Aggressive Personalities, Wrongheaded Decisions
Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk
Paul Babiak, Craig Neumann & Robert Hare
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, March/April 2010, Pages 174-193
Abstract:
There is a very large literature on the important role of psychopathy in the criminal justice system. We know much less about corporate psychopathy and its implications, in large part because of the difficulty in obtaining the active cooperation of business organizations. This has left us with only a few small-sample studies, anecdotes, and speculation. In this study, we had a unique opportunity to examine psychopathy and its correlates in a sample of 203 corporate professionals selected by their companies to participate in management development programs. The correlates included demographic and status variables, as well as in-house 360° assessments and performance ratings. The prevalence of psychopathic traits - as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R) and a Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) equivalent - was higher than that found in community samples. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the underlying latent structure of psychopathy in our corporate sample was consistent with that model found in community and offender studies. Psychopathy was positively associated with in-house ratings of charisma/presentation style (creativity, good strategic thinking and communication skills) but negatively associated with ratings of responsibility/performance (being a team player, management skills, and overall accomplishments).
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Empowering the wolf in