Cognitive and affective empathy: The role in violent behavior and psychopathy

Abstract

AntecedentsSeveral studies have suggested empathy impairment in psychopathy. It has been highly associated to violent and criminal behavior. Empathy is not a univariate concept; however, studies about the role of empathy components in this population are inconclusive and they are mostly made in forensic samples. ObjectiveTo explore the relationships of psychopathy with the empathy dimensions and to probe if there is a continuum considering general population and forensic groups. Material and methodsEighty adult males were recruited and divided into three groups: control group (healthy man from general population; n=21), violent group 1 (violent men from general population; n=24) and violent group 2 (criminal offenders; n=35), who were case files of inmates in high security prisons in Mexico. All subjects were assessed with an aggression questionnaire (RPQ), a Psychopathy checklist (PCL-R; SV) and an empathy scale (IRI). One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were carried out to compare age, education years, empathy factors and psychopathy scores between groups; we also conducted regression analyses to probe the effect of psychopathy on each empathy subscale. ResultsWe found psychopathy differences between groups where violent group 2 obtained the highest scores, followed by the violent group 1 and the controls with the lowest scores. The perspective taking subscale showed differences between the control group and the two violent groups; the violent groups did not differ. Additionally, there were significant differences in the personal distress subscale between the three groups where violent group 2 had the highest scores. Moreover, we found a positive association between personal distress sand psychopathy; meanwhile, perspective taking scores were negatively associated with psychopathy. ConclusionsPsychopathy and violent behavior are known for a lack of empathy; however, the empathy dimensions provide a better understanding of the mechanism underlying this non-prosocial behavior.