No feelings for me, no feelings for you: A meta-analysis on alexithymia and empathy in psychopathy

Burghart, Matthias; Mier, Daniela

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.111658

Cited by 25 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…In other words, increased alexithymia leads to atypical moral judgments in psychopathy. This suggests that future treatment programs for psychopathic individuals should try to reduce alexithymia [ 4 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder overlap in some respects, but the interpersonal and affective deficits in psychopathy are more obvious [ 2 , 3 ]. For example, individuals with high psychopathy have extensive emotional impairments, as well as deficits in various empathic processes and the perception of one’s own emotions [ 4 ]. Moreover, the structure of psychopathy is multidimensional in nature [ 1 , 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the mechanism of the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathy and deontological and utilitarian response tendencies requires further investigation. Psychopathy is characterized by a lack of emotional awareness and shallow emotions [ 1 , 4 ]. A concept associated with reduced emotional awareness and emotionality is alexithymia [ 35 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings give rise to the assumption that alexithymia plays a causal function in the relationship between psychopathy and moral judgment. A meta-analysis showed a positive relationship between psychopathy and alexithymia (r = 0.21), as well as a positive relationship between primary and secondary psychopathy and alexithymia [ 4 ]. Moreover, alexithymia is uniquely associated with deontological response tendencies, rather than utilitarian response tendencies [ 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Primary and Secondary Psychopathy on Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies: The Mediator Role of Alexithymia

Ding

Zou

et al. 2022

Healthcare

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(1) Background: The purpose of this study is to provide more nuanced insights into the effects of sub-dimensional levels of psychopathy on moral dilemma judgments. To this end, this study examined the effects of primary and secondary psychopathy on utilitarian and deontological response tendencies. Moreover, this study also explored the mediating role of alexithymia as well as the moderating role of gender in these effects. (2) Methods: A total of 1227 participants were recruited through the online questionnaire service wjx.cn. After deleting unfinished questionnaires, the remaining 1170 participants were included in the final data analysis. Each participant completed a demographic information questionnaire, the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, and six pairs of moral dilemmas. Descriptive and correlational analyses of study variables were conducted in SPSS 22.0. Mediation and gender difference analyses were conducted in AMOS 23.0. (3) Results: Primary psychopathy was negatively correlated with deontological response tendencies and uncorrelated with utilitarian response tendencies. By contrast, secondary psychopathy also correlated negatively with deontological response tendencies, but it correlated positively with utilitarian response tendencies. Mediation analysis revealed that alexithymia only mediated the relationship between secondary psychopathy and deontological response tendencies. Multi-group analysis revealed that there was no difference between females and males in the indirect effect model. (4) Conclusions: People with high primary psychopathy are less likely to reject harm in moral dilemmas. By contrast, people with high secondary psychopathy have high alexithymia, which causes them to be less concerned about avoiding harm, and they are more likely to maximize outcomes in moral dilemmas. These findings shed new light on the moral dilemma judgments of individuals with primary and secondary psychopathy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effects of Primary and Secondary Psychopathy on Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies: The Mediator Role of Alexithymia

Ding

Zou

et al. 2022

Healthcare

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“…Recently, a comprehensive metaanalysis provided a fine-grained discussion addressing how the distinct dimensions of psychopathy are related to cognitive and affective empathy (Campos et al, 2022). Regardless, available evidence still relies largely on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Burghart and Mier, 2022;Campos et al, 2022), an empathy questionnaire that has been somewhat questioned lately (e.g., Chrysikou and Thompson, 2016;Murphy et al, 2020a). Hence, there is a demand for studies using measures that are more suitable to effectively dissociate cognitive and affective empathy across psychopathy dimensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociating Cognitive and Affective Empathy Across Psychopathy Dimensions: The Role of Interoception and Alexithymia

Campos¹,

Rocha²,

Barbosa³

2022

Preprint

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This study examined the associations between psychopathy dimensions (triarchic phenotypes and classical factors), empathy domains (cognitive and affective), and interoception (interoceptive attention and accuracy) while accounting for the putative role of alexithymia. A community sample (n=515) completed an online survey encompassing: Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (boldness, meanness, disinhibition); Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (primary and secondary psychopathy); Body Perception Questionnaire (interoceptive attention); Interoceptive Accuracy Scale; Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Hierarchical linear regression models were implemented for hypothesis-driven analyses examining the associations between psychopathy, empathy, and interoception while controlling for sex, age, and alexithymia. Exploratory path models were employed to investigate alexithymia and/or cognitive empathy as mediators between interoception and psychopathy. Our results largely confirmed the postulated empathy profiles across psychopathy dimensions, as meanness and primary psychopathy displayed a broad empathy impairment, while disinhibition and secondary psychopathy were only associated with diminished cognitive empathy. Importantly, boldness displayed a unique pattern (enhanced cognitive empathy and reduced affective empathy), further reinforcing its importance within the constellation of psychopathy traits. Contrary to our hypotheses, self-perceived interoceptive attention and accuracy were not associated with either psychopathy dimension after controlling for alexithymia. However, interoceptive accuracy and alexithymia were associated with cognitive empathy, while alexithymia was also positively related to all psychopathy dimensions (as expected), despite the unexpected strong and negative association with boldness. Exploratory analyses suggested significant indirect effects (mediation) between interoceptive accuracy and psychopathy via alexithymia and/or cognitive empathy. These mediating effects must be interpreted with caution and future studies should be designed to formally test this model.

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Mediating effects of impulsivity and alexithymia in the association between traumatic brain injury and aggression in incarcerated males

Jansen

2023

Aggressive Behavior

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Studies suggest both alexithymia and impulsivity (partially) explain aggressive behavior in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, but none of these studies use both questionnaire and performance‐based measures as recommended, nor simultaneously investigate both impulsivity and alexithymia. The available studies therefore likely miss part of the constructs of alexithymia and impulsivity, and do not comprehensively assess the mediating effects of both constructs in the relationship between TBI and aggression. A sample of N = 281 incarcerated individuals were recruited from Dutch penitentiary institutions, and completed the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire (aggression), BIS‐11 (impulsivity) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale‐20 (alexithymia) questionnaires, as well as a stop‐signal task and an emotion recognition paradigm. Several multiple mediation analyses were conducted using structural equation modelling, to assess the viability of a causal theoretical model of aggression. The final planned models were the original models with a good fit with the data (comparative fit index > 0.95, root mean square error of approximation and Standardized root mean square residual < 0.05), and results indicate that only questionnaire‐based impulsivity mediated the relationship between TBI and aggression. TBI was unrelated to alexithymia, stop‐signal or emotion recognition performance. Aggression was predicted by both alexithymia and impulsivity, but not by the performance measures. Post hoc analyses shows that alexithymia moderates the relationship between impulsivity and aggression. These results imply that aggressive incarcerated individuals showing impulsive behavior should be screened for TBI, since TBI is often overlooked or misdiagnosed, and indicate that both impulsivity and alexithymia are potential focus points for aggression reduction treatment in TBI patients.

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No feelings for me, no feelings for you: A meta-analysis on alexithymia and empathy in psychopathy

Cited by 25 publications

References 75 publications

Effects of Primary and Secondary Psychopathy on Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies: The Mediator Role of Alexithymia

Effects of Primary and Secondary Psychopathy on Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies: The Mediator Role of Alexithymia

Dissociating Cognitive and Affective Empathy Across Psychopathy Dimensions: The Role of Interoception and Alexithymia

Mediating effects of impulsivity and alexithymia in the association between traumatic brain injury and aggression in incarcerated males

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