The network structure of psychopathic personality traits in a community sample of young adult females

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on the core characteristics of psychopathy, the potential gender differences in the expression and structuration of psychopathic traits have not received adequate attention. Aimed at testing the tacit supposition that the behavioral manifestations and structural architecture of this personality type as it can be observed in men are transposable to women, the present study investigated the network organization of psychopathic traits in a general population sample of young adult women (n=789; 18–20years old) who completed the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory - Short Version (YPI-S). We first estimated a network model based on the facets of the YPI-S. We then calculated centrality indices (i.e., strength, expected influence, closeness, and betweenness) in order to identify central and peripheral features of female psychopathy, and finally we performed a bootstrapping procedure to evaluate the accuracy of edge weights as well as the stability of the centrality indices. These last were quite stable and highlighted that unemotionality was the most central trait in the network, followed by manipulation, callousness, and dishonest charm. Our findings therefore corroborate previous results regarding the key contribution of affective characteristics and suggest that the so-called callous-unemotional traits are at the heart of psychopathy regardless of gender. But this research also emphasizes the cardinal role of interpersonal features (and especially manipulation tendencies) in female psychopathy. The centrality of the unemotionality facet–which is not found in male and/or mixed samples - lead us to discuss the links, in women, between psychopathic traits and emotional experience.