This study reveals the favourite songs of psychopaths

If you’ve ever seen A Clockwork Orange, you’ll know that Alex, our narrator and protagonist, is a psychopath with a fondness for Beethoven. Just because he likes to engage in the ol’ ultra-violence, he does have a soft spot for music.

New York University has done a little research into the musical preferences of psychopaths (i.e. people with “deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls”). Some psychopaths love ultra-violence and Silence of the Lambs-like murder while others are just bad people who blend into society.

This study tested 200 people for psychopathy. They were then told to listen to a selection of 260 songs to see if there was any correlation between their psychopathy and their musical preferences.

Researchers haven’t released a complete list of psycho favourites–perhaps they’re not that confident in their results–but they do say that “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, “No Diggity” by Blackstreet, and *ahem* “My Sharona” from The Knack ranked highly.

We look forward the rest of the list. One day, maybe.

More here.