Socioaffective Dynamics of Psychopathy in Daily Life

Affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy are considered hallmarks of the disorder. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA), well-suited to examine dynamic processes in day-to-day life, has not been used to study how psychopathy influences emotional experiences and interpersonal behavior in adults. This preregistered study examined how psychopathy relates to socio-affective processes in daily life. Two samples enriched for traits related to psychopathy (Sample 1 N=142; Sample 2 N=159) completed EMA protocols focused on a variety of interpersonal and affective experiences (Observation N=8,137 to 16,460). The samples differed in sex and socioeconomic, age, and ethnic diversity, which allowed us to examine the replicability and generalizability of results. Results showed that psychopathy was related to distinct affective experiences in both samples (e.g., increased hostile affect), but was unrelated to diversity in affective experiences, and rarely moderated within-person socio-affective processes. Future directions for research on the affective and interpersonal processes of psychopathy are discussed.