In the eye of the beholder: Psychopathy and fear enjoyment

We investigated the relations between psychopathic traits and fear enjoyment.

In Study 1, 140 undergraduate participants (62 men, 78 women) watched the footage of video game play meant to induce either excitement or fear, rating each on positive/negative adjectives. In Study 2, 150 undergraduate participants (94 women, 56 men) rated valence (positive/negative) of 20 sets of morphed surprise/fear photos.

In Study 1, participants with higher levels of psychopathy rated the fear video as less negative and more positive. In Study 2, valence ratings became more negative as fear information increased (fear-laden faces were rated more negatively than surprise-laden faces). As well, there were significant interactions between psychopathy and morph level in predicting valence with psychopathic traits being associated with giving higher positivity ratings to fear-laden faces.

The results of these two studies suggest that people with psychopathic traits have a more positive interpretation of the experience of fear, which could extend to evaluations of others' experiences of fear.