The most common similarities between psychopaths and sociopaths are that both tend to lack empathy, have little or no regard for the difference between right and wrong, and have arrogant personalities, according to author of Sweet Relief from the Everyday Narcissist, Melissa Schenker.

According to experts, despite constantly being mixed up and mistaken for one another, there is one difference that separates psychopaths and sociopaths. 

Psychopaths tend to be very emotionally stable, whilst sociopaths are emotionally unstable, according to psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo; who has been featured on the Today show, Dr. Oz, The Steve Harvey Show and CNN, and also provides advice in the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

“When a psychopath interacts with you, if they get upset, they can keep their cool, but a sociopath will lose it,” Lombardo said.

“Psychopaths are the smooth operator. It’s the guy who will compliment you, make you feel good, and just say all of the right things until you find out he’s been stealing money from you or he’s been plotting some kind of crime,” Lombardo added.

She says sociopaths are rather easy to identify; in contrast to a psychopath, when a sociopath does not get what they want, “they’ll get angry and could be aggressive. They can’t keep it together and have emotional outbursts.”

According to author of A Beautiful, Terrible thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal, Jen Waite, who was married to a possible psychopath, said that her seemingly perfect husband was manipulating her the entire time.

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Waite recounted how her husband employed methods to emotionally confuse her in order to obscure his wrongdoings and make her believe she was imagining things. An article in the Business Insider on Waite’s book describes her husband as being able to lie with ease and without remorse, but who was able to appear charming, intelligent and, most importantly, normal.

Waite says not all psychopaths are serial killers, but are just as capable of destroying lives, as well as family relationships.

According to criminal psychologist Professor Robert Hare, “Often they’re our friends, they’re fun to be around. They might take advantage of us now and then but usually it’s subtle and they’re able to talk their way around it.”

It is important to remember that not all psychopaths and sociopaths are dangerous. In an article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, neuroscientist James Fallon from the University of California revealed that an abnormal brain scan he was using in an observation of psychopathic murderers, was in fact a scan of his own brain.

“I saw one that was extremely abnormal, and I thought this is someone who’s way off. It looked like the murderers I’d been looking at,” Fallon said, “I kind of blew it off. But later, some psychiatrist friends of mine went through my behaviors, and they said, actually, you’re probably a borderline psychopath.”

Fallon was described as highly successful, driven to win, is pleasant, funny and self-absorbed in the article. 

Hare said that cases like Fallon were not uncommon, as not everyone with psychopathic tendencies are criminals. He said that evolving certain traits could have been an evolutionary strategy from our ancestors. (acr/kes)