Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of empathy, remorse, and antisocial behavior. Psychopaths make up approximately 1% of the general population and up to 25% of prison populations. There has been much debate around whether psychopaths have deficits in understanding emotions, or if they simply do not care about the feelings of others. In this article, we will explore what the research says about psychopaths’ ability to understand.
What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is characterized by a cluster of personality traits and behaviors. The key features are:
- Lack of empathy and remorse
- Impulsivity and irresponsibility
- Pathological lying and manipulation
- Superficial charm and charisma
- Antisocial behavior and criminality
- Lack of realistic long-term goals
While psychopathy exists on a spectrum, true psychopaths tend to score highly on measures of these traits. Psychopathy is distinct from other mental illnesses like antisocial personality disorder, which may share some behavioral similarities.
Do psychopaths understand emotions?
One of the core questions around psychopathy is – do they truly lack emotional understanding, or do they simply not care about the feelings of others? Research suggests psychopaths do show deficits in processing emotional information, both cognitively and neurally.
Studies using neuroimaging techniques like fMRI have found that when psychopaths view emotional images or words, they show reduced activation in brain regions associated with processing emotions, like the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This suggests an impaired ability to process emotional meaning from stimuli.
On cognitive and behavioral tests, psychopaths also show poorer recognition of emotional expressions like fear, sadness, and disgust compared to non-psychopaths. When asked to categorize emotional words, psychopaths are slower and make more errors, indicating deficits in semantic emotional processing.
| Study | Method | Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Kiehl et al. (2001) | fMRI scanning during emotional word task | Psychopaths showed less amygdala activation to emotional words |
| Dolan & Fullam (2006) | Facial emotion recognition task | Psychopaths less accurate at recognizing fear and sadness |
These studies point to genuine impairments in how psychopaths process and understand emotions on a cognitive level. The deficits are not just a matter of indifference to others’ feelings.
Psychopaths may understand emotions conceptually
However, research also suggests that psychopaths likely have retained knowledge of emotional concepts. When explicitly asked what emotions are appropriate in certain situations, psychopaths can often demonstrate accurate conceptual understanding.
For example, one study gave psychopaths written vignettes of emotional situations (like a child winning an award) and asked them to describe the appropriate emotional reaction. Their written responses were generally normative and appropriate, suggesting they do hold conceptual knowledge of emotions.
Similarly, psychopaths seem capable of mimicking emotions when needed, like expressing remorse when trying to obtain parole. This implies an intellectual understanding of what various emotions look like, even if they cannot feel them subjectively.
Are psychopaths impaired in cognitive empathy?
Related to emotional recognition is the concept of cognitive empathy – the ability to understand another person’s mental state, thoughts, and motivations. Research indicates psychopaths do show impairments in this area of empathic understanding.
On theory of mind tasks, like reading others’ eyes to infer their mental state, psychopaths perform more poorly. Brain imaging studies show they have less activation in regions linked to theory of mind like the precuneus and temporoparietal junction.
Psychopaths also struggle more with making moral judgments. When given hypothetical dilemmas about causing harm to save lives, psychopaths are more likely to endorse harming others, suggesting weaker understanding of moral principles.
| Study | Method | Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Richell et al. (2003) | Eyes test of theory of mind | Psychopaths less accurate at inferring mental state from eyes |
| Koenigs et al. (2012) | fMRI during moral judgment task | Psychopaths showed less VMPFC activation to moral dilemmas |
These deficits indicate that psychopaths struggle to represent and understand the inner mental and emotional lives of others. They have impairment in imagine others’ subjective experiences.
Are there exceptions? Successful psychopaths
The majority of research on psychopaths utilizes incarcerated samples with lengthy criminal histories. However, some authors have proposed the existence of “successful psychopaths” – people with psychopathic traits who avoid antisocial behavior and even thrive in society.
There is debate around whether successful psychopaths represent a distinct subtype. Some research suggests successful psychopaths may not show the same severe emotional-cognitive deficits seen in criminal samples. They may be better at regulating their behavior and mimicking empathy, even if they do not subjectively feel it.
However, others argue that truly psychopathic people inevitably engage in antisocial acts, and that successful psychopaths likely represent individuals with some psychopathic traits but who do not meet the full clinical threshold for psychopathy.
More research is needed to better understand if psychopathic traits can manifest differently and permit success for a small minority of people.
Developmental origins
Psychopathy likely stems from a complex interplay of genetic predispositions and environmental factors. Research suggests many of the emotional-cognitive deficits observed in psychopaths are present from childhood.
Young children with psychopathic traits show difficulties identifying emotions from facial expressions. They also show reduced responsiveness to distress cues like crying, suggesting early impairment in empathy.
Brain imaging studies of youth with psychopathic traits reveal abnormalities in key regions like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. This implies developmental differences in how their brains process emotional and interpersonal information.
Environmental factors like childhood trauma, poor parenting, and substance abuse may interact with genetic risk to shape the development of psychopathic traits. The emotional-cognitive deficits appear to emerge early and remain fairly stable into adulthood.
Is psychopathy treatable?
There are currently no evidence-based medications for treating psychopathy. While therapies like CBT may teach behavioral control, they seem to have little impact on the core affective-interpersonal deficits.
Most clinicians believe psychopathy is not truly curable. The emotional-cognitive impairments are not well addressed by talk therapy and likely have a biological basis. Management focuses on minimizing criminal recidivism and manipulating psychopaths’ self-interest to reduce harm to others.
Conclusion
In summary, substantial evidence indicates psychopaths have genuine impairments in processing emotional material and understanding others’ mental states. These deficits are observable on cognitive-behavioral tests, in brain imaging studies, and in real world interpersonal functioning.
While psychopaths may retain some conceptual knowledge of emotions, they struggle to subjectively experience empathy and remorse. There seem to be early-emerging neurological deficits underlying their lack of emotional intelligence and disconnect from others.
However, some evidence suggests a minority of “successful” psychopaths may not show these deficits to the same degree. More research is needed on whether psychopathic traits can manifest differently in some individuals.
Overall, the weight of findings indicates that most criminal psychopaths do have fundamental deficits in empathic understanding. Their antisocial behavior likely stems from these emotional-cognitive limitations, rather than simply a disregard for others.