This riddle could show if you're a psychopath

A riddle has gone viral after people have claimed it can determine whether you might be a psychopath, depending on your answer.

According to Verywell Mind, the term 'psychopath' is used to "describe someone who is callous, unemotional, and morally depraved."

Though it is not an official mental health diagnosis, it is often used in clinical and legal settings to describe a person that is "egocentric, antisocial, lacking remorse and empathy for others, and often has criminal tendencies".

With that in mind, one particular riddle has gone viral after people claimed it could determine whether or not you might fall into that category.

This test claims to determine whether you think like a psychopath. Credit: yana iskayeva/Getty Images

The riddle, which spread across social media and Reddit, poses the question: "There is a very close couple with only one teenage son, forming a tight-knit and almost strange sort of family.

"Every day, the couple walks their son to school. Unfortunately, other kids see this action as silly and start bullying him for it, causing the son to come home in hysterics every night.

"Slowly, the couple begins killing individual children from the school at random. Why are they doing this?"

People were asked to determine why the parents chose to pick off the bullies one by one over a series of days.

When it was shared on YouTube, people speculated: "I thought you were asking why they were doing it every other day. My answer was 'they needed time to find their address'."

Others added: "Mine was because they needed time to find a good spot for hiding the bodies," and: "to inflict fear into those who bully their son."

Another guessed: "My answer was that no one get suspicious of them," and: "So the other bullies realize the pattern, start fearing and get overly protective of themselves which will lead to an easier target."

While all of those reasons do make sense, the actual answer that defines whether you're supposedly a psychopath is quite different.

The reason the teen's parents began killing the bullies one by one over a number of days is actually explained on Reddit as: "The parents don’t know who the son’s bullies are, so it can’t be to stop the bullying.

"A psychopath would likely think in sort of utilitarian terms, seeking to remedy the situation in an unsettling and unusual way.

"The couple began killing children because, with a murderer on the loose, other parents would likely start walking their kids to school rather than letting them go alone, thus making the family’s behavior completely normal and taking away any reason the bullies have to use against him."

So by making the other parents fear for their own children's safety, and thus walk their kids to school too, it would stop their son from being singled out and picked on for being the only one walked to school by his mom and dad.

Now, if you got that right, there's no need to worry - you're probably not actually a psychopath. But you might just be able to understand how one would think...

Featured image credit: yana iskayeva / Getty Images