Psychopathy and the Perception of Affect and Vulnerability

Abstract

The relationship between psychopathic traits and the perception of nonverbal communication, including facial expressions and body language, is investigated. Participants include 59 prison inmates and 60 community members. Psychopathic traits among inmates are measured using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and Levenson's Self Report Psychopathy Scale. Participants categorize the emotion of posed facial photographs and rate intensity of emotion. They view videotaped interactions of a confederate and a target individual and rate assertiveness using the Rathus Assertiveness Scale. There is a trend for the PCL-R to be positively correlated with the inmates' accuracy of emotional intensity ratings. Psychopathic traits are also positively associated with the accuracy of assertiveness ratings. P sychopathy is characterized by irresponsibility, impulsivity, antisocial behavior, an inability to learn from punishment, and a lack of long-term goals (Cleckley, 1941). The key characteristics of psychopathy are measured in the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991). The 20-item instrument was originally thought to consist of two factors: (a) affective and interpersonal symptoms, such as reduced affect, lack of empathy, manipulativeness, and lack of remorse, and (b) symptoms of social deviance, including a lack of long-term goals and behavioral problems. Patrick (1994) aptly relabeled these factors emotional detachment and antisocial behavior. Other research has suggested the existence of three factors (Cooke & Michie, 2001), and at the point of the last revision of the PCL-R, factor analyses indicate that there are four facets (subsumed under the two factors given above; Hare, 2003): interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial. The interpersonal and affective facets make up the interpersonal/affective component (Factor 1), and the lifestyle and antisocial facets make up the social deviance component (Factor 2).Because affect and empathy are typically attenuated in psychopaths, Cleckley (1941) suggested that psychopaths suffer from emotional poverty, a view that is shared by others 531

Trials and Tribulations: Psychopathic Traits, Emotion, and Decision-Making in an Ambiguous Case of Sexual Assault

“…Specifically, individuals high in psychopathic traits were more likely to rate the alleged victim as making a false allegation when victim emotional content was low, relative to high, as whereas individuals low in psychopathic traits did not differ in their beliefs concerning false allegations. This may be related to recent research that has demonstrated a distinct advantage that psychopaths appear to have in identifying and inferring emotional content and vulnerability (through nonverbal behaviour and facial expressions) in victim populations (e.g., Book, Costello, & Camilleri, 2013;Book, Quinsey, & Langford, 2007;Wilson, Demetrioff, & Porter, 2008). In this sense, individuals high in psychopathic traits may have been more likely to interpret the victim's display of emotionality as non-genuine thus increasing ratings of false allegations.…”

From shared to distinct self–other representations in empathy: evidence from neurotypical function and socio-cognitive disorders

“…The intact and maybe even superior ability to represent others' mental states may be a possible reason for the ability to correctly judge others' emotions in spite of reduced affective responding. For instance, Book et al [61] observed individuals with higher psychopathic traits to make more accurate judgements of emotional intensity and vulnerability than nonpsychopaths by relying on socially relevant cues such as body language and contextual cues.…”

Insensitivity to suffering: the relation of psychopathic traits to somatic processing, first-person and third-person pain.

“…Additionally, although findings from this study suggest that psychopathic traits are associated with a deficit in the sensitivity to others' pain, psychopaths appear to be sensitive to some socially relevant information as manipulation is a key component o f psychopathy (Book, Quinsey & Langford, 2007). Consequently, while those high in psychopathic characteristics may be less sensitive to cues that evoke empathy, they may be more sensitive to cues that indicate exploitability.…”

“…However, research in this area is limited and contradictory. While psychopathy has been associated with a deficit in the recognition of fear expressions (Blair et al, 2004), other research suggests psychopathic characteristics are associated with an increased ability to identify fear and assertiveness in others (Book et al, 2007). As with the studies investigating pain perception, methodological difficulties (i.e., employing techniques that confound perceptual sensitivity with response bias) may be responsible for this inconsistency.…”