Every few months a headline ranks the "most psychopathic cities" and every few months it is nonsense, because nobody has assessed a city. What I have is smaller and more honest: 2,000+ people who chose to take my quiz, the timezone their browser reported, and a fixed rule for what counts as scoring high.
So here is what that can and cannot tell you.
Who shows up, by region
Region on the Index means browser timezone. It is the only geography the quiz holds, and it is a good one for this purpose: it is set by the device, it cannot be typed wrong, and it never asks anyone where they live. It also means "New York" is Eastern-time takers, which includes Miami and Toronto's neighbours, not the five boroughs.
By volume, as of August 2026, the biggest regions are:
- New York (Eastern time), about 280 takes
- London, about 220
- Chicago (Central time), about 150
- Los Angeles (Pacific time), about 145
- Berlin, about 95
- Kolkata, about 55
- Sydney, about 55
- Toronto, about 50
- Amsterdam, about 40
- Denver (Mountain time), about 40
Out of 124 timezones seen. English-speaking cities lead, which says as much about where my audience comes from as about anything else.
Volume is not darkness
The interesting question is not who shows up but who, having shown up, scores highest. So the Index does not rank regions by count. For each dark axis, it takes every region with thirty or more takers and ranks them by the share of those takers who score in the high band, 60 or above out of 100.
Thirty is the floor. Below it, one or two people swing a region's share by whole percentage points and the ranking becomes noise. Regions grow into the table as they cross the line; several are close as I write this.
The live ranking is on the Where page of the Dark Mirror Index, one ladder per dark axis, and it recomputes every morning. I have not printed a snapshot of it here on purpose. It moves, and a number in a blog post would be wrong within a week.
What it means, and what it does not
The app
Want this in your blood, not your bookmarks?
Daily voice notes, the simulator, the drills, and Receipts on the messages you actually got. Free to start.
Get the appIt is a portrait of who, in each timezone, chose to look in the mirror. Nothing here estimates a city. The people who take a dark psychology quiz are self-selected: drawn to the subject, often because they recognise something in themselves. A region that ranks high has a curious and cold audience, not a cold population.
Two things still make it worth reading. The regions are large enough that the differences between them are real differences between audiences, not sampling noise, once they clear thirty. And the shares are of high-band takers, so a region only climbs the ladder when its takers are putting twelve or more of twenty answers on one dark axis. Traits do not move it. Only the loud end does.
If you want your city on the board
Take the quiz. Your timezone joins the count, and if your region is under thirty takes, you are one of the people it needs before it can say anything. Your own result comes with your band and percentile on every axis against everyone above; the map is just the part you share.
How these numbers are made: the sample, what is excluded, reliability figures and the gap between the Index and published prevalence are on the methodology page; every figure, numbered and dated for quoting, is on the statistics page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which city has the most sociopaths?
Nobody can answer that for a population; there is no census of personality. What the Dark Mirror Index can say is which regions send the most takers and which regions' takers score highest on the sociopathic and psychopathic axes, by browser timezone, updated daily on the Where page.
Which cities send the most people to the Dark Mirror?
As of August 2026: New York (Eastern time) with about 280 takes, London about 220, Chicago about 150, Los Angeles about 145, then Berlin, Kolkata, Sydney, Toronto, Amsterdam and Denver, out of 124 timezones seen.
How does the Index decide which region scores darkest?
For each dark axis it takes every region with thirty or more takers and ranks them by the share of those takers who score in the high band, 60 or above. Small regions are held back until they have enough takes to say something.
Is this a real measure of a city's psychology?
No. It measures the people in that timezone who chose to take a dark psychology quiz, which is a self-selected group. Treat it as an audience portrait with a map on it, not as a finding about the city.
Take the Dark Mirror and add your city to the count, or read the live Where page.