Psychopathy Research

Latest research abstracts

Individuals that Identify as Religious and Have Dark Traits May Not Apply Their Prosocial Beliefs in Real Life

Summary by Theresia Bedard and the North American Research Committee Research Study Highlights: An analysis of the subgroups in a large sample of undergraduates provided evidence for five different subgroups of groups of people in regards to religiousness and Dark Triad traits: prosocial, antisocial, moderate, low religious, and struggling religious. Individuals that belong to the prosocial … Read more

Dangerous dating in the digital age – Psychopathy and jealousy predict cyber dating abuse

Summary by Jennifer Pink & Nicola S. Gray Cyber dating abuse (Borrajo et al., 2015) refers to a range of aggressive online behaviours, directed towards a partner. These include posting humiliating or intimate material on social networks, snooping on personal communications, and sending threatening or controlling messages. Experiencing cyber dating abuse can lead to depression, … Read more

Psychopathic Traits (and Criminal History) Predict Which Offenders Will Continue to Commit Intimate Partner Violence

Summary by Taffy Chan and the North American Research Committee   Highlights The relationship between psychopathy and committing (and re-committing or recidivism of) intimate partner violence was studied among a group of male offenders in Portugal. Criminal history factors (for example, number of prior periods of imprisonment) may be even more useful than psychopathy traits … Read more

New Research on Impact of People with Psychopathy Posted on Members Page

Four research studies that were recently presented at the 2024 international psychopathy conference are now also available on our Members page. The meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy was held in May of 2024. For example, one presentation, by Angela Book and colleagues, is titled “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: Psychopathic Traits … Read more

David Kosson answers common questions about psychopathy on Most Days podcast

Dr. David Kosson recently spoke with Brent Franson on the Most Days podcast. The two spoke for about an hour about the nature of psychopathy. Dr. Kosson covered a variety of different topics, including: the four validated components of clinical psychopathy assessed in the Psychopathy Checklist measures, links between psychopathy and violence, different subtypes of … Read more