Firstly, I want to emphasise that people who are shy, introvert and loners are NOT expressing antisocial behaviour. In psychology, this term is related to far more different pattern of behaviour, a destructive one, which causes distress to other people. The prefix anti-, meaning opposed to, literally indicates that this is a behaviour against being social. On the other hand, one of the aspects of being social is to be humane.
This is a pretty interesting and intimidating phenomenon which is present in our society. It is recognized as a disorder –it is called The Antisocial Personality Disorder and the people who exibit traits of that kind are called psychopaths. Luckily, it is estimated that only one percent of the whole population belongs to that category.
Psychopaths are the persons who don't have conscience, they don't feel empathy and they have no sense of ethics and morality. Their emotions are shallow, self-serving, they are usually pathological liars and above all highly manipulative. They function on a rational level, so they appear totally normal. They know the difference between right and wrong and, in many cases, they are very charming and appear overconfident. Their personal behaviour is learnt by observing common peoples' reactions.This is a part of their social manipulation and as a result they are difficult to spot.
It is interesting that they don't react to stressful situations the way other people do. There was an experiment conducted by the scientists where a random person and a psychopath were waiting to hear a sound of a loud gunshot through the headphones. The average person was sweating in anticipation, his heart rate increased, while the psychopath exibited no physical response.
Since they feel no shame and remorse and they obviously have lack of fear, that makes them indifferent when it comes to punishment for their own wrongdoings. They are not able to change their future behaviour because they are not able to recognize it.
The most familiar examples are the personalities and actions of the serial killers which you might have seen in movies, if not documentaries. That is a complex subject of its own I won't be getting into. But, what about the people who are at the top of the society that rewards manipulative and selfish behaviour in order to gain more profit? I think that is worth giving a thought.
What do you think?