SSSP
@ssspsychopathy.bsky.social
Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy https://psychopathysociety.org/
Mapping factors of psychopathy onto aspects of the reinforcement sensitivity theory - by Ella Dickison, @msellbom.bsky.social and colleagues; tinyurl.com/2x5pzfbe
A four-factor model of psychopathy assessed via neural reinforcement sensitivity theory | Personality Neuroscience | Cambridge Core
A four-factor model of psychopathy assessed via neural reinforcement sensitivity theory - Volume 9
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New paper by Olivia Choy, Yu Gao, Adrian Raine and colleagues shows in children with externalizing behavior and higher psychopathy scores higher theta activity in several brain regions during rest and stress within a 1-year timeframe: tinyurl.com/uwyx4h33
EEG activity and psychopathy in children with externalizing behavior
Although differences in EEG activity have been documented in externalizing individuals compared to controls, much less is known about whether EEG abno…
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Narcissistic dominance seems to be associated to psychopathy partially by Machiavellian strategizing,with a stronger direct link of Narcissism with psychopathy in women compared to men in prison: tinyurl.com/yruuu22p
The dark path to psychopathy, Machiavellianism as a mediator of the narcissism–psychopathy link among incarcerated men and women: a moderated mediation analysis
Antagonistic traits in prison may be shaped by informal hierarchies and instrumental social exchange, yet the mechanisms linking Dark Triad dimensions and gender differences remain under-specified ...
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New paper by Yu Gao and colleagues showing differential associations of psychopathic traits with types of aggression like retaliation and physiological adaptation: tinyurl.com/yc7m5kt5
Psychopathy and provoked aggression: The role of negative affect and autonomic arousal
This study examined how distinct dimensions of psychopathy shape behavioral, emotional, and physiological responses to social exclusion, a paradigm kn…
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New paper: We argue that psychopathy is a disorder of allostasis and interoception - the process by which the brain senses the internal conditions of the body and regulates those conditions in a context-appropriate manner. w/ @clare-shaffer.bsky.social 1/ doi.org/10.1016/j.av...
Redirecting
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Some good points about the role of psychopathy for forensic psychology and more widely and the problems of some recent notions questioning its relevance: theconversation.com/psychopathy-...
Psychopathy: some experts now say it doesn’t exist – here’s why we may be looking at it all wrong
Could psychopathy be something we’ve just imagined because it’s convenient? Some experts believe so.
theconversation.com
New Special Issue in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment on the contributions of Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy Checklist to the study of psychopathy: lnkd.in/eWebzctn With contributions of several SSSP members and edited by SSSP past president Randy Salekin
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
Great start to our SSSP 2026 conference with Randy Salekin’s Presidential address on Future directions for Conduct disorder and psychopathic traits
New study shows differential effects for boldness and meanness (psychopathic traits) and intensity/valence ratings for pain vs. no-pain pictures/videos: both traits related to lower intensity but participants higher in boldness differentiated pain vs. non-pain stimuli more: tinyurl.com/3as7mvud
Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain: Effects of Perspective and Stimulus Type | Journal of Personality Disorders
Psychopathic tendencies are associated with deficits in empathic responses that may underpin psychopathic individuals’ characteristic propensity for aggressive and antisocial behavior. Evidence suggests that distinct facets of psychopathy may be differentially associated with empathic responses to pain. We analyzed the association between psychopathy facets and self-reported ratings of the intensity of the pain in (a) the image, (b) the individual's own arousal, and (c) the valence of the image for stimuli depicting painful versus neutral facial expressions and hands in painful versus neutral situations. Overall, our findings highlighted that the three psychopathic traits are dissociated in the way they affect empathy to painful stimuli. Meanness was generally associated with reduced differentiation between ratings for painful and nonpainful stimuli, whereas boldness was associated with increased differentiation. Our findings also highlight the need for careful methodological considerations of the type of stimulus used in empathy research.
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People want to be closer to affiliative persons like a friend compared to threatening ones like a thief, but not if they are higher on psychopathic traits - new paper by Emily Perkins and colleagues: tinyurl.com/3mhjsjsd
Stop Right Now, Thank You Very Much: Psychopathic Traits, Externalizing Dimensions, and Interpersonal Proximity | Journal of Personality Disorders
Psychopathy involves disruptions in affiliation and threat sensitivity, but these are hard to disentangle behaviorally. This preregistered study (independent sample Ns = 175 and 173) used clinical-for...
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Only one week to go until the 2026 SSSP conference - the final program is now available psychopathysociety.org/page/Upcomin...
Upcoming Conferences
psychopathysociety.org
Important and thoughtful talk from Abigail Marsh on psychopathy and how it often goes unrecognized in everyday life. Worth watching: youtu.be/P2pU9UCxlKY?...
You’ve probably met a psychopath and didn’t know it | Abigail Marsh
YouTube video by Big Think
youtu.be
Callous-unemotional traits at age 7 only weakly predictable by earlier temperament: tinyurl.com/mznttfwx
Identifying prospective temperament predictors of callous-unemotional traits using machine learning - European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - Children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., low guilt, restricted empathy) are at high risk for disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) across...
