Psychopathy and response inhibition: A meta-analysis of go/no-go and stop signal task performance

Traditional and more modern conceptualizations of psychopathy cite problems with impulse control. However, the extent to which these problems represent a cardinal feature of the disorder has been debated. In this study, we conducted a preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis, searching Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, and PubMed, for studies from inception to January 6th, 2022. We included 21 studies, published between 2009 and 2021, that reported on the relationship of psychopathy with performance on the go/no-go or stop signal task. A multilevel random-effects meta-analysis, including 43 effect sizes from 17 studies (total N = 1394), showed a significant pooled association between psychopathy and response inhibition r = -0.143 (95 % CI: -0.250 to -0.034). The relatively small effect size, although statistically significant, calls in to question the extent to which difficulties in response inhibition should be considered a cardinal feature of psychopathic personality. The strength of the relationship did not significantly differ between non-criminal and criminal samples, gender, task type, tasks with or without an affective component, or by psychopathy trait dimension.