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STEREOTYPING
LONERS
WHO WE ARE
NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT PEOPLE







By Professor Steven Reiss, Ph.D

09/04/2013 Let's Stop Stereotyping Loners | Psychology Today
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/who-we-are/201101/lets-stop-stereotyping-loners 1/2
n the recent Arizona murders, the media has repeatedly described the
shooter and his family as "loners," as if loners were more likely to
become mass murders. Personally, don't think there is much of a
correlation between being a loner and being a killer. think the media do
a disservice to millions of Americans who are asocial by stimulating the
idea that they might be dangerous. There are tens of millions of loners in
America, and only a handful of mass shooters.
So when Stanton Peele wrote a blog suggesting that being a loner might
be part of a profile of mass murderer, commented to the contrary. The
substantive issue is what is the correlation between the desire to socialize
and the desire to murder. think it is zero or close to it. n one sample
collected of about 512 adolescents and adults from all walks in life, the
correlation between a valid scale assessing motivation to socialize, and a
valid scale assessing motivation for vengeance, was only .10. Because of
the large N, this was a statistically significant correlation. t suggests that,
if anything, loners are less likely to be aggressive and angry, not more
likely as the media keep implying.
t is true, of course, that paranoid schizophrenia can be associated with
violence, but then there are other diagnoses, notably psychopath, in
which gregariousness is associated with violence. Heimlich Himmler, the
Nazi SS commander, was a charmer (or so understand.) His being a
Nazi gave him the opportunity to kill on a massive scale, but there is no
credible psychological theory that would say that his psychopathic nature
was caused by his joining the SS. He is a guy who loved to socialize and
was very friendly to those who knew him and yet he was a mass
murderer. Bernie Madoff was a charmer, and although he wasn't a
murderer, he robbed from the very people he was so friendly with. f
being friendly is about caring for other people in a way that inhibits anti-
social behavior, Madoff would not have done what he did.
The overwhelming majority of gregarious people are warm, fun loving
individuals. A few of them are psychopaths. The overwhelming majority of

New ways of thinking about people
by Steven Reiss, Ph.D.
Let's Stop Stereotyping Loners
f anything loners are a tad less violent than gregarious people.
Published on January 12, 2011 by Steven Reiss, Ph.D. in Who We Are

have written a number of scholarly papers, and some Psychology Today blogs, dealing with the
topic of people with opposite values. believe that when people hold psychologically opposite values,
they misunderstand each other and become intolerant. have discussed how such
misunderstandings affect the workplace and lead to relationship quarrels that repeat without ever
resolving. have commended Meyers Briggs for standing alone in psychology in calling for
understanding and tolerance of diverse personalities. With my own Reiss Motivation Profile
assessment tools, have joined the Myers Briggs in that effort.
Gregarious people and loners provide an example of how opposite values lead to misunderstanding
and quarrels. Gregarious people suspect that loners have a defect when it comes to caring about
people, while loners suspect that gregarious people are superficial. n a relationship, they quarrel
over their social life as a couple.
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Steven Reiss is Emeritus Professor
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This post is a response to Mass Murderers, Psychotic and Ordinary by Stanton Peele
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09/04/2013 Let's Stop Stereotyping Loners | Psychology Today
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loners are serious or maybe shy people. A few of them are
schizophrenics, and a few of those individuals are violent. Whether a
person is a loner, gregarious, or in between, tells us absolutely nothing
about how dangerous that person might be.
My guess as to a profile of an extremely dangerous person is extremely
high motivation for vengeance; significantly high need for status or
attention; extremely low need for honor (which motivates morality); and
extremely low need for idealism (which motivates concern for people you
never met). n other words, the person is very angry, attention seeking,
totally amoral, and totally unmotivated by concern for the species.
Whether or not such a person will actually do anything may depend on
how sensitive the individual is to anxiety. f the individual is fearless in
addition to being very angry, attention seeking, amoral, and unfair,
he/she is really dangerous. t doesn't matter how many friends such a
person has.
Stanton Peele has made contributions on addiction and he has been
courageous to call out some of the evolutionary psychologists for not
knowing what they are talking about. don't know why he wants to
continue to debate an issue he hasn't studied and in which he obviously
isn't an expert. n the blogosphere, of course, there is nothing unusual
about expressing non-expert opinions. n this matter, though, we are
dealing with the public image of millions of harmless loners. The media is
encouraging the public to suspect that something is wrong with loners. As
a psychologist, rise to say that loners are overwhelming mentally
healthy people who aren't at all dangerous. am speaking on a topic on
which have some data; a topic have thought about for years; and
topic have spoken out on in the past (such as my published letter in
USA Today on the VA Tech killer being called a loner.)

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