ARE PSYCHOPATHS REALLY THAT GOOD AT LYING?

Picture infamous psychopaths from fiction, such as the eerily cold and calculating Patrick Bateman in the film adaptation of American Psycho, and they certainly seem like master deceivers. But what about real-life psychopaths? Research confirms that psychopaths are more inclined to lie to get what they want, and that they typically display a striking fearlessness - as if they have ice running through their veins.

- LYLE MORSE

You'd think this cold calmness would make it difficult to tell when they're lying. But surprisingly, several studies have suggested that psychopaths aren't actually any better at lying than the rest of us. For instance, a study from the 1980s found that guilty psychopaths were just as easily identified using a lie detector as non-psychopaths. A major caveat to this, however, is that lie detector tests, while popular and widely used, are notoriously unr