Answering this riddle 'correctly' shows you might be a 'psychopath'

A riddle has circulated that can supposedly tell whether you may be a “psychopath”, and it’s all to do with whether or not you can get the correct answer. Of course, a diagnosis of psychopathy is far more complex than getting the right solution to a riddle, but many people still enjoy seeing how their minds work in response to the puzzle.

Psychopathy is a type of personality disorder, more specifically a severe form of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). It’s typically characterised by “the absence of empathy and the blunting of other affective states”, according to Psychology Today.

Personality disorders fall on a spectrum and they vary wildly. The NHS summarises: “A person with a personality disorder thinks, feels, behaves or relates to others very differently from the average person.” Psychopaths commonly have less empathy and lack feelings of remorse or guilt; they can be manipulative and lie compulsively; they may be impulsive and irresponsible; lack accountability, and more.

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Any diagnosis of psychopathy must be conducted by medical professionals - answering riddles correctly does not constitute a diagnosis. However, social media users have been having fun finding out what their answer might say about them.

The “psychopath” riddle has been widely circulated on social media in many forms, coming up in Reddit discussions and YouTube videos, too. There’s a variety of riddles available to try out for fun including this relatively simple - though somewhat dark - scenario.

The riddle

A couple are very, very close and have one teenage son together. As a trio, the family is extremely tight-knit and spends a lot of time together. Each day, the parents walk their teenage son to school but this is seen negatively by his peers.

Soon, the boy starts being bullied for having his parents walk him to school every day. He comes home in floods of tears over the bullies’ actions.

How his parents react to this is where the riddle often varies. In some versions, the boy’s parents start murdering random children from his school year over a period of days.

In others, they track down the bullies’ homes and start killing them - but not all at once. They leave a few days between each murder.

Why does the couple resort to murder, and why do they either leave gaps between the killings, or target random teenagers?

When a version of this question was posed on YouTube, people were keen to share their theories as to why the parents didn’t kill the bullies all at once.

One person shared: “I said 'cause all the bullies don’t live together and they need to find their address”.

Another said: “I was gonna say ‘So that the remaining bullies see it coming’ (am I cooked?)”

A third suggested: “So the other bullies realize the pattern, start fearing and get overly protective of themselves which will lead to an easier target”.

Another added: “They needed time to hide the bodies”.

The answer

Regardless of which version of the riddle is proposed, the answer is always the same. The boy’s parents resort to murder so other parents fear a serial killer is on the loose and feel compelled to walk their own children to school to keep them safe.

This would stop their son from being bullied as the reason he was targeted would no longer apply to just him. He wouldn’t be the only one being walked to school by his parents - now all his classmates would be in the same boat; being walked to school by their parents, too.

On Reddit, one person who shared the riddle alongside a compilation of other riddles added: “Just because you can solve these riddles does not mean you’re a psychopath (hopefully); you may just think like one.”