When Kristopher Brazil, a PhD student in Brock University’s Department of Child and Youth Studies, answered an interview request from PsyPost about a recent study he conducted with fellow researcher Adelle Forth of Carleton University, he didn’t know what he was in for.

But the research was so topical and intriguing that news of the study — which appeared in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science in September and was Brazil’s first publication in a peer-reviewed journal — spread like wildfire. It was featured on Psychology Today and in newspapers like the New York Post and Britain’s The Daily Mail, as well as on websites like Reddit.

The study people found so fascinating examined how women rate the attractiveness of men in dating encounters who vary on psychopathic traits.

Young women were asked to watch video recordings of young men interacting with a woman and then rate the men’s dating desirability. The men had previously completed an assessment of psychopathic traits, allowing researchers to see patterns in desirability ratings and psychopathic traits.

The results showed that the men with more psychopathic traits were rated as more desirable. Further, when women compared two equally attractive men, the one with more psychopathic traits was rated higher in direct comparison with the other man.

Brazil says he and Forth began the study with an interest in “further understanding the enigmatic and positive effect that some research shows men with psychopathic traits can have in gaining favourable impressions, especially in romantic contexts, despite the eventual negative effect they have on their significant others.”

It’s a tendency that garners a lot of interest, which may explain some of the popular interest in this scientific research.

But, as Brazil points out, the research also “helps give context to why people get into these relationships in the first place.”

“It’s not that women, or people generally, are getting into these relationships knowing that the person shows psychopathic tendencies,” he explains.

“It rather seems that psychopathic individuals are good at displaying exactly what is attractive to others in a romantic context — things like confidence, making eye contact, putting the other person at ease and seeming sincere and interested.”

Professor Tony Volk in the Department of Child and Youth Studies says it’s “rewarding to see a creative hypothesis like Kristopher’s catching the attention of a broader audience.”

Volk, who is Brazil’s supervisor, notes that “it also speaks to the public demand for understanding antisocial behavior so that we can more effectively prevent it.”

The findings have been of interest not only to the media, but to individuals who have first-hand experience with the study’s findings.

“I have had people from around the world emailing me to give their own personal stories related to the research topic,” says Brazil. “It’s been nice hearing from real people who feel like they have a stake in this research being conducted.”

He says he’s also heard from people who criticized aspects of the study — feedback he was eager to review and consider.

“Having thought deeply about my own research and criticizing it harshly myself, I was able to empathize with people’s concerns,” says Brazil. “This allowed me to appreciate and respond to some of those issues and concerns genuinely without compromising the integrity of the research.”

One of the takeaways from having his research go viral, he says, was thinking deeply about his work — a lesson he encourages others to take note of.

“Get into the nitty gritty details of your study rationale, what’s missing from it, and other issues that still need to be resolved with more thinking and research,” says Brazil.