Journal of Forensic Psychology

Abstract

Adaptive Psychopathy: Empathy and Psychopathy are Not Mutually Exclusive

Stephen Mihailides, Roslyn Galligan and Glen Bates

This work tests one assumption of the Adaptive Psychopathy hypothesis, namely that empathy and psychopathy are not mutually exclusive for normal-range psychopathy. In earlier work, a Directional Vector was operationalized, testing the core assumption of new theory. Experimental participants were 34 university students studying psychology (38% were male, M=22.08, SD=2.53 years and 62% were female, M=25.33 years, SD=8.33) who were presented with an ideographic nomothetic scenario designed to rouse a survival threat. This exposure elicited elevations in participants' state psychopathy levels, for targets (termed moral deviants) with no change in psychopathy levels for the control group. Hypothesis testing using the Moral Inversion Method, confirmed the retention of empathy for individuals, outside the quarantined zone, not affected by moral inversion. Consistent with hypotheses, empathy was sacrificed for quarantined moral deviant targets, and elevations in state psychopathy emerged, directionally, for moral deviants. Findings of the current research are summarized with the new theoretical term, the Directional Empathy hypothesis.

This work extends findings of prior research by testing the theoretical tenet that empathy and psychopathy are not mutually exclusive for normal-range psychopathy. It furthers prior work that formulated the foundations of two heuristics termed the Adaptive Psychopathy Hypothesis, and its theoretical basis for the State-Psychopathy Hypothesis. Both terms deploy the Moral Inversion Method to derive empirical support in tests of the assumptions of new theory about psychopathy and its posited adaptive basis.

Bates et al. established the basis of the State Psychopathy Hypothesis. Earlier work references the Directional Vector hypothesis, which tested the mechanistic features of new theory, and the basis upon which to elicit elevations in psychopathy levels for normal populations. A selective review of the empathy literature follows, which precedes the adaptation of new theory, in order to test the relationship between empathy and psychopathy expression for people with normal-range psychopathy. The experimental work extends the Directional Vector hypothesis, by defining empathy levels for targets both inside and outside the quarantined zone of the psychopathic modular mind.