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Testing Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis with psychopathic individuals: risk takers or risk averse?
W A Schmitt1, C A Brinkley, J P Newman
1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA. wschmitt@students.wisc.edu
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|August 31, 1999
Summary
This study investigated the link between psychopathy and decision-making, finding that anxiety levels, not psychopathy, predicted risk aversion in offenders. The somatic marker hypothesis was not supported by the data.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Criminology
Background:
- The somatic marker hypothesis proposes a link between emotional signals and decision-making.
- Previous theories suggested psychopathic individuals might exhibit impaired decision-making due to somatic marker dysfunction.
- Empirical data on this proposed relationship were previously lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the somatic marker hypothesis in psychopathic offenders.
- To investigate whether psychopathy is associated with a failure to become risk averse.
- To examine the predictive power of psychopathy and anxiety on decision-making.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 86 Caucasian and 71 African American male offenders.
- Utilized the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R) to measure psychopathy.
- Employed a modified gambling task to assess risk aversion and decision-making.
Main Results:
- Anxiety levels significantly predicted response choices on the gambling task.
- Psychopathy, as measured by the PCL-R, was not a significant predictor of risk aversion.
- The findings did not support the hypothesis that psychopathic individuals fail to become risk averse.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety, rather than psychopathy, appears to influence risk-averse behavior in this offender sample.
- The study highlights the complexity of decision-making processes in individuals with psychopathic traits.
- Further research is needed to fully understand the interplay between psychopathy, emotion, and decision-making.