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Small associations between cortical surface and cortical thickness and conduct problems in a very large international study. At lower (!) callous-unemotional traits some of these associations were stronger: tinyurl.com/49vrxf23
Dimensional Associations Between Conduct Problems and Brain Structure Across 18 International Cohorts in ENIGMA
Although conduct problems (CPs) are continuously distributed, little is known about how dimensional measures of CPs map onto brain structure. We there…
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Or, what if brain structure doesn't play a big role in psychopathy given how little it does for personality in general? psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
New review on the neurochemistry of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy - still a lot of open questions to answer: tinyurl.com/mv68v4sv
The neurochemistry of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy- current evidence and future directions
Increasing evidence from neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies points to structural, functional, and connectivity abnormalities in youths and ad…
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Amygdala damage does not necessarily lead to lower cognitive or affective empathy: tinyurl.com/aukme5as - does that mean that lower motivation for empathy in psychopathy could be related to other structures?
Empathy motivation is preserved following amygdala damage
Damage to the amygdala is associated with reduced empathic accuracy. However, Scheffer et al. show that patients with amygdala lesions are as motivated to
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Big thanks to everyone, participants and helpers who contributed to this study and to @mburghart.bsky.social for leading this paper!
We found that people how know each other better in cognitive empathy, but not those higher in psychopathic traits. However, higher psychopathy was related less affective sharing and less physiological synchrony.
So excited to share that the first publication from our eMotion project is out: what does empathy look like in interaction with psychopathy? tinyurl.com/yp8ykphe
Empathy, physiological synchrony, and psychopathy: preliminary insights from naturalistic dyadic interactions
Empathy forms the basis of all human social interactions. Yet, most existing research neglects the social component of empathy and relies on questionnaires or artificial settings that fail to captu...
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A great opportunity to reflect with colleagues on psychophysiological correlates of PCL-R assessed psychopathy in this new review paper in a special issue honoring Bob Hare: tinyurl.com/4bn2duw4
Psychophysiological Investigation of Psychopathy: From Robert Hare to Contemporary Research - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Psychophysiological reactivity has been a critical emphasis in the quest to understand the underlying mechanisms of psychopathy. The...
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Don’t forget to register for the SSSP 2026 conference! Registration is open with an early bird discount until 1st April 2026: tinyurl.com/4rkpz3p2
We are happy to announce that the program for the 2026 SSSP Biennial Meeting held in Dallas, TX is now available at the following link: tinyurl.com/4rkpz3p2
So excited: our paper on "Empathy, physiological synchrony, and psychopathy: Preliminary insights from naturalistic dyadic interactions" just got accepted for publication at Cognition & Emotion - great work by Matthias Burghart and Roydon Goldsack based on our eMotion study - stay tuned
Higher psychopathy in a community sample found to be related with lower brain connectivity during resting state, only in male bit not female participants: tinyurl.com/3sk3yrfj
Resting-state network connectivity correlates of psychopathic traits in a japanese community sample: sex matters
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Psychopathy as a neglected Public Health concern: new opinion piece by Dave Kosson and colleagues: tinyurl.com/5f42mwjk
Frontiers | Psychopathy is a neglected public health problem
Although psychopathy has been widely studied within criminal justice contexts, its impact on society is rarely considered in public health contexts. Even so,...
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Interception - here operationalized with the overlap between self-reported arousal feelings with Skin conductance response was found higher in those higher in self-centered impulsivity traits of psychopathy, but lower in those with coldheartedness traits of psychopathy: tinyurl.com/mr3upt9a
Frontiers | The association between interoception and psychopathic traits
IntroductionPsychopathic traits are characterized by pervasive emotional deficits, including diminished empathy and remorse, heightened impulsivity, and anti...
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Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3) Antagonism (ANT) scale as a proxy measure for Psychopathy - validity tests reported here: tinyurl.com/dswbnywe
APA PsycNet
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More evidence for the fear enjoyment hypothesis of psychopathy: people higher in primary / Factor 1 - psychopathy seem to experience fear-evoking contexts more joyful than those lower on these traits: tinyurl.com/bdfbeda6
Is the Psychopathic Heart Beating for Fear? A Psychophysiological Investigation of Fear Experience in Psychopathy
The Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis posits that individuals with elevated psychopathy traits experience fear-inducing stimuli less negatively and more posit…
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Is it the thrill of offending? Thrilling perceptions of violent and non-violent crime found associated with youth offending and their impulsive-irresponsible traits. And: The thrill from peer delinquency seems to weaken with age: tinyurl.com/bdz4nwc2
Predicting the Thrill: How Individual and Environmental Factors Shape Thrilling Perceptions of Violent and Non-violent Crime - Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
This study longitudinally investigates how individual and environmental factors predict thrilling perceptions of criminal behavior using a sample of 1009 justice-involved youth (ages 15–21) who were f...
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