they are mainly middle-aged men – Wel.nl

A bastard, almost everyone knows one. The kind of person who is always grumpy and unkind and kicks you when he (or she) gets the chance. But do these bastards have any traits in common? Certainly, American researchers discovered.

They asked nearly 400 people to describe the biggest bastard they’d ever met. That turned out to be quite easy for the participants, says lead researcher at the University of Georgia, Brinkley Sharpe. And what was remarkable: surprisingly often it involved a middle-aged man.

“In terms of behavior, the bastards in question weren’t necessarily hostile to humans. They just didn’t care what others thought of them or how they were perceived by others,” Sharpe continues.

The researchers came up with four traits that the annoying people had in common: they were often unfriendly, not careful or orderly, but they were neurotic and emotionally unstable. They also scored low on openness.

“Bastards’ personality profiles resemble prototypes of psychopathic, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders,” said study researcher Sharpe.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every bastard is a psychopath.