Psychopathy Research

Latest research abstracts

The Relationship Between Psychopathic Traits, Sexual Fantasy, and Real-Life Sexual Behaviour

Written by Ellen Tansony-Luedke and the Research Committee. Sexual promiscuity is a well-documented trait of psychopathic individuals; however, little is known about the sexual fantasies of those high in psychopathic traits. From an evolutionary perspective, some have argued that the short-term and uncommitted sexual behaviours associated with psychopathy provide these individuals with reproductive advantages (Jonason, … Read more

Individuals with psychopathic traits: Are they able to mimic fear and remorse

Written by Dr. Adelle Forth and the Research Committee Why are individuals with psychopathic traits able to effectively manipulate and deceive others? To be successful at manipulating others, Jones (2014) has proposed that you need to be able to read cues of vulnerability in others, avoid detection by appearing to be trustworthy, and display a … Read more

This Charming Psychopath: How to Spot Social Predators Before They Attack

by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. (Reproduced with permission. © 2007 Psychology Today All Rights Reserved.) (Re-added 2017 due to website glitch)   Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. Hannibal Lecter. These are the psychopaths whose stunning lack of conscience we see in the movies and in tabloids. Yet, as this report makes abundantly clear, these predators, both … Read more

Links Between Psychopathic Traits and Social Motivations

Written by Ellen Tansony and the Research Committee Past research has reported that individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to form atypical social relationships with others. Those high in psychopathic traits tend to have shorter relationships with friends and significant others, and have placed less value on long-term relationships. Despite these findings, little research has … Read more

The Role of Positive Child-Parent Relationships in Children with Callous-Unemotional Traits

Written by Dr. Adelle Forth and the Research Committee What might be an effective intervention approach with children who exhibit psychopathic-like features? Kochanska and colleagues (2013) have been focusing on callous-unemotional (CU) features, which include low levels of guilt and empathy, disregard for rules, shallow emotions, and fearlessness. CU features in children are predictive of … Read more

Impaired Integration: A New Theory of Psychopathy

Written by Sandra Michels and the Research Committee Hamilton, Hiatt-Racer, and Newman (2015) developed a new theory of psychopathy by expanding on Baskin-Sommers et al.‘s attention bottleneck theory and Newman’s response modulation hypothesis, which are theories that predict that psychopathic traits are caused by attention processing deficits. The new theory is basically an expansion of … Read more