In a new early-release study published in Translational Psychiatry, scientists have found evidence to suggest that microbiota may even influence people's experience of psychopathy, with researchers discovering links between levels of certain gut and oral microbes and psychopathic personality traits. "We hypothesized that the composition of the gut and oral microbiota may be associated with subclinical psychopathic personality traits… To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore this association." From that perspective, a higher abundance of three specific kinds of bacteria showed a positive association with stronger psychopathic traits. But hypothetically speaking, if these microbes do influence people's behavior towards psychopathic tendencies, then how? "Overall, our findings highlight the potential of microbiota and their metabolic outputs as biomarkers for psychopathic traits in the general population," the researchers write.