Dangerously Intelligent: A Call for Re-Evaluating Psychopathy Using Perceptions of Intelligence.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• Primary psychopathy (unemotional, callous) correlates with success, while secondary psychopathy (impulsive, risk-taking) links to negative outcomes.
• Previous research established differential life success links for psychopathy subtypes.
• The perception of intelligence based on psychopathy subtypes and self-perception was unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how primary and secondary psychopathy traits influence perceptions of intelligence.
• To examine if individuals' own psychopathy scores affect their perception of others' intelligence.

Main Methods:

• An online experiment with 458 participants.
• Participants rated intelligence (IQ, university attendance) based on 12 vignettes depicting individuals with varying levels of primary and secondary psychopathy.

Main Results:

• High secondary psychopathy vignettes were perceived as least intelligent.
• Low secondary psychopathy vignettes were rated as more intelligent than high primary psychopathy vignettes.
• Individuals high in primary psychopathy tended to perceive primary psychopathy vignettes as intelligent ('likes attract' phenomenon).

Conclusions:

• Risk-taking behaviors associated with secondary psychopathy lead to perceptions of lower intelligence.
• Findings support existing literature linking secondary psychopathy to diminished academic and career success.