Theory of mind and psychopathy: can psychopathic individuals read the ‘language of the eyes’?

Richell, Rebecca A.; Mitchell, Derek; Newman, Chris; Leonard, Alan; Baron‐Cohen, Simon; Blair, James

doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00175-6

Cited by 310 publications

(223 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Because lack of empathy and callousness are typical traits among psychopaths, our findings can be interpreted as further empirical evidence for the joint role of testosterone and cortisol in psychopathy. From this perspective, the lack of a significant effect of steroid hormones on RMET, a measure of cognitive empathy, is not surprising, as previous reports showed that psychopaths do not differ from controls in their RMET performance (Richell et al 2003) and no negative correlation exists between total RMET and selfreported psychopathic traits in non-clinical populations (Sandvik et al 2014), which, on the contrary, negatively predict IRI scores (Zágon and Jackson 1994). Further, it is possible that the RMET, which was mainly designed for individuals with mild deficits in social cognition (Baron-Cohen et al 2001) may not be very sensitive to individual variation within the normal range (e.g., see Voracek andDressler 2006, but see Van Honk et al 2011 4 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Testosterone, Cortisol and Empathy: Evidence for the Dual-Hormone Hypothesis

Zilioli

Ponzi

Henry

et al. 2014

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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The dual hormone hypothesis posits that basal cortisol and testosterone have a joint effect on motivational and behavioral systems implicated in dominance and aggression, such that traits generally associated with high testosterone manifest more in individuals with low basal cortisol levels. Whether this hypothesis applies to behavioral systems other than dominance remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the association between basal testosterone, basal cortisol, and empathy in a large population of MBA students. Empathy was assessed with a short version of the Davis's Interpersonal Reactivity Index and with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Higher testosterone was predictive of lower empathy scores among men and women with low basal cortisol, while this association was reversed among individuals with high cortisol levels. In other words, a high-testosterone profile was found to be predictive of both high and low empathic dispositions depending on the concomitant HPA state. The effect was limited to self-reported empathy as no association was found with the RMET. This pattern of results, which emerged when data for men and women were analyzed together, remained significant only for men when analyses were run separately for the two sexes. These results add empathy to the list of behaviors regulated by the joint action of testosterone and cortisol, as outlined by the dual hormone hypothesis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Testosterone, Cortisol and Empathy: Evidence for the Dual-Hormone Hypothesis

Zilioli

Ponzi

Henry

et al. 2014

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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“…To assess individual variation in a behavioral measure of empathic accuracy, participants completed the ''Reading the Mind in the Eyes'' Test (RMET), which tests for the empathic ability to infer the emotional states of others (11,(26)(27)(28)(29). Previous studies have documented that impaired performance on the RMET predicts higher scores on a measure of autistic traits in both clinical and control groups (27,29).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin receptor genetic variation relates to empathy and stress reactivity in humans

Rodrigues

Saslow

García

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

700

602

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Oxytocin, a peptide that functions as both a hormone and neurotransmitter, has broad influences on social and emotional processing throughout the body and the brain. In this study, we tested how a polymorphism (rs53576) of the oxytocin receptor relates to two key social processes related to oxytocin: empathy and stress reactivity. Compared with individuals homozygous for the G allele of rs53576 (GG), individuals with one or two copies of the A allele (AG/AA) exhibited lower behavioral and dispositional empathy, as measured by the ''Reading the Mind in the Eyes'' Test and an other-oriented empathy scale. Furthermore, AA/AG individuals displayed higher physiological and dispositional stress reactivity than GG individuals, as determined by heart rate response during a startle anticipation task and an affective reactivity scale. Our results provide evidence of how a naturally occurring genetic variation of the oxytocin receptor relates to both empathy and stress profiles.emotional ͉ polymorphism ͉ social

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“…Although theory of mind skill disorders were found in certain studies, no difference was found in other studies compared to the healthy conAnatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2019; 20(1):5-12 trols. 36,37 Richell et al 38 reported that the theory of mind skills were not affected in case of personality disorders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%