psychopathic traits are less likely to yawn in return.

You know, I posted something on social media about this research, and some people even in the comments were like,

every time you said yawn, I started to yawn, right? So we're incredibly reactive to the people in our midst, whereas people with psychopathic traits are much less so.

And you can see that even in these kinds of reflexive behaviors that other people take for granted.

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