/dark-mirror-index/psychopathic · axis page
How psychopathic are you compared to everyone else?
Among 3,155 people who have taken the Dark Mirror, the median psychopathic score is 20. 28% have it as their highest axis, and 6% score in the high band at 60 or above. The top 10% starts at 50.
Pick a score
45
A psychopathic score of 45 is higher than 87% of 3,155 takers, the top 13%. 123 people scored exactly this.
The axis is shaping choices.
That was a score you picked. Twenty scenarios, seven minutes, and the Index reads your real one on every axis.
Get your real oneThe ladder
Every row is a permalink (#score-60): a psychopathic score of 60 is higher than 95% of takers.
| Score | Band | Takers | Higher than |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | High | 3 | 99% |
| 95 | High | 6 | 99% |
| 90 | High | 5 | 99% |
| 85 | High | 10 | 99% |
| 80 | High | 15 | 99% |
| 75 | High | 21 | 98% |
| 70 | High | 29 | 98% |
| 65 | High | 39 | 97% |
| 60 | High | 59 | 95% |
| 55 | Pronounced | 80 | 93% |
| 50 | Pronounced | 75 | 90% |
| 45 | Pronounced | 123 | 87% |
| 40 | Pronounced | 164 | 83% |
| 35 | Traits | 184 | 77% |
| 30 | Traits | 226 | 71% |
| 25 | Traits | 267 | 63% |
| 20 | Traits | 295 | 54% |
| 15 | Baseline | 368 | 43% |
| 10 | Baseline | 424 | 31% |
| 5 | Baseline | 417 | 18% |
| 0 | Baseline | 345 | 5% |
Straight answers
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of people are psychopaths?
Most research puts the clinical rate near 1% of the general population. Among people who take the Dark Mirror, 28% lean psychopathic and 6% score high. Neither figure is a diagnosis rate; both describe who chooses to take a dark psychology test.
Psychopathic traits or actual psychopathy?
Traits sit in the 20 to 35 band and are common. Actual psychopathy is a clinical finding on the PCL-R or a DSM-5 assessment. A high band score means the axis dominates your answers, which is where the two start to look alike, and it still is not a diagnosis.
What is a normal psychopathic score?
The middle of the pack is 20. Half of everyone scores 20 or below. A 45 is already higher than most people who answered the same questions.
Is a high score a diagnosis?
No. It is a self-report across twenty scenarios. Only a clinician can diagnose, and only with a proper assessment. Read the band, not a label.
“I sit at the top of this axis, and I was assessed as Factor 1 by my psychiatrist. The number I watch is not the top. It is how many people sit at thirty and were never once told.”
Kanika Batra
What this axis measures
Twenty scenarios, each with one answer that reads as cold, calculating, or unmoved by consequence. The psychopathic score is the share of your answers that fell that way. It measures a direction across situations, not a diagnosis, and it moves in steps of five.
Traits, or the type?
Traits are the 20 to 35 band: cool under pressure, low sentimentality, comfortable with leverage. Most people have some. Psychopathy as a clinical finding is something else, assessed with the PCL-R or a DSM-5 evaluation. The high band is where the two start to look alike; only a clinician can say which it is.
See where you fall on the psychopathic axis.
Seven minutes, twenty scenarios, then your band and percentile on every axis against everyone above.