Educational use only. This is a self-report reading of Hare’s two factors. It is not the PCL-R, which a trained clinician scores from an interview and a file, and it is not a diagnosis of anyone.

Hare’s two factors

Factor 1 or Factor 2?

Which factor are you? The cold core, or the hot shell.

Psychopathy is not one thing. The research splits it in two: the cold interpersonal core and the hot antisocial shell. Most people who have any of it have more of one than the other, and which one leads decides what your life looks like from the outside. Nobody had built a quiz that answers that question, so here it is. Twenty items, ten per factor, four minutes.

20 items
2 factors
3 minutes to complete
Find your factor

Free to take, and your verdict is free. The full report, with the working behind it, is $9.99.

Factor 1 vs Factor 2: what each one is

The eight facets under each factor, as Hare’s checklist groups them. Every item in the take is written toward one of these.

Factor 1
Interpersonal and affective. The cold core.
  • ·Glib, superficial charm
  • ·Grandiose sense of self-worth
  • ·Pathological lying
  • ·Conning and manipulation
  • ·Lack of remorse or guilt
  • ·Shallow affect
  • ·Callousness, lack of empathy
  • ·Failure to accept responsibility

What the person is like on the inside, and how they handle other people.

Factor 2
Lifestyle and antisocial. The hot shell.
  • ·Need for stimulation, boredom
  • ·Parasitic lifestyle
  • ·Lack of realistic long-term goals
  • ·Impulsivity
  • ·Irresponsibility
  • ·Poor behavioural controls
  • ·Early behavioural problems
  • ·Criminal versatility

What the person's life looks like from the outside, and what it costs.

The four verdicts

Each factor scores 10 to 40. The top third of the scale counts as high. The combination lands in one of four, and every result names the lean either way.

The Cold Factor
Factor 1 leads. The interior is quiet and the exterior is doing all the work.
The Hot Factor
Factor 2 leads. The shell is loud and the cold core is not there.
The Full Profile
Both factors high. The core and the shell, together.
Below the Line
Neither factor scores high.

Who built this

Kanika Batra · Diagnosed ASPD · Assessed Factor 1

I am diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder, and my psychiatrist assessed me as Factor 1 psychopathy: the cold core, without the shell. That is a clinician’s assessment, not something I picked from a list. Every page on the internet about the two factors is written by someone studying them through glass. The Cold Factor profile on the result page is written from inside it.

The items are written toward the PCL-R facets, but they are self-report, and self-report has a known problem with this construct: the people it is built to find lie easily and do not feel the questions the way you do. So read your result as a mirror. If you want a normed number, the Sociopath Test runs the LSRP against the Levenson 1995 college norms (n=487) and is the next stop.

Find your factor

Frequently Asked Questions

Factor 1 is the interpersonal and affective core: superficial charm, grandiosity, lying, manipulation, no remorse, shallow feeling, callousness, and blame that never lands on the self. Factor 2 is the lifestyle and antisocial shell: the need for stimulation, living off other people, no long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, a temper, early trouble, and a pattern of breaking rules. The two come from Hare's PCL-R, the clinician-rated checklist used in research and forensic settings. They can appear together or apart, and which one leads changes what the person looks like from the outside.
It is a self-report reading of the two factors, ten items each, written toward the facets of the PCL-R. It can tell you which factor your own answers lean toward and whether either reaches the top third of the scale. It cannot score the PCL-R, which needs a trained clinician, an interview and a file, and it has no clinical cutoffs. Treat the result as a mirror, not a measurement.
Usually, yes. Type 1 and Type 2 are informal names for the same two-factor split, and primary and secondary psychopathy (the terms the LSRP uses) map onto it closely: primary is the cold Factor 1 core, secondary is the hot Factor 2 shell. The words differ by author; the split is the same. Note that the DSM does not use any of these terms. DSM-5 does carry a "with psychopathic features" specifier for antisocial personality disorder, but in Section III, the alternative model, and not in the criteria set most clinicians diagnose from.
Kanika is diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and was clinically assessed as Factor 1 psychopathy by her psychiatrist. That is a clinician's assessment, not a self-identification and not the result of a quiz. The Cold Factor profile on this page is the configuration she was assessed as, which is why it is written from the inside.
Different, not worse. Factor 1 is the more stable and the less treatable; it does not respond to work, it responds to being named. Factor 2 produces most of the visible damage, the reports, the divorces, the HR files, and it is the factor that responds to structure and the right kind of therapy. The research finds the worst outcomes when both are high, because the shell keeps handing the core consequences it would otherwise have avoided.
The Sociopath Test runs the LSRP, a published instrument with published norms, and gives you a percentile. This one is shorter, written here, and answers the relative question, which factor leads, rather than the absolute one. Take this first if the question you have is Factor 1 versus Factor 2. Take the Sociopath Test after it if you want a normed score.
No. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis of anyone. The PCL-R itself is not a diagnosis either; it is an assessment tool a clinician scores. Only a licensed clinician with a full history can diagnose Antisocial Personality Disorder. If the result is causing you real distress, that is a reason to talk to one, not to retake the quiz.
Your answers are stored in your browser session, and a copy of the scores and verdict is kept so a share link can work if you ask for one. Nothing is published. If you give an email at the result, it is used for the result email and the short follow-up, and you can delete it at any time.

Related reading

Guide

Factor 1 vs Factor 2 Psychopathy: The Complete Guide

The long read on the two factors, written from inside one of them. What each facet looks like in a life, and why the split matters more than the label.

Same test, other side

The Factor 2 Door

The same twenty items, read from the other side. The eight lifestyle and antisocial facets in plain words, for anyone who came here asking about Factor 2 rather than about the pair.

Companion quiz

The Sociopath Test (LSRP)

The normed instrument. Primary and secondary psychopathy, which map onto Factor 1 and Factor 2, scored against the Levenson 1995 college norms (n=487) with a percentile. Take it after this one.

Read

What Is Factor 1 Psychopathy? A Diagnosed Sociopath Explains

The type 1 psychopath, explained by someone clinically assessed as one.

Wide map

The Dark Mirror Assessment

The wide map. Six Cluster B types instead of one axis, with the Index behind it so you can see where you sit among everyone who took it.

Facet structure after Hare, R. D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (2nd ed.). Multi-Health Systems. Two-factor structure per Harpur, Hare & Hakstian (1989), Psychological Assessment 1(1), 6-17. The PCL-R is a clinician-rated instrument; nothing on this page scores it.

How this test is scored
The instrument
Original self-report items written toward the facets of Hare's two PCL-R factors. It is not the PCL-R. 20 items.
How it is scored
Twenty items, ten per factor, banded into thirds of the scale. The bands are thirds, not norms, and are labelled as such.
What it is compared against
No norms claimed. No published sample exists for this item set.
What the research says is wrong with it
The PCL-R is scored by a clinician from an interview and a file review, so no self-report questionnaire can produce a PCL-R score. Factor 1 is a statistic from that instrument, never a diagnosis, and it does not predict danger.
What a result is not
A result here is a trait profile, never a disorder and never a diagnosis. Only a clinician with your full history can diagnose anything, and no self-report questionnaire can.