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Triarchic psychopathy and deficits in facial affect recognition
Author(s) -
Mowle Elyse N.,
Edens John F.,
Ruchensky Jared R.,
Penson Brittany N.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12386
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , affect (linguistics) , facial expression , developmental psychology , amygdala , gaze , emotion recognition , cognitive psychology , personality , neuroscience , social psychology , communication , psychoanalysis
Objective Impaired socialization due to amygdala dysfunction has been proposed as a factor underlying psychopathy. Supporting this hypothesis, some research indicates that psychopathy is associated with deficits in facial affect recognition, but other studies have failed to find such a relationship. This study investigated whether healthy young adults elevated in psychopathic traits displayed deficits in identifying facial affective displays overall as well as deficits specific to fear recognition. Method Facial affect recognition was measured in a sample of 110 undergraduate men ( n = 36) and women ( n = 74). Participants completed the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure, and participants' eye gaze was measured using ASL Eye Trac 6. The facial affect recognition task was created using the NimStim facial expression stimuli. Results Individuals elevated in psychopathic traits did not display deficits in recognition of emotional faces overall or for fearful faces compared to individuals lower in psychopathic traits. However, meanness was negatively correlated with fear identification. Conclusions We conclude that deficient emotion processing in psychopathic individuals may be specific to ambiguous affective expressions. We discuss implications for the study of psychopathy and emotion processing.