Exceedingly cruel people who feel no remorse for the damage they inflict are often called sociopaths, a term used to describe someone who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). 

One defining feature of ASPD is a lack of empathy,  meaning you don’t understand or even care about the feelings of others. 

If you have ASPD you also lack remorse and think nothing of taking advantage of others for personal gain. 

Scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint precisely what causes ASPD, but it seems that both nature and nurture play a part.

This is because you’re more prone to have ASPD if the disorder runs in your family or you had a particularly traumatic childhood. 

Because people with ASPD tend to be so cruel and remorseless, there are several obvious clues that you’re dealing with a sociopath. Here are a few signs that someone is suffering from ASPD.

1) They enjoy the suffering of others 

It’s hard for most of us to grasp, but malevolent people enjoy watching people suffer misfortune. 

It could be a natural disaster far away or a tragic situation playing out right in front of them. They obviously delight in other people’s pain and relish their emotional turmoil.

One of the reasons cruel people enjoy the misfortune of others is because an evil person’s personal pain is momentarily erased when bad luck befalls other people. 

They pose a very real threat to those around them because they enjoy manipulating events to create bad situations for you so they can sit back and enjoy the chaos they’ve created.

It is crucial to recognize these people for what they are before awful things “coincidentally” start happening to you.

If observing horrible things happening to blameless people is what gives someone their jollies, get out while you can. Your well-meaning love and concern cannot save them.

2) They get off on cruelty

Many evil people don’t even bother to try to be sly about their actions. Some choose to get right in your face with their cruelty.

No shame in their game, and that’s the problem.  

Their cruelty manifests as picking fights or deliberately hurting their partners, kids, or friends. Cruel people are even known to hurt innocent animals and get a charge out of it.

Once again, this behavior dulls the hurt hiding in their black hearts. But that certainly doesn’t mean you have to tolerate sociopathic behavior. 

Get away while you can.

3) No accountability

An evil person lacks any semblance of a moral compass. They’ll do as they please and will never feel responsible for the pain they have caused to others.

If they sense any sort of blame coming their way, they’ll start redirecting it immediately.

They love to shift the blame to others and have no understanding of what an apology is. They think apologizing is for the weak. They’d much rather make you apologize for their mistakes.

4) They deliberately mislead you

Manipulating reality is how an evil person derives most of their power. 

Cruel people are adept at misleading you into believing untruths about them, about your loved ones, and about yourself, as well.

These master manipulators are also experts at gaslighting, which means they’ll misquote someone, twist the truth, or even outright lie to further their personal aims. 

5) Master manipulators

Let’s not forget that evil people are capable of expressing kindness. But there’s a catch, and that’s the huge price tag a manipulative person’s kindness comes with.

Way too much for my budget! 

It’s common for evil people to be kind to you because they want something, be it cash, a place to stay, or whatever need they’re desperate to meet.

Genuinely kind people are kind without any expectation of a reward. Cruel people would consider that a waste of their time.

6) They utilize conflict and confusion 

Malevolent people thrive off confusion and conflict. Like an evil maestro, they will orchestrate chaos to their benefit.

They are well aware that the more scattered and confused you are, the easier it’ll be to exert more power over you.

To combat this, it helps to remain level-headed and self-confident so you can better withstand the onslaught of evil coming your way. 

Evil people have the motive and the will to create confusion and conflict in your life. It’s what they do.

Don’t let them use you this way. Exit out the nearest door or window immediately. 

7) Control freaks 

All evil people are also control freaks. But it’s not just about controlling other people. They are just as desperate to exert control over every aspect of their own lives.

Thanks to their track record of abject cruelty to their loved ones and the world at large, malevolent people reach a tipping point where they can’t entrust even minuscule aspects of their lives to anyone else. 

8) They lack boundaries

People with ASPD are relentless, gregarious, intense, and phony. 

Evil people are rather like human boomerangs. No matter how many times you toss them out of your life, they always end up winging their way back to you.

Rest assured that when you give an evil person the boot, they’ll always, and I mean always, try to worm their way back into your good books. 

They’ll use every malevolent tool at their disposal to make you give them one more chance. 

They’ll manipulate you emotionally, they’ll outright lie, they’ll pretend to be sweet and sorry, but the bottom line is they’ll deliberately mislead you to gain control.

Don’t fall for it. Save yourself. 

9) Pathological liars

Let’s be honest. Everybody lies. No one is immune. Some are little white lies, others are big ol’ whoppers. 

But here’s the thing: although everyone lies on occasion, not everyone is a pathological liar.

A habitual liar lies pathologically, and constantly, and sometimes they don’t even realize that they’re doing it.

A pathological liar lies so much that their lies become their reality. So their entire life is a lie, making them literal prisoners of their own maladaptive behaviors.

Evil, cruel people will lie about you and they will lie about others. They will especially lie about themselves.

They’ll tell little fibs. They’ll tell elaborate tall tales. 

One thing is guaranteed, though: they are liars.

10) More masks than The Spirit of Halloween

Have you ever been in one of those giant Halloween stores? The only place you can find a larger selection of masks is in the possession of your favorite sociopath. 

That’s because malevolent people don’t share their true selves with you. Saying these folks lead lead double lives doesn’t even begin to cover it. 

In reality, they lead hundreds of lives, a different one for everyone they encounter.

They’ll be whoever they need to further their aims and get whatever they want.  

Cruel and manipulative people cultivate and hide behind a carefully contrived persona.

No one really knows who they are inside, including themselves. 

11) No remorse

OK, let’s recap. Cruel people are control freaks. They’re pathological liars. They positively delight in other people’s misfortune. 

That’s all pretty gross, but do you know what the worst part is? Evil people are completely devoid of remorse about the crummy things they do.

They aren’t ever sorry for their actions or the way they’ve made you feel. They simply don’t care and won’t even pretend to most of the time, unless they anticipate personal gain from giving an Academy Award-winning performance in “Feigning Sorrow.”  

If you confront an evil person about their malevolent behavior, they’ll either shrug it off, try to deflect it onto you, or gaslight you until you don’t know which end is up anymore. 

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, all people with ASPD  want to do is preserve their quality of life by controlling you and others, using any means necessary.  

Once you’re fully enmeshed in the web of a cruel person, escape is nearly impossible. 

It’s far better to avoid their carefully prepared trap in the first place. Hopefully, the signs listed above will provide clearer insight into the type of person we should try to avoid.