Effect of Psychopathy on Physical Aggression Toward Gay and Heterosexual Men

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of psychopathy on antigay aggression. Participants were 84 heterosexual men who competed in an aggression paradigm in which electric shocks were received from and administered to a randomly determined fictitious opponent (heterosexual male, gay male) during a competitive reaction time task. Aggression was operationalized as shock intensities administered to the opponent. Prior to the task, all participants completed measures of psychopathy, sexual prejudice, and state anger; viewed a male-male erotic video; and reported state anger a second time. After controlling for sexual prejudice, analyses revealed that psychopathy significantly predicted aggression toward the gay, but not the heterosexual, male confederate. Psychopathy was not associated with increases in anger in response to the erotic video. These findings indicate that psychopathy is a significant marker for antigay violence, though anger experienced in response to homosexuality does not seem to underlie this association.