11 Quiet Behaviors Of A Person With Evil Intentions, According To Psychology
Most people are moral and self-aware, but it's important to avoid the select few who aren't.
Andrii Iemelianenko | Shutterstock.com While there are certainly misconstrued and misunderstood characteristics associated with “an evil person,” as a review of research published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal explores, a person with deliberately malicious intentions could be characterized as “evil.” Caring only about themselves, their motives, and their needs, a truly evil person will pursue what they want, even at the expense of others in their life.
According to experts in psychology like Ralph Lewis, MD, by recognizing the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, you can ensure you set the right boundaries in your relationships — protecting not just your emotional and physical wellbeing, but also advocating for the kind of attention, empathy, and compassion you deserve. Most people are moral and self-controlled, but it’s always a good idea to be cognizant of the people that may have less pure intentions.
Here are 11 quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology
1. They sabotage good moments on purpose
StratfordProductions | Shutterstock.com
Not everyone who intentionally engages in malicious behaviors is an inherently bad person, and oftentimes, they don’t consider themselves to be “evil” in any sense. Specifically for narcissistic people motivated by insecurity in ways that manifest as a misguided grandiose sense of self, quiet behaviors like sabotaging good moments can be a way for them to cope with their own shortcomings and flaws.
By sabotaging other people of joy and happiness, bringing them down to the miserable and self-loathing level they’re currently on, they find comfort.
Of course, as one of the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology, it’s important that you can recognize when habits like this become a pattern in your relationships. If someone in your life would prefer to consistently see you unhappy, rather than celebrate you in achieving success and empowering your growth, it might be time to remove yourself from that relationship.
2. They make excuses when they hurt you
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock.com
Rather than take accountability for their mistakes and hurtful behaviors, one of the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology experts like Leon F Seltzer, PhD, is their tendency to always shift the blame and paint themselves as the victim.
Whether they rely on excuses, demonize you in your hurt, or avoid confrontation, truly evil people don’t always consider the emotions of others, because they’re too concerned with protecting and repressing their own.
While a person who occasionally engages in these behaviors isn’t necessarily “evil,” sometimes they’re simply dealing with trauma of their own or feeling uncomfortable, someone who intentionally goes out of their way to hurt you — over-and-over again — may be sabotaging your happiness.
3. They always need to be in control
Dragana Gordic | Shutterstock.com
Many people with evil intentions have an innate desire to be in control, not just of you and the other relationships, but of everything in their lives — from work, to their goals, and even small daily habits like what they consume. To avoid confronting the emotional powerlessness they feel, urging them to repress emotions and avoid true vulnerability, they cling onto other things, like shifting blame, that help them to feel “in control.”
One of the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology experts like professor Preston Ni, is gaslighting as a means of gaining dominance and control. By sparking self-doubt in others and encouraging them to be more insecure and uncertain, people with evil intentions have more space to emotionally manipulate others to get what they want.
4. They lie frequently
simona pilolla 2 | Shutterstock.com
Lying isn’t an innate signal of a person with evil intentions, in fact, nearly 95% of people in intimate relationships admit they’ve lied at least once to their partners in a relationship. However, in order to sustain a healthy relationship founded on trust with others, it’s important that these kinds of lies don’t become a pattern, in the way they tend to do in people with evil intentions.
Not only do their lies signal a general disinterest with another person’s wellbeing and the trust in a relationship, a truly evil person often lies to intentionally hurt others. Whether it’s some kind of power play to assert dominance over someone or a gaslighting technique to spark insecurity, lying can be subtle, but is still one of the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology.
5. They never apologize or act remorseful
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock.com
A person who truly cares about your feelings and wants to make a relationship work will set their ego aside to take accountability for their mistakes, support you through discomfort, and apologize. However, a person with evil intentions, who only cares about protecting themselves and their image, will go to the ends of the Earth making excuses and avoiding confrontation.
Rather than admit they did something wrong, they’ll adopt a victim mentality to demonize the person they’ve hurt. Even if it means spewing hateful words and name-calling to avoid needing to apologize when they’re called out for their behavior, a person with evil intentions doesn’t mind doing so, at the expense of their closest relationships.
6. They spew toxic, discriminatory, and divisive beliefs
New Africa | Shutterstock.com
Insecurity, a need for control, and fear often fuel the most hateful and divisive beliefs and there’s no exception for a person with evil intentions in their daily life.
Maintaining their superiority is most important to a person with evil intentions, so the majority of their opinions, beliefs, and perspectives are upheld by principles that allow them to maintain that power. If that means disregarding another person, so be it. If it means staying uneducated and ignorant in order to claim their innocence, they don’t mind doing so.
7. They emotionally manipulate others
Fizkes | Shutterstock.com
According to clinical psychologist Lori Lawrenz, emotional manipulation is almost entirely about seeking and maintaining control — two main motivators in the lives of people with evil intentions. Depending on the person or relationship, this kind of manipulation can take many forms, but at the end of the day, it’s one person seeking to control another’s emotions with behaviors that revolve around avoiding accountability and vulnerability, gaslighting, and blame-shifting.
While past trauma and mental illness can encourage people to occasionally slip into these habits without recognizing them, the true marker of a person with evil intentions is their deliberate knowledge of how their behavior hurts others.
8. They enjoy watching other people suffer
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock.com
While there’s an element of common “social sadism” rooted in most forms of entertainment and our daily routines, like watching a bad contestant on a reality show or the misfortune of someone who wronged us, people who enjoy watching those they supposedly care about suffer have incredibly evil intentions.
Whether it’s hurt they’ve directly caused or suffering they’ve experienced outside the relationship, a person with true and caring intentions won’t take joy or find entertainment in other people’s pain.
9. They believe in their own righteousness
Ekateryna Zubal | Shutterstock.com
Similar to constantly making excuses for their behavior in relationships, one of the quiet behaviors of a person with evil intentions, according to psychology experts, is their misguided internal belief that they can do whatever they want, hurtful or not, for the “greater good” of everyone.
Even if they’re not taking the time to communicate with others, learn their needs, and make them feel heard, as a study published in PLoS One found is essential to cultivating healthy relationships, they make assumptions about what is good for everyone (aka themselves).
10. They belittle and criticize others for no reason
Srdjan Randjelovic | Shutterstock.com
Experts like psychologist Nick Wignall argue that while people with confidence and a high emotional intelligence will often validate other people and uplift them in passing conversations, a person with evil intentions is committed to doing the opposite.
Resorting to criticism and judgment to shield themselves from the discomfort of actively receiving it, people with evil intentions tend to make fun of and bully others to make themselves feel more in control. If they don’t have the intelligence, social skills, or competence to make genuine connections with others, they’re more concerned with sabotaging other people than doing the internal work it takes to get there.
11. They act differently around different people
Lightfield Studios | Shutterstock.com
While taking on different interests and personalities with different people isn’t entirely malicious — in fact, it’s relatively common for people with various jobs, friend groups, and responsibilities — a truly malicious person leverages “mirroring” others to get what they want.
They’ll often play on the insecurities of others to spark self-doubt or assert their dominance in the face of an insecure person they can easily manipulate. By leveraging different traits or playing into an inauthentic image of themselves, a person with evil intentions works to get what they want without truly connecting or bonding with others.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.