Deception and sexual strategy in psychopathy

Abstract

Clinically, psychopaths are characterized by a number of features, including the habitual use of deception in social exchanges and a history of short-term, unstable sexual relationships. These characteristics can be understood within an evolutionary framework, in terms of game theory and sexual strategies theory, respectively. However, the nature and extent of this deceptive and sexual behavior in relation to psychopathy have not been well-described. Forty-seven heterosexual men were recruited from the community and assessed for psychopathy, their use of deception in sexual and non-sexual contexts, and their sexual histories. There were significant correlations between psychopathy and the two measures of deception, and between the use of sexual deception and some indicators of sexual experience and interest. Psychopathy was not related to the relative use of sexually deceptive tactics against female vs male targets, or the relative use of tactics judged to be effective vs ineffective. This finding, along with the partial correlations involving psychopathy and the two measures of deception, suggests that psychopathy is related to a general tendency to deceive.