Recognizing Evil Personalities
Number One: Enjoying Your Pain
Do you know someone who enjoys other people's pain? I mean, do you know someone who laughs at your misfortune? They may take advantage of your pain or get some kind of pleasure out of your suffering. This is a sign you're dealing with an evil person because this behavior demonstrates a complete lack of empathy. Empathy is your ability to walk in another person's shoes. If someone experiences pain or hardship, you can imagine how hard their life must be and you sympathize with their pain. But someone without empathy makes no effort to understand others.
In fact, they actively enhance or increase others' pain through criticism, cruelty, or even physical aggression. If you know someone who lacks sympathy, they may be a bad person, but they may also be something else. A lack of empathy is one of the most commonly cited elements of psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by egotistical thoughts, anti-social behavior, and of course, a lack of empathy. Not all psychopaths are bad or evil people. No, many learn to live normal lives, but when a psychopath enjoys the pain of others, they can become evil and dangerous.
A dangerous lack of empathy takes many different shapes. Maybe they stab you in the back by betraying your trust. Maybe they leave you out to dry when you're counting on them the most. Or maybe they use your secrets to tear you down and control your life. In all of these situations, an evil person is happily throwing salt into your wound. Ouch! So don't spend your time with people who enjoy hurting you or other people because that lack of empathy means you're dealing with an evil person.
Number Two: Avoiding All Responsibility
Does your friend avoid responsibility? Do they pass the blame when anything goes wrong? This avoidant and irresponsible behavior is a common sign of a selfish evil personality. Just think about the last time you messed up. Maybe you made a careless mistake at work. How did you feel afterward? Guilty, embarrassed, apologetic? After messing up, good people take responsibility for their mistakes and they take steps to redeem themselves.
But evil people do exactly the opposite. If an evil person makes a mistake, they avoid responsibility altogether. In their minds, they can't do anything wrong. They can't be the one at fault, so they freely blame and attack others for their own mistakes. They don't feel guilty, they don't feel embarrassed or apologetic. They make no effort to redeem themselves and they don't apologize to the people who were affected by their mistake. Instead, they play the victim. They act like someone else did this to them and they avoid responsibility altogether.
Number Three: Cruelty to Animals
Do you know someone who's mean to animals? Maybe they mistreat their own pets or they push away your pets every time they try to say hello. Some people like animals more than others. Some adore pets, cuddling and talking to them like they're people. Others acknowledge their animals but largely give them space. But only a select few people ignore or senselessly bully animals. This behavior is a common sign of something evil inside them.
So why does bullying animals make you evil? Well, because animals are living things just like we are. We connect with them in the same way we connect with other human beings. Just imagine playing with your dog after a long day at work or listening to your cat purr on your lap. Both of these encounters relieve our stress, release feel-good hormones in the brain, and they make you feel loved.
When someone is cruel to animals, they show a disregard for the living. That cruelty demonstrates a non-existent connection to other living organisms. In other words, this person lacks the empathy to identify with another living, breathing creature. Or maybe they're just too egotistical to care. Either way, pay attention when someone you know is cruel to animals. Whether this person is hurting their dog or throwing rocks at squirrels, animal cruelty is a telltale sign of something evil.
Number Four: Profitable Deception
Everyone has told a couple of white lies in their lives. Sometimes you lie to spare someone's feelings or save them from pain. Other times, you do it to get yourself out of trouble or avoid unnecessary conflict. But evil people don't lie for the benefit of others. Instead, they lie actively and often to benefit themselves.
Deception and manipulation are common signs of a psychopathic personality. In fact, deception and manipulation are common in every corner of the dark triad. The dark triad describes three major personality disorders: narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Each disorder is often associated with violent or evil people in different ways. All three disorders in the dark triad struggle to consider the suffering of others.
Psychopaths rarely develop the emotional skills to understand another person's hardships. Narcissists think so highly of themselves they may believe they have the right to manipulate others. And machiavellian selfishness motivates people to manipulate, deceive, and lie on a regular basis. Someone who lies consistently for their own personal gain may fall somewhere on this dangerous spectrum. They may struggle with empathy. They may think far too highly of themselves. They may be too self-absorbed to understand the pitfalls of manipulation. But either way, someone who shamelessly takes advantage of others may be an evil person.
Number Five: Malicious Criticism
Does your friend make you feel stupid? There's a big difference between being told you're stupid and feeling stupid by comparison. All right, let's say you're friends with a hyper-intelligent person. You may sometimes feel stupid by comparison. Some of their jokes may fly over your head. Maybe you just don't understand a lot of the concepts they discuss. This comparison doesn't make this person evil. There's nothing evil about being smart.
But what if someone makes you feel stupid because they tell you directly? All right, let's try another scenario. You're talking to the same hyper-intelligent friend, telling them about something that scares you, and instead of listening to your fears, they make you feel stupid for being scared. They belittle your fears and they make you feel small. Now this is a sign of an evil person. A good person would try to spare your feelings. If they had differing ideas or opinions, they would present those opinions in a way that doesn't hurt or attack you.
But this friend tried to make you feel bad. This toxic and possibly evil person may be taking out their own frustrations on you. They may use you like a punching bag because they think you're weaker or less intelligent than they are. This can cause major problems in any relationship, friendship, or partnership. If you know someone who criticizes you or makes you feel stupid, it's best to keep your distance because you may be dealing with an evil person.
Number Six: Universal Self-Interest
An evil individual looks out for one and only one person, and that's themselves. To an evil person, their own pleasure, comfort, and success are the only things that matter in their life. So they're willing to do anything to make their own life better. Let's call this universal self-interest because no matter what, this person is always looking to help themselves.
Universal self-interest is another important sign of the dark triad. It's associated with high self-esteem, delusions of grandeur, and victim syndrome, which we talked about before. So don't expect these people to do you any favors. Just think about it. If you concentrate 100% of your attention on yourself, how much time do you spend thinking about others? Well, zero. That's why evil people spend so little time thinking about their friends or family.
That's why evil people manipulate and step on others to satisfy their own desires. As long as they have something to gain, an evil person will go to any lengths to make it happen.
Number Seven: External Warnings
Have you ever been warned that a partner or friend is a bad person? Has anyone ever told you to keep your distance even though this person seems great on the outside? Here's the biggest problem with many of these vindictive personality types: they're great at covering their tracks. They can pretend for long periods of time to be your best friend or perfect match.
They pretend to care, listen, and guard your trust. But when it benefits them the most, these same people will stab you in the back. In many cases, we become infatuated with this person's best qualities, so we ignore the red flags. We let their lies go unpunished. We allow them to manipulate or control us. We swallow their criticisms and let it affect us internally.
Evil people are easy to recognize on the outside when you're unattached and uninvested, but on the inside, it's difficult to tell the difference. So listen to what other people are trying to tell you. If this person is doing something evil to you, they've likely done evil things before. Pay attention to the input of friends, family, and even their past partners. If everybody raves about how great and considerate this person is, then you probably have nothing to worry about. But if other people warn you about getting too close, then you may be dealing with someone who's worse than you realize.
| Trait | Description |
|---|---|
| Enjoying Your Pain | A lack of empathy and pleasure in others' suffering |
| Avoiding Responsibility | Blaming others for personal mistakes and never apologizing |
| Cruelty to Animals | Mistreatment of animals indicating a lack of empathy |
| Profitable Deception | Lying for personal gain without considering others |
| Malicious Criticism | Belittling others to make them feel inferior |
| Universal Self-Interest | Prioritizing personal gain above all else |
| External Warnings | Ignoring others' advice about a person's character |
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