Psychopathic Traits and Perceptions of Victim Vulnerability

Wheeler, Sarah; Book, Angela S.; Costello, Kimberly

doi:10.1177/0093854809333958

Cited by 91 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

132

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Rather, we believe that our findings fail to support the conceptualization of psychopathy as a mental disorder and instead provide support for the notion that psychopathy may, in some form or another, have an adaptive function. Our findings fit well within the body of work showing that psychopathy: (1) is not associated with the neurodevelopmental perturbations characteristic of other serious mental disorders (Harris et al, 2001a, 2007b; Lalumière et al, 2001); (2) is positively associated with successful social exploitation (Mokros et al, 2008), the detection of emotions (Book et al, 2007), and the prediction of victim vulnerability (Wheeler et al, 2009); (3) is positively associated with mating effort and related patterns of sexual behavior (Quinsey et al, 1995; Lalumière and Quinsey, 1996; Harris et al, 2007b); (4) shows no negative (and shows perhaps even a positive) effect on reproductive success (Harris et al, 2007b; Pulkkinen et al, 2009; Vachon et al, 2012); and (5) is associated with an increased likelihood of offending in instrumental ways (Williamson et al, 1987; Cornell et al, 1996). Nonetheless, further research testing hypotheses of “special design” will be necessary to continue to build the case for psychopathy as an adaptation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nepotistic Patterns of Violent Psychopathy: Evidence for Adaptation?

Krupp¹,

Sewall²,

Lalumière³

et al. 2012

Front. Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychopaths routinely disregard social norms by engaging in selfish, antisocial, often violent behavior. Commonly characterized as mentally disordered, recent evidence suggests that psychopaths are executing a well-functioning, if unscrupulous strategy that historically increased reproductive success at the expense of others. Natural selection ought to have favored strategies that spared close kin from harm, however, because actions affecting the fitness of genetic relatives contribute to an individual’s inclusive fitness. Conversely, there is evidence that mental disorders can disrupt psychological mechanisms designed to protect relatives. Thus, mental disorder and adaptation accounts of psychopathy generate opposing hypotheses: psychopathy should be associated with an increase in the victimization of kin in the former account but not in the latter. Contrary to the mental disorder hypothesis, we show here in a sample of 289 violent offenders that variation in psychopathy predicts a decrease in the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders; that is, psychopathy predicts an increased likelihood of harming non-relatives. Because nepotistic inhibition in violence may be caused by dispersal or kin discrimination, we examined the effects of psychopathy on (1) the dispersal of offenders and their kin and (2) sexual assault frequency (as a window on kin discrimination). Although psychopathy was negatively associated with coresidence with kin and positively associated with the commission of sexual assault, it remained negatively associated with the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders after removing cases of offenders who had coresided with kin and cases of sexual assault from the analyses. These results stand in contrast to models positing psychopathy as a pathology, and provide support for the hypothesis that psychopathy reflects an evolutionary strategy largely favoring the exploitation of non-relatives.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nepotistic Patterns of Violent Psychopathy: Evidence for Adaptation?

Krupp¹,

Sewall²,

Lalumière³

et al. 2012

Front. Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Wheeler, Book, and Costello (2009) found that male college students scoring high on self-reported Factor 1 psychopathic traits were more accurate at perceiving vulnerability in potential victims. The authors believed this was due to manipulation and superficial charm, and the assumed related ability to decode body movement cues.…”

Section: Individual Differences and First Impressionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Individual Differences and Rating Errors in First Impressions of Psychopathy

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The current study is the first to investigate whether individual differences in personality are related to improved first impression accuracy when appraising psychopathy in female offenders from thin-slices of information. The study also investigated the types of errors laypeople make when forming these judgments. Sixty-seven undergraduates assessed 22 offenders on their level of psychopathy, violence, likability, and attractiveness. Psychopathy rating accuracy improved as rater extroversion-sociability and agreeableness increased and when neuroticism and lifestyle and antisocial characteristics decreased. These results suggest that traits associated with nonverbal rating accuracy or social functioning may be important in threat detection. Raters also made errors consistent with error management theory, suggesting that laypeople overappraise danger when rating psychopathy.Keywords thin-slices, personality differences, psychopathy, error management theory, first impressions Date received: July 14, 2016; Accepted: September 20, 2016 Despite concerns regarding the accuracy of first impressions, research suggests that judgments based on 30-to 60-s segments of audio/visual information called thin-slices can be more accurate than longer term judgments. Previous research found that laypeople ratings are related to accurate identification of personality (Carney, Colvin, & Hall, 2007;Funder, 2012), deception (Costanzo & Archer, 1989), and violence (Stillman, Maner, & Baumeister, 2010). People may possess these skills because it is an evolutionary advantageous detection mechanism against those perceived as a threat. Bar, Neta, and Linz (2006) argue that being able to quickly and accurately identify personality traits in people we first meet allows us to detect dangerous cues early in an interaction and flee before harm can be inflicted. Psychopathy and First ImpressionsIt is less clear, however, if this is true of all high-risk individuals, such as psychopaths. Psychopathy is associated with a constellation of features including deceit and manipulation (interpersonal; Facet 1), callousness and a lack of remorse (affective; Facet 2), impulsivity and irresponsibility (lifestyle; Facet 3), and poor behavior control and criminal versatility (antisocial; Facet 4;Hare, 2003). Initially, it would seem that laypeople would have difficulty detecting psychopaths because of their ability to conceal deviance using deceit and superficial charm. Consistent with this theory, Furnham, Daoud, and Swami (2009) found that laypeople had a more difficult time detecting psychopathy from presented vignettes than other mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia.Conversely, growing empirical evidence suggests that psychopathy may be detected from a first impression. Fowler, Lilienfeld, and Patrick (2009) found that student raters were able to correctly and reliably perceive overall, Factor 1 (interpersonal and affective facets) and Factor 2 (lifestyle and antisocial facets) psychopathic traits in maximum-security male inmat...

show abstract

“…In one exception, those higher in psychopathy showed a shift in brain activation towards strategic cooperation only when playing a repeated prisoner's dilemma game (PD) with an in-group member [23], suggesting sensitivity to partner value. Consistent with a complementary sensitivity, those higher in subclinical primary psychopathy are especially perceptive of potential victim vulnerability [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

The strategy of psychopathy: primary psychopathic traits predict defection on low-value relationships

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent evidence suggests that psychopathy is a trait continuum. This has unappreciated implications for understanding the selective advantage of psychopathic traits. Although clinical psychopathy is typically construed as a strategy of unconditional defection, subclinical psychopathy may promote strategic conditional defection, broadening the adaptive niche of psychopathy within human societies. To test this, we focus on a ubiquitous real-life source of conditional behaviour: the expected relational value of social partners, both in terms of their quality and the likely quantity of future interactions with them. We allow for conversational interaction among participants prior to their playing an unannounced, one-shot prisoner's dilemma game, which fosters naturalistic interpersonal evaluation and conditional behaviour, while controlling punishment and reputation effects. Individuals scoring higher on factor 1 (callous affect, interpersonal manipulation) of the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale defected conditionally on two kinds of lowvalue partners: those who interrupted them more during the conversation, and those with whom they failed to discover cues to future interaction. Both interaction effects support the hypothesis that subclinical primary psychopathy potentiates defection on those with low expected relational value. These data clarify the function and form of psychopathic traits, while highlighting adaptive variation in human social strategies.

show abstract

Psychopathic Traits and Perceptions of Victim Vulnerability

Cited by 91 publications

References 56 publications

Nepotistic Patterns of Violent Psychopathy: Evidence for Adaptation?

Nepotistic Patterns of Violent Psychopathy: Evidence for Adaptation?

Individual Differences and Rating Errors in First Impressions of Psychopathy

The strategy of psychopathy: primary psychopathic traits predict defection on low-value relationships

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About