Psychopathy traits and the processing of emotion words: Results of a lexical decision task

The Psychopath Next Door: How Similar Are They to Those Behind Bars? Criminality, Executive Functioning, and Emotion Processing in 'Noncriminal' Psychopathy

“…Their findings provided partial evidence of a differential pattern of response latencies to sadness and anger words between primary and secondary psychopathy. Primary psychopathy was associated with slower responses to sadness words and secondary psychopathy was associated with faster responses to anger words (Reidy et al, 2008). However, a number of methodological limitations were present.…”

“…There is only one known study that has investigated language processing separately for primary and secondary psychopathy (Reidy, Zeichner, Hunnicutt-Ferguson, & Lilienfeld, 2008). Reidy and colleagues (2008) investigated response latencies to discrete affect word categories (anger, sadness, happiness, and fear) and abstract words as a function of primary and secondary psychopathy.…”

“…Consequently, words that healthy, normal adults rate as 'angry', 'sad' or 'happy', may not be rated in the same fashion by psychopathic individuals. Reidy, et al, (2008) suggested that cognitive biases based on individual differences may have been present. For example, words that normal, healthy adults view as fearful (e.g.…”

“…For example, words that normal, healthy adults view as fearful (e.g. murder), may actually activate anger nodes in individuals with high levels of hostile emotion (Reidy et al, 2008). This highlights the importance of including a word rating task when conducting language studies in psychopathy, especially considering the elevated rates of hostility and aggression in secondary psychopathy (Reidy et al, 2007).…”

“…This highlights the importance of including a word rating task when conducting language studies in psychopathy, especially considering the elevated rates of hostility and aggression in secondary psychopathy (Reidy et al, 2007). Reidy, et al, (2008) concluded that future studies should incorporate a wider participant sample, including female participants, and the inclusion of a word rating task when conducting emotional priming studies in psychopathy.…”