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Topics: Life, Mental Health
Britt Jones
There is a personality type which could see your world crumble if you get too close to them.
Picture this: You have just met the most amazing person in your life, they somehow just get you, but at the same time, your life starts spiralling out of control.
It could be because you’ve met a dark empath.
According to Suzanne Degges-White Ph.D. who wrote for Psychology Today, a dark empath ‘gets you’ and they also 'gets you good’.
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This means that they (intentionally or not) damage their relationships while they’re on the surface, the best person you’ve ever met.
She explained that they have traits of psychopathy, as well as narcissism and Machiavellianism and it can be hard to know when you have unwittingly entered a friendship or a relationship with a dark empath.
Dark empaths use cognitive empathy, which is the ability to recognise someone’s feelings without actually feeling them yourself, and they tend to use these to benefit their own lives.
But don't think they are a needle in a haystack.
Nadja Heym, co-author of a research study and associate professor in personality psychology and psychopathology at Nottingham Trent University, shared her own results on the personality type, which found that your chances of meeting a dark empath is more common than you might think.
She said: “We identified it as a trait combination displayed by 19.3 percent of the 1,000 people we surveyed.”
That’s one in five people.
But there’s more - here’s some warning signs to look out for if you're worried someone may not have your best interests at heart.
The dark empath in your life might be a smooth talker who compliments you, but something feels off.
It’s like they aren’t being genuine.
This could be because psychopathy is a trait that they also possess, which means that may not be able to genuinely relate to your emotions.
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, your dark empath could be manipulating you to do their bidding.
Degges-White shared that they also exhibit Machiavellianism, which is ‘a person’s use of manipulation through lying or deceit to convince others to do what they want them to do.’
Because they also display narcissistic traits, they have different ways that they think, and needs for themselves.
According to the expert, they tend to ‘have total confidence in themselves to be smarter and savvier than anyone else in the room’.
This means that they are confident that they’ll be able to use their cognitive empathy in situations where they want something.
Has someone in your life told a really startling joke about another person which cuts like a knife?
Sigmund Freud called this the worst type of humour, as the user will use these malicious jokes to put down others to make themselves feel better about themselves.
Whether they know this is the motivation behind their own joke, or not, it is still upsetting to hear.
Dark empaths know what you’re feeling, and also what hurts you.
This means that they know which hateful rumours to spread about you, and they may use it as an effective way to make you feel low.