The tiny microbes in your gut play a big role in who you are, how healthy you are, and, apparently, according to new research published in Translational Psychiatry, whether or not you exhibit psychopathic tendencies.
Scientists have found a link between certain gut and oral bacteria and traits associated with psychopathy. Don’t start chugging Greek yogurt and gobbling barrels of kimchi to veer your microbes away from psychopathy, because there are some huge caveats to that eye-popping claim.
The study involved 200 healthy adults who completed a questionnaire measuring psychopathic traits. They also supplied blood, saliva, and fecal samples. The researchers found that people with higher levels of three types of bacteria tended to score higher for traits including callousness, impulsivity, manipulation, and antisocial behavior—all hallmarks of the common psychopath.
Those three bacteria were Allisonella, Prevotella, and Cloacibacillus evryensis. If you’re wondering if there’s a bacterium that shows the opposite association, that would be Treponema vincentii.
Your Gut Bacteria May Be Linked to Psychopathic Tendencies
Now here’s the big caveat: the study does not show that bacteria make people psychopaths. As is often the case with scientific research, especially some of the more sensationalistic headlines you read out there, this study found correlation and not causation. A link and not a firm, fully established cause and effect. For now, this is merely a finding that makes you go “hmm” as you stroke your beard.
There’s also the matter of this particular study not yet undergoing peer review, so please do not use it as a means of accusing your roommate of being a psychopath because he didn’t take his probiotic that morning.
All that said, it’s an interesting find since psychopathy has traditionally been studied almost exclusively through the brain, genetics, and behavior. Examining it through the gut is a burgeoning concept that different research teams may explore down the line. Researchers already know that certain brain regions can be involved in the development of psychopathy; knowing that doesn’t provide the full story of its development. Our gut microbiome could be a huge missing piece of the puzzle.
Exactly how it fits in needs much more study. Maybe it has something to do with inflammation, neurotransmitters, or how gut bacteria influence emotional processing. For now, the researchers only have theories.
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