Shallow Emotions

When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

Ohh, emotion is probably the best tool we have at our hands. A sociopath is extremely skilled at faking concern, love, hate, or any number of passions that we don't really feel. I'm sure a scientist would explain it as some sort of hormonal imbalance, or a therapist might explain it as a falsely hollow feeling, but the truth is, we don't really have hearts. We're emotionally removed from the world, so when a relative dies and we're 'stricken with grief,' we're probably off enjoying the day, or using the death as sympathy, or otherwise accessorizing the tragedy. While most people would truly spend the day at home grieving, we take the time to get a jump on making this look great for us. A sociopath might prepare a moving speech about the relative, plan get-togethers for everyone who might miss this person and need someone to talk to about the death. The speech would give the sociopath the appearance of a true depth of soul, and the get-togethers would allow the sociopath to expand their family connections, maybe make new connections or refurbish old connections.


A sociopath could also easily convince a difficult mate that (s)he loves the person, when no such feeling exists. If that mate returns the emotion, however, the sociopath can use that person like a sword. The sociopath first convinces the mate that the love is eternal and unconditional, and imitates all the romantic actions in stories and plays, then moves on to 'further the relationship' with vows of commitment and more romantic gestures. After a while, the mate becomes totally infatuated with the sociopath, and the sociopath now has a choice; use or abuse. Continuing to use the mate without feeding his/her belief in the love would be an abuse of the situation, but depending on how much effort the sociopath has already put into the faux relationship, there might still be a few years of use left in the mate before (s)he up and leaves. Full use of the mate would involve more permanent commitment, marriage and kids, and the need for a constant renewal of the passion the mate perceives in the relationship, but is often much more rewarding. If the mate truly believes in the integrity of the relationship, the sociopath can use the mate to much greater extremes, even involving the mate in the sociopath's schemes and abilities. This must be done with care, however, as most mates aren't sociopaths themselves and may encounter moral dilemmas in the sociopath's actions, compelling the mate to perhaps share such information with a friend, or worse, an authority figure.