Cool under fire: Psychopathic personality traits and decision making in law-enforcement-oriented populations.

Abstract

Objective: Compared with other jobs, the law enforcement profession is a high-stakes occupation that has the potential to greatly impact public safety, and officers must face daily dangers not experienced in other professions. Previous research indicates that many law enforcement officers exhibit varying degrees of psychopathic traits, which suggests that it may be useful to examine police officer performance, specifically proxies of excessive use of force, through the lens of the triarchic psychopathy domains. Hypotheses: We predicted that high boldness and high meanness would be associated with greater justification of excessive use of force, whereas low boldness, high meanness, and high disinhibition would relate to greater errors in high-stakes decision making ("trigger bias"). Method: We employed criterion profile analysis to elucidate optimal profile configurations in both law enforcement and undergraduate samples in relation to justification of use-of-force scenarios and decision making in high-pressure situations (i.e., police officer's dilemma shooter task). Results: In general, combinations of triarchic psychopathy traits accounted for similar variance in performance criteria as individual psychopathy trait domains. In particular, trait elevations in meanness were associated with ratings of unjustified-use-of-force vignettes, and disinhibition was associated with commission errors on the shooter task (although effect sizes were small for the latter). Conclusions:The findings of this study support the conceptual validity of the separate dimensions of the triarchic psychopathy model and substantiate the moderate utility of personality indicators (e.g., antagonism, difficulties with impulse control) in relation to career-related performance in law enforcement. Public Significance StatementThis study examined the relationship between personality traits linked to psychopathic personality and proxy indicators of excessive force among samples of police officers and undergraduates. Consistent findings across samples suggest that the relationships between personality and performance criteria measures are not unique to law enforcement, implying that psychopathic personality traits may explain problematic performance irrespective of environment and/or experience on the job. This is counter to the concept of a "police personality," and the results suggest that measures of antagonism/meanness are most helpful in screening for potential excessive use of force in police candidates.