IU Southeast professor Bernardo J. Carducci is calling attention to an extreme form of shyness — called cynical shyness — that research shows has been present in school shooters for the past decade.

Carducci, Director of the Shyness Research Institute at IU Southeast, presented his findings at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in August.

Carducci and co-researcher Kristin Terry Nethery studied eight individuals who committed shootings at high schools from 1995 to 2004. The shootings all killed at least one person. All the shooters were males, ages 14 to 18.

Cynical shyness is present in a very minute number of people who are classified as shy. According to Carducci, cynically shy people tend to be male, and characteristics include rejection by others, a lack of social skills, and a strong disconnect between the cynically shy person and society. That disconnect causes the cynically shy to pull away, Carducci said. In turn, the cynically shy become less altruistic, less empathetic, and begin to show a sense of aggression by berating others or perceiving others negatively.

"What cynically shy people want is to be around others, but for some reason they can't," Carducci said. When they disconnect from individuals, "They become a cult of one. The only voice they hear is their own, and the message of that voice is 'It's a me- versus-them mentality." In Carducci's and Nethery's research, they compared characteristics of the high school shooters with characteristics associated with cynical shyness.

Eight shooters were researched: Jeffrey Weise, 16, who killed seven people at Red Lake High School in Minnesota in 2005; Jamie Rouse, 17, who killed a student and teacher at Richland High School in Tennessee in 1995; Luke Woodham, 17, who killed two people at Pearl High School in Mississippi in 1997; Barry Loukaitis, 14, who killed three people at Frontier Junior High in Washington state in 1996; Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, who killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999; Michael Carneal, 14, who killed three students at Heath High School in Paducah, Ky., in 1997; and Kip Kinkel, 15, who killed his parents and two classmates at Thurston High School in Oregon in 1998.

The results showed that all of the high school shooters were identified as having a desire for attention as an expression to develop social connections while experiencing rejection from peers, displayed a sense of social isolation as expressed by feelings of isolation and a sense of alienation, and exhibited angry outbursts and made violent threats as expressions of anger towards peers. All the shooters also made plans and preparations for the shootings and told others of the planned shooting as an expression of their excessive interpersonal violence.

Nearly 80 percent of the shooters had a tendency to dehumanize others, while 43 percent showed feelings of superiority, an exaggerated sense of entitlement, and a lack of empathy towards others.

All of the above mentioned characteristics are proposed characteristics of cynical shyness.

Although not included in the study, Carducci and Nethery examined media reports about the killings of 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2006. They found that the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, displayed 23 of the 30 characteristics of the school shooters examined in the initial research.

Carducci and Nethery's research has appeared in multiple publications and broadcasts since the presentation, including The Washington Post, CBS News, Time, and Newsweek.

The study has drawn two categories of responses, Carducci said. Some readers of the study believe it helps to explain school shooters without being the ultimate profile of such an individual. Others have said that the study appears to turn shy people into monsters, Carducci said.

Carducci's research is not the final word on cynical shyness, he said. Instead, the study is designed as a first step into the research of the cynically shy. Future research should "attempt to investigate more directly those shy individuals whose experiences with shyness are a source of anger and hostility, and how the strategies they developed to deal with their shyness and such highly negative emotional reactions might differ from the strategies used by more traditionally shy individuals."

In the meantime, Carducci hopes the study will bring a sense of awareness to schools, communities, and the public.

"We need to be more sensitive to those kids who are standing on the periphery while other kids are playing games," Carducci said.

The Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast was established in 1997 to promote understanding in the area of shyness. For more information about the Shyness Research Institute, along with tips for dealing effectively with shyness, visit the Institute's web site at www.ius.edu/shyness. Professor Carducci can be reached at bcarducc@ius.edu.