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If you love this song it could be a sign you're a psychopath

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Picture:
Lionsgate Films

No, it's not by Huey Lewis and the News.

Research conducted in the UK by Channel 4 among over 3 million participants found that people who score highly on psychopath tests favour rap and heavy metal.

The least psychopathic preferred classical music and jazz, bucking the tropes set by Hannibal Lecter.

Researchers at New York University looked at specific songs, testing 200 people for 260 different songs.

They found that people who scored highest on psychopath tests rated songs like No Diggity by Blackstreet and Lose Yourself by Eminem more highly.

The researchers believe that songs could help predict those with the disorder, which affects around 1 per cent of people.

Pascal Wallisch, lead researcher, told the Guardian:

The beauty of this idea is you can use it as a screening test without consent, cooperation or maybe even the knowledge of the people involved.

The ethics of this are very hairy, but so is having a psychopath as a boss, and so is having a psychopath in any position of power.

Unless they know it's a tell, by say, reading the findings published in multiple media outlets.

To be fair to researchers, they predicted this, not releasing other songs which were better predictors of psychopathy.

The scientists declined to name these songs for fear of disrupting further research.

The least psychopathic study participants were more likely to be fans of My Sharona by the Knacks and Titanium by Sia.

This information has us very worried.

HT IFL Science

More: Psychopaths drink their coffee black, study finds

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