Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain: Effects of Perspective and Stimulus Type

Psychopathic tendencies are associated with deficits in empathic responses that may underpin psychopathic individuals' characteristic propensity for aggressive and antisocial behavior. Evidence suggests that distinct facets of psychopathy may be differentially associated with empathic responses to pain. We analyzed the association between psychopathy facets and self-reported ratings of the intensity of the pain in (a) the image, (b) the individual's own arousal, and (c) the valence of the image for stimuli depicting painful versus neutral facial expressions and hands in painful versus neutral situations. Overall, our findings highlighted that the three psychopathic traits are dissociated in the way they affect empathy to painful stimuli. Meanness was generally associated with reduced differentiation between ratings for painful and nonpainful stimuli, whereas boldness was associated with increased differentiation. Our findings also highlight the need for careful methodological considerations of the type of stimulus used in empathy research.