Abstract
Individuals with antisocial behavior and psychopathic traits are characterized by deficits in processing facial expressions, which results in poor social adaptation and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. However, it is not clear how individuals with varying levels of these traits differ in this emotional impairment and if these deficits are due to correctly identifying or reacting appropriately to facial expressions. The aim of the study was to examine how individuals with these traits recognized and responded to affective facial expressions by using FaceReader software (which analyses footage of faces) across different experimental conditions (imitation, suppression, and control). Imitating facial expressions was introduced to examine whether it could direct participants’ attention to the facial cues and improve participants’ performance on the facial task. A total of 643 individuals from the community were pre-screened and a sample (N = 107; M age = 21.08, SD = 1.55), differentiated on levels of antisocial personality disorder (APD) symptoms and psychopathic (PSY) traits, who were selected based on extreme scores (high/low), were invited to participate in the study. Individuals with higher levels of APD symptoms and PSY traits (APD + PSY) expressed more anger than other groups, while those in the APD-only group expressed more sadness, compared to other groups. Overall, participants were compliant in following the instructions to imitate facial expressions. However, only the group with predominantly APD symptoms and the group with combined symptoms (APD + PSY) showed improvement in their accuracy ratings specifically when instructed to imitate facial expressions, compared to when no instructions were provided. The study offers a promising direction for targeting deficits in facial emotion recognition, suggesting that the deficits found in individuals with behavioral problems (with and without psychopathic traits) can be improved by asking them to imitate facial expressions.
Highlights
Antisocial personality disorder (APD) and psychopathy represent two overlapping constructs with associations to severe antisocial traits (Anton et al, 2012; Crego & Widiger, 2015)
The current study examined how young adults with different levels of APD symptoms and psychopathic traits process emotional facial expressions across different experimental conditions
Emotion recognition accuracy was significantly lower among the group with co-occurring psychopathic traits and antisocial behavior (APD + PSY) compared to the control group in the neutral condition when no instructions were provided
Summary
Antisocial personality disorder (APD) and psychopathy represent two overlapping constructs with associations to severe antisocial traits (Anton et al, 2012; Crego & Widiger, 2015). Psychopathy on the other hand is only included in the DSM-5 as a specifier for APD, but theoretical models of the disorder emphasize personality traits rather than behavior. Psychopathy includes personality dispositions according to the triarchic model (i.e., boldness, meanness, and disinhibition), which encompass affective, interpersonal, and behavioral features (Patrick et al, 2010). Current Psychology and affective features of psychopathy have been shown to be differentially related to APD, further distinguishing the two constructs (Anton et al, 2012; Venables et al, 2014). The diagnostic criteria for APD, do not always include psychopathic traits (Crego & Widiger, 2015; Venables et al, 2014), which should be taken into account as the presence of these traits has been associated with a worse prognosis (Riser & Kosson, 2013)
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