Most people understand that social distancing is for the greater good, and not for their own personal comfort. Even if they think/know they’re not infected, they still follow the guidelines out of respect for everyone else and especially those more vulnerable.

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Not everybody feels this way however, and according to a new peer-reviewed study shared by the New York Post, if you’re one of these people who ignores social distancing rules, you might be a psychopath.

The study, set to be published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found that individuals with higher rates of “dark traits,” such as psychopathy, were more likely to purposefully disregard protocols intended to stop the spread of COVID-19.

On the extreme end of it, you have people coughing, spitting and licking door handles in public as an ‘intimidation or rebellion technique’. Which is no doubt utterly psychotic. After all, the people they’re scaring/harming with this behaviour are complete strangers, not anyone who has wronged them in the past. So what kind of person would you have to be to get a thrill out of scaring/endangering total strangers?

Study author Pavel S. Blagov says:

There can be many reasons for this, and I thought that personality may play at least a small role in it.

Prior research had already suggested that those with strong “dark triad” traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) are “linked to health risk behavior and health problems.”

People scoring high on these traits tended to claim that, if they had COVID-19, they might knowingly or deliberately expose others to it.

Imagine being a part of this study and taking the survey and admitting you would deliberately expose someone else to coronavirus. Pretty terrifying to know that there are people like that out there.

Blagov adds:

It is possible that these people are super-spreaders and “have a disproportionate impact on the pandemic by failing to protect themselves and others.”

Crazy stuff. I wonder how Blagov feels about all the looters/protesters getting together in crowds right now and no doubt spreading the virus. They clearly aren’t listening to social distancing guidelines, so do they also fall under the ‘potentially psychopathic’ banner? I guess breaking guidelines is OK so long as you claim to be doing it for noble reasons.

Speaking of psychos, get a load of this ANTIFA member & Trump supporter screaming in each other’s faces at BLM the other week. Yikes!