# Psychopaths have attached earlobes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998 "2013-08-12T02:43:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/1 "2013-08-12T02:43:34Z")
I read somewhere in a book review about genetic predispositions to crime (I forgot where though) that one of the signs of psychopaths is that they have an attached earlobe. Does anyone know more about this? Is this true? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/2 "2013-08-12T02:59:37Z")
My father had attached earlobes (or really, barely any real earlobes at all, he would have been a bust as a pirate) and no, he was not a psychopath. Counter-evidence case of one. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/3 "2013-08-12T04:04:41Z")
Deleted. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/4 "2013-08-12T04:05:43Z")
[Adrian Raine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Raine) is one of the world’s leading authorities on the APD/sociopathic/psychopathic mentality. In The Psychopathology of Crime he does cite several studies which demonstrate an inverse correlation between criminality and physical attractiveness, but he doesn’t mention anything specifically about earlobes. He does mention protruding ears, though. Does having an attached earlobe cause the ears to stick out? ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/5 "2013-08-12T07:53:17Z")
> [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](#): > > I read somewhere in a book review about genetic predispositions to crime (I forgot where though) that one of the signs of psychopaths is that they have an attached earlobe. > > Does anyone know more about this? Is this true? The only fact in this thread is that no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis of “psychopath”. Its talked about in criminal context ? why ? because they don’t want to deal with mental illness properly ? ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/6 "2013-08-12T09:27:50Z")
> [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](#): > > I read somewhere in a book review about genetic predispositions to crime (I forgot where though) that one of the signs of psychopaths is that they have an attached earlobe. > > Does anyone know more about this? Is this true? [These two studies](http://www.jaapl.org/content/16/2/101.full.pdf) provide most of the general background for this theory. In short, minor physical anomalies (such as attached earlobes) appear to be strongly related to violent crime, but only if the person was also raised in an unstable home environment. The theory is that central nervous system damage, perhaps impossible to detect on its own, may occur along with whatever caused these minor defects. This damage appears to predict future violent crime if the person is also exposed to an unstable early home life. > [@](#): > > Perinatal Factors > This observation leads us directly to the second of the congenital factors possibly contributing to violent behavior - perinatal problems. When combined with an unstable homelife this CNS damage appears to strongly correlate with future violent crime… > > Pregnancy complications may also produce less severe disturbances in the development of the fetus, however. For example, let us consider the development of the ears. The ears begin low on the neck of the fetus and slowly drift into their accustomed position. With the introduction of some teratogenic event or substance, the development may be slowed or stopped and the ears’ drift upward will terminate prematurely, re- sulting in low-seated ears. Similarly, the lobes of the ears should, but sometimes do not, dangle below the point at which the ears adhere to the head. These minor aural malformations are examples of disturbed fetal development and are termed “minor physical anomalies” (MPAs)… > > Studies that we and others have completed have shown that minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are strongly related to hyperactivity and subsequent criminal involvement. For example, Waldrop et al.15 found that the newborn count of MPAs explains almost half of the variance in hyperactivity at age three. In addition, Fogel et al. found support for a relationship between hyperactivity in males and MPAs. Hyperactivity in boys is highly related to later serious delinquency… > > The results indicated that MPAs were totally unrelated to property offenses if the offender had no violent offenses on his record. They were, however, strongly related to violent offending (these violent offenders may have had previous property offenses). More careful inspection of the data revealed that the MPAs only predicted to violence for individuals raised in unstable, nonintact families. A stable family environment seems to compensate for the biological vulnerability represented by the MPAs… > > In another study, data were examined from a random sample of 847 children drawn from a Copenhagen birth cohort of 9,125 consecutive deliveries. Aggressiveness (bullying, fighting, and so on) was assessed at age 18 by the subject’s teachers. A similar interaction to the one noted above was found; again, MPAs only predicted to violence for offenders who were raised in unstable environments. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/7 "2013-08-12T11:23:55Z")
Shades of Cesare Lombroso! ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/8 "2013-08-12T15:35:45Z")
In contrast, it seems that rather like eye colour, there is no simple way to classify earlobe attachment, let alone correlate that with other traits (and, I would suggest, especially character traits). In Myths of Human Genetics - a useful site for all kinds of suppositions - McDonald relates a number of pieces of research into earlobe attachment and concludes that > [@](#): > > Earlobes do not fall into two categories, “free” and “attached”; there is continuous variation in attachment point, from up near the ear cartilage to well below the ear. While there is probably some genetic influence on earlobe attachment point, family studies show that it does not fit the simple one-locus, two-allele myth. You should not use earlobe attachment to demonstrate basic genetics. Full page cite: [http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythearlobe.html](http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythearlobe.html) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/9 "2013-08-12T16:57:36Z")
Related: a Tennessee court [allowed the defense to present evidence regarding the “warrior gene”](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128043329) (a variant of the monoamine oxidase-A gene) in 2009, allowing the defendant to avoid the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/10 "2013-08-12T17:22:05Z")
> [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](#): > > I read somewhere in a book review about genetic predispositions to crime (I forgot where though) that one of the signs of psychopaths is that they have an attached earlobe. > > Does anyone know more about this? Is this true? First thing I did upon reading this post was to Google Dick Cheney. Detached. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/11 "2013-08-13T00:26:21Z")
Now, when I watch Lockup, I’m going to pay attention to ear lobes. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/12 "2013-08-13T00:35:44Z")
I recall an article showing Bill Cinton’s fleshy, dangly earlobes as proof of his promiscuity. Sounded like one of those Desmond Morris claptraps that reasoned if your earlobes were like ballsacks it meant only one thing. Like how Kirk Douglass’ chin made women think about his dick. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/13 "2013-08-13T10:04:23Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I recall an article showing Bill Cinton’s fleshy, dangly earlobes as proof of his promiscuity. Sounded like one of those Desmond Morris claptraps that reasoned if your earlobes were like ballsacks it meant only one thing. _ **Like how Kirk Douglass’ chin made women think about his dick** _. (bolding mine) Animated series, ‘Family Guy’. 'Nuff said. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/14 "2013-08-13T21:12:18Z")
I honestly thought someone would have beaten me to [this psycho](http://www.24spoilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/20621_24s1promopics_24s01promo_set04_kiefer_sutherland_09_122_798lo.jpg). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/15 "2013-08-14T09:58:02Z")
I thought psychopaths had **detached** earlobes … other peoples :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/16 "2013-08-16T03:27:12Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > The only fact in this thread is that no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis of “psychopath”. > > Its talked about in criminal context ? why ? because they don’t want to deal with mental illness properly ? Both psychopaths and sociopaths are covered under the umbrella term of Anti-social Personality Disorder in the DSM 4. But they are not the same thing. A psychopath is not necessarily a criminal, but rather someone who is not encumbered by a conscience. They have no conscience at all and are not capable of empathy, sympathy or pity. Such a person is capable of doing terrible things without experiencing guilt, and many do. But that doesn’t mean that any particular individual will do terrible things. There are other reasons for living within society’s rules. It also doesn’t mean that any one who commits a crime is a psychopath - most are not. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-have-attached-earlobes/665998/17 "2013-08-16T18:55:21Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > I thought psychopaths had **detached** earlobes … other peoples :eek: And what did Mike Tyson say to Vincent van Gogh? You gonna eat that?