Better to say nothing and be thought a psychopath than to speak and prove it.

I have student with assburgers and he uhs and uhms every other word. He probably is a psycho.

Pete

Whoever designed that website with all the pop-ups is probably a psychopath.

Wasn't Ted Bundy rather well-spoken?

When he's not reading from a teleprompter, Obama says more "uhs" than a homeless person on meth.

So what is Christopher Walken?

He doesn't really say "uh" a lot but he definitely has an atypical manner of speaking.

Did the 'the iraq and such as' chick kill someone.

/DNRTFA obviously

Allen. The end.: Whoever designed that website with all the pop-ups is probably a psychopath.

Wasn't Ted Bundy rather well-spoken?

He was, also he was considered handsome.

See that ladies! Pick ugly guys who can't speak worth a dime and you won't have to worry about being vivisected by a group of men wearing business suits with bunny masks on.

What an evil stone cold psychopath might look like

Great! We can use this technology to find the most psychopathic citizens and put them in congress and the white house without resorting to long political campaigns to prove that they are the most psychopathic.

EnviroDude: when you listen to Obama off prompter, he uses uh's and um's often. I guess that explains it.

What explains Obama's uh's and um's is that he is a good public speaker, and to be a good public speaker requires one to think about what one is saying. Otherwise you say dumb shiat all the time like almost all of the Republican running for president or Joe Biden.

Obama is so good that most people have to go back to three years to the campaign trail to mention Obama gaffe over the number of states he visited. For most other politicians, you only have to go back a week or two to find something stupid they said.

Shiat...

Allen. The end.: Whoever designed that website with all the pop-ups is probably a psychopath.

Wasn't Ted Bundy rather well-spoken?

Yep. And Jeffrey Dahmer had a lot of heart.

EnviroDude: when you listen to Obama off prompter, he uses uh's and um's often. I guess that explains it.

Except that isn't one of the signs as described in the actual article.

Mind you, being a sociopath provides very useful skills to excel in politics and business. The ability to lie with a straight face. The total lack of remorse. A willingness to use and manipulate others to get what you want. A conscience gets in the way of pretending to support whatever your audience wants to hear or deliberately misrepresenting the facts to promote an agenda.

I, for one, would not be at all surprised if the level of sociopaths/psychopaths is as high in boardrooms and political offices as it is in prison, and incidentally that goes for all political affiliations left, right or centre.

Oh great! Now I have to work on getting rid of the "uhs" and "ums" from my speech, because, um, I need to speak fluently to keep my job so I'll have enough money for bills and, um, food and shelter.

EnviroDude: when you listen to Obama off prompter, he uses uh's and um's often. I guess that explains it.

It would be interesting to have these researchers examine the trolls on Fark. I'd bet they'd find a high concordance between internet trolling and psychopathy.

CougarJeff: I have student with assburgers and he uhs and uhms every other word. He probably is a psycho.

I kinda got into a kick on these never-discussed elements of language, even though "um" is the most often-spoken thing. It's not a word per se, it's a non-lexical vocable.

A lot of things go under "Speech Disfluencies" (new window)

"Um" itself is generally a filled pause, because you haven't got the rest of the sentence ready yet, or signify that you're repairing/amending what you just said wrongly.

There's some overlap with the "Discourse Marker" (new window)

Sometimes "um" is a Discourse Marker. Malcolm in Jurassic Park says "um" a lot to imply that what he's speaking makes so much base sense it's hard to find words for it. Of course he's competent to make a sentence, he's just feigning difficulty.

"Like" is usually a Discourse Marker. So if, like, you ever wonder what kids, like, MEAN when they say that, that's, like, what they're saying, man. "Man" is also a DM.

Speech Disfluencies are almost NEVER in books or TV/movies, despite being very common in actual speech. DM is only for specific characters.

doglover: BigLuca: Allen. The end.: Whoever designed that website with all the pop-ups is probably a psychopath.

Wasn't Ted Bundy rather well-spoken?

Yep. And Jeffrey Dahmer had a lot of heart.

And liver. And spleen. And meat. Lots of all organs, really.

He liked the Vietnamese dong pretty well, IIRC.

Great, now my son has yet another flag in the psychopath category.

His speech patterns are regressing to the point that he says "uhh" practically every other word. The timbre of his voice is increasingly juvenile and he often resorts to using a shortened 3-5 word sentence structure. It's really annoying to hear a 14yo talking like a 2yo.

At least we're watching/medicating him so he doesn't go out on a murder spree. If he does, we have tons of paperwork showing how long we've been trying to have him committed so we don't get charged with anything. I have lost all faith in the justice system and the mental health assistance organizations in my state at this point. I was told by the admissions director for the State School(a residential facility run by the state for the mentally challenged) that he has to get worse(ie. cause someone damaging physical harm) before we can get him committed because there are no more asylums for the psychologically impaired. (I live in Texas though, all he has to do here is steal a candybar from a 7-11 and they'll probably put him on death row.) :p

/Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

Since when is it wrong to be a psychopath?

atomic-age: doglover: BigLuca: Allen. The end.: Whoever designed that website with all the pop-ups is probably a psychopath.

Wasn't Ted Bundy rather well-spoken?

Yep. And Jeffrey Dahmer had a lot of heart.

And liver. And spleen. And meat. Lots of all organs, really.

He liked the Vietnamese dong pretty well, IIRC.


Ba-zing! Ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up one more time for a really funny guy, Biff Turney!

/obscure.

LegacyDL: See that ladies! Pick ugly guys who can't speak worth a dime and you won't have to worry about being vivisected by a group of men wearing business suits with bunny masks on.

Dude, my weekend!!!

Oznog: CougarJeff: I have student with assburgers and he uhs and uhms every other word. He probably is a psycho.

I kinda got into a kick on these never-discussed elements of language, even though "um" is the most often-spoken thing. It's not a word per se, it's a non-lexical vocable.

A lot of things go under "Speech Disfluencies" (new window)

"Um" itself is generally a filled pause, because you haven't got the rest of the sentence ready yet, or signify that you're repairing/amending what you just said wrongly.

There's some overlap with the "Discourse Marker" (new window)

Sometimes "um" is a Discourse Marker. Malcolm in Jurassic Park says "um" a lot to imply that what he's speaking makes so much base sense it's hard to find words for it. Of course he's competent to make a sentence, he's just feigning difficulty.

"Like" is usually a Discourse Marker. So if, like, you ever wonder what kids, like, MEAN when they say that, that's, like, what they're saying, man. "Man" is also a DM.

Speech Disfluencies are almost NEVER in books or TV/movies, despite being very common in actual speech. DM is only for specific characters.

I've heard *can't remember from where* that pausing, even when you know what you're saying, gives the audience time to process and catch up with what you've just said. I don't know if that's true, but I found myself doing, "Obama pauses," during my taped speech and debate class (mind you this was a long while ago). I do believe it's effective in maintaining an audience's attention.

doglover: BigLuca: What an evil stone cold psychopath might look like

[www.russianbooks.org image 300x357]

Is that Lydia Sherman? I once named a hamster after her when she ate all her babies

Edmund Kemper was extremely well-spoken (and had a high IQ as well).

I think there's a big difference between when a psychopath is "acting out" a role versus when they're put in a situation they can't plan for and rehearse in advance. A typical workplace psycho is always smooth, convincing, charming, etc. The stilted speech described in the article sounds like the polar opposite of the usual psycho.

Jixa: Great, now my son has yet another flag in the psychopath category.

His speech patterns are regressing to the point that he says "uhh" practically every other word. The timbre of his voice is increasingly juvenile and he often resorts to using a shortened 3-5 word sentence structure. It's really annoying to hear a 14yo talking like a 2yo.

At least we're watching/medicating him so he doesn't go out on a murder spree. If he does, we have tons of paperwork showing how long we've been trying to have him committed so we don't get charged with anything. I have lost all faith in the justice system and the mental health assistance organizations in my state at this point. I was told by the admissions director for the State School(a residential facility run by the state for the mentally challenged) that he has to get worse(ie. cause someone damaging physical harm) before we can get him committed because there are no more asylums for the psychologically impaired. (I live in Texas though, all he has to do here is steal a candybar from a 7-11 and they'll probably put him on death row.) :p

/Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

You know, psychopathy is partially genetic in origin. Let's lock you up, while we're at it.

speech patterns can, um, uh, give them away, uh, subconsciously, and all


And like such as.

Maps, etc.

I was going to attempt to be witty and mention something about Obama, but I see it's been covered.

So if I murder someone because *religion*, I'm just a regular murderer.

But if I do it for a sammich and rent-money, I'm a pyschopath. Gotcha.

/um ah etc.

Oznog:

...Speech Disfluencies are almost NEVER in books or TV/movies, despite being very common in actual speech. DM is only for specific characters.

Dattebayo!!!

/first thing that came to mind after reading your post :)

Gordon Bennett: I, for one, would not be at all surprised if the level of sociopaths/psychopaths is as high in boardrooms and political offices as it is in prison, and incidentally that goes for all political affiliations left, right or centre.

I always wonder how people like Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the Ohio governor Kasich would fare on the psychopathy checklist. I'm not aware of speech disfluencies, but the utter lack of human feeling is telling.

James F. Campbell: Jixa: Great, now my son has yet another flag in the psychopath category.

His speech patterns are regressing to the point that he says "uhh" practically every other word. The timbre of his voice is increasingly juvenile and he often resorts to using a shortened 3-5 word sentence structure. It's really annoying to hear a 14yo talking like a 2yo.

At least we're watching/medicating him so he doesn't go out on a murder spree. If he does, we have tons of paperwork showing how long we've been trying to have him committed so we don't get charged with anything. I have lost all faith in the justice system and the mental health assistance organizations in my state at this point. I was told by the admissions director for the State School(a residential facility run by the state for the mentally challenged) that he has to get worse(ie. cause someone damaging physical harm) before we can get him committed because there are no more asylums for the psychologically impaired. (I live in Texas though, all he has to do here is steal a candybar from a 7-11 and they'll probably put him on death row.) :p

/Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

You know, psychopathy is partially genetic in origin. Let's lock you up, while we're at it.

Please do! I, uh, really need the, uh, vacation. A cell with windows would, uh, be nice...then I can, uh, watch things and, uh, stuff. Yeah, stuff...and things...

There's an episode of "This American Life" that is relevant here:

"The Psychopath Test" (new window)

Click on the "Transcript" link if you'd rather read than listen to the podcast (though I think it's worth the extra time to listen).