If you can solve this riddle, you might be a psychopath

A diagnosed narcissist claims that solving a morbid riddle will reveal whether you have the mind of a psychopath or a sociopath.

He said he and his sister – who he claims is a diagnosed sociopath – are the only people in his life who have been able to answer the riddle correctly.

Narcissism, psychopathy and sociopathy are each distinctive personality disorders with their own unique characteristics.

But they share the same core traits: a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior and selfishness.

The riddle tests one’s ability to think this way. It goes like this: a woman goes to her mother’s funeral and meets a man she has never met before.

The two really hit it off, and the woman thinks he might be her soulmate.

But once the funeral is over, she realizes that she never asked for the man’s name or phone number, and that she has no idea who he is or how to contact him. Everyone she asks says they don’t know either.

She is angry that she will never see him again. A week later she kills her sister.

So the mystery is: why did she kill her sister?

‘To me the answer was quite obvious… Which was answered with very – how do I put it – very startled looks from my friends who asked me,’ said the man who shared the riddle, passing ‘The Unnamed Narcissist” on TikTok.

“And my sister answered really slowly because she thought it was a trick question because she thought it was so obvious,” he said in a recent video.

The answer to the riddle is that the woman killed her sister because if the man showed up at her mother’s funeral, chances are he would show up at her sister’s funeral too.

Therefore, she killed a family member to arrange another meeting with the man she is interested in – something only a very cold, calculating person would do.

The Nameless Narcissist emphasizes that there is “no research to validate this riddle,” and it certainly should not be used to diagnose someone with a personality disorder.

Personality disorders are complex, nuanced conditions that only trained medical professionals can diagnose.

There is not one question or survey that can actually assess whether someone is a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath.

These personality disorders are diagnosed using lengthy psychological assessments conducted by trained professionals who can determine whether the person meets all the criteria for narcissism, sociopathy, or psychopathy.

Narcissism, psychopathy, and sociopathy are each distinct personality disorders, but they share the same core characteristics: a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and selfishness.

The criteria for antisocial personality disorder, which includes both sociopathy and psychopathy, include deceitfulness, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, failure to obey the law, reckless disregard for safety, irresponsibility and lack of remorse.

But if you suspect that someone may have some of the characteristics of these disorders, it may be interesting to see how they approach the answer to this question.

This isn’t the only riddle said to test people’s psychopathic tendencies.

Here’s another example: a runaway trolley is about to run over and kill five people, and you’re standing on a walkway next to a tall stranger.

Your body is too light to stop the train, but if you pushed the stranger onto the tracks you would save the five people below, but kill the stranger in the process.

Would you push the man?

If you answer yes, it can be said that you have more psychopathic tendencies. Even if you were to kill the man for the greater good, you still have to be willing to commit murder for it.

One study published in the journal Cognition found that participants who said they would push the stranger to save five lives also scored high on ratings of psychopathy and low on empathy tests.

This thought experiment is known as ‘the trolley problem’ and is used in many research settings to assess how someone would respond to a moral dilemma.

But while there is solid research to validate this test, it still shouldn’t be used as the sole diagnostic tool, experts say.