Antisocial personality traits transcend species.

Abstract

Antisocial personality is generally used to describe people who treat other people with callous disregard and disrespect. Although animal cruelty is diagnostic of conduct disorder, a precursor of antisocial personality in children, it is unclear whether the term antisocial also encompasses disregard and disrespect toward non-human animals among adults. In this study we examined associations between three anti-animal attitudes and behaviors-speciesism, hunting/fishing, and lack of sympathy for animal rights-and traits that underlie adult antisocial behavior. We found consistent links between antisocial personality traits and anti-animal attitudes and behaviors in two samples. These effects were generally specific to traits linked to antisociality (although we also found associations with low openness), and these traits were stronger as predictors of variation among meat eaters than as predictors of differences between vegetarians and meat eaters. These results suggest that the term antisocial applies to negative attitudes and behaviors towards both humans and non-human animals and imply the potential value of considering anti-animal attitudes and behaviors in the clinical assessment of antisocial personality.

Differences Between Omnivores and Vegetarians in Personality Profiles, Values, and Empathy: A Systematic Review

“…All three studies that examined RWA found that omnivorism was associated with significantly greater RWA compared to vegetarianism (Allen et al, 2000;Ruby et al, 2013;Veser et al, 2015). All five studies that measured SDO came to a consistent conclusion that omnivorism was associated with a significantly greater SDO than vegetarianism (Allen et al, 2000;Bilewicz et al, 2011;Piazza et al, 2015;Veser et al, 2015;Hopwood and Bleidorn, 2020). In line with these findings, the study conducted by Veser et al (2015) indicated a significantly higher tendency to be prejudiced among omnivores than among vegetarians.…”

“…Three studies collected data about right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), namely, Allen et al (2000) and Ruby et al (2013). These three studies used the "Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale" (Altemeyer, 1981), which Veser et al (2015) collected via Five studies (Allen et al, 2000;Bilewicz et al, 2011;Piazza et al, 2015;Veser et al, 2015;Hopwood and Bleidorn, 2020, short form) investigated social dominance orientation (SDO) using the "Social Dominance Orientation Scale" (Pratto et al, 1994). Furthermore, studies assessed the tendency to be prejudiced through the "Motivation for Prejudice-Free Behavior Scale" (Banse and Gawronski, 2003;Veser et al, 2015), misanthropy (Rothgerber, 2015b), social desirability (Sims, 1978), self-esteem (Nezlek et al, 2018), self-efficacy (Cruwys et al, 2020), and self-control via the "Brief Self-Control Scale" (Tangney et al, 2004;Cruwys et al, 2020), and strictness (Rosenfeld and Burrow, 2018), absolutism, and guilt over violating one's diet (Rothgerber, 2015a).…”

“…Furthermore, studies assessed the tendency to be prejudiced through the "Motivation for Prejudice-Free Behavior Scale" (Banse and Gawronski, 2003;Veser et al, 2015), misanthropy (Rothgerber, 2015b), social desirability (Sims, 1978), self-esteem (Nezlek et al, 2018), self-efficacy (Cruwys et al, 2020), and self-control via the "Brief Self-Control Scale" (Tangney et al, 2004;Cruwys et al, 2020), and strictness (Rosenfeld and Burrow, 2018), absolutism, and guilt over violating one's diet (Rothgerber, 2015a). The "Big Five" personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) and their aspects were, partly or completely, measured using different questionnaires in seven different studies (Forestell et al, 2012;Forestell and Nezlek, 2018;Kessler et al, 2018;Pfeiler and Egloff, 2018;Cruwys et al, 2020;Hopwood and Bleidorn, 2020;Tan et al, 2021). Forestell et al (2012) measured varietyseeking behavior.…”

“…Preylo and Arikawa (2008) and Cliceri et al (2018) investigated the ability to feel empathy by examining perspective-taking, fantasy, empathetic concern, and personal distress or disease using the "Interpersonal Reactivity Index" (IRI; Davis, 1983). Kessler et al (2018) applied the short form of the "Empathizing Scale" (Samson andHuber, 2010), andHopwood andBleidorn (2020) examined the lack of empathy via the "Five Factor Narcissism Inventory" (Glover et al, 2012).…”

“…The study by Hopwood and Bleidorn (2020) suggested that, when compared to vegetarians, omnivores may be more callous, self-centered, entitled, indifferent, less agreeable, and had higher scores in agentic values. Appropriately, Sariyska et al (2019), in their second sub-study, found that Machiavellianism, non-pathological narcissism, and non-pathological psychopathy (here: no significance after controlling for sex) were significantly higher in omnivores than in vegetarians.…”