Can a test tell if your newborn will become a psychopath?

A newly devised test can apparently tell signs of anti-social behavior in infants and toddlers that may  be a precursor to adult psychopathy.

The red ball test, developed by psychiatrists at the King’s College London, can predict if newborn babies will develop callous-unemotional (CU) traits.

For the study, researchers from King’s College London, the University of Manchester and the University of Liverpool used babies’ preferential face tracking at 5 weeks and maternal sensitivity at 29 weeks as predictors of CU traits at two-and-a-half years.

The psychiatrists then explored whether babies preferred to look at a human face or a red ball.

Based on the responses of a random sample of 213 mothers and infants, the researchers found that babies who preferred to look at a red ball rather than the human face were more likely to exhibit CU traits.

“We found that increased preference for a person’s face -rather than a ball – at just five-weeks of age was associated with lower callous unemotional traits,”Dr Rachael Bedford of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London explained.

Dr. Bedford added that their findings showed that when a mother responds more sensitively to their baby during playtime, the child has a lesser tendency to show callous unemotional behavior as a toddler.

However, Dr. Bedford also emphasized that the study does not show whether babies displaying CU traits grow up to be psychopaths.

Professor Hill of University of Manchester added that callous unemotional traits among children are known to be linked with a heightened emotional burden on families, later anti-social behavior, and criminality.

The research was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry in July.

Featured image credits to The Daily Mail UK.