Call for Nominations: Aftermath Graduate Student Research Award for 2021

The Aftermath Foundation is seeking nominations for our 2021 Graduate Student Research Award. This award is given by the Aftermath Foundation Board of Directors to recognize graduate students who are conducting research consistent with the mission of the Foundation. This award recognizes published research by graduate students between 2016 and the present that contributes to … Read more

Using the Sims Video Game to Investigate Psychopathic Social Interactions

Summary prepared by Dr. Beth Visser What is the Cheater-Hawk explanation of psychopathy? Grounded in evolutionary theory, this research used a Sims video game to explore the Cheater-Hawk hypothesis of psychopathy (Visser et al., 2020). The Cheater-Hawk hypothesis (Book & Quinsey, 2004) proposes that psychopaths have evolved to be both deceitful (cheaters) and aggressive (hawks). … Read more

Aftermath Foundation 2019 Annual Report Highlights

The Aftermath Surviving Psychopathy Foundation 2019 Annual Report is now on our website. Some of the highlights include:  updates on our successful Kickstarter campaign and our progress towards developing online courses to educate people about psychopathy;  a summary of the locations and outcomes for the people who asked us for help in 2019;  the true … Read more

Ask the Expert: Dr. Joseph Newman

Dr. Joseph Newman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as Director of Clinical Training and Chair before retiring in 2014. He was the inaugural President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and a recipient of the R. D. Hare Lifetime Achievement Award. … Read more

Constructing the cyber-troll: Psychopathy, sadism and empathy

Summary by Jamie Knowles and Dr. Nicola Gray Online trolling (the act of provoking others online using deception and harmful behavior) can have a long lasting negative impact on the victim. This study looked at whether factors such as psychopathy, sadism and empathy could predict involvement in online trolling behaviors. The authors asked 415 participants … Read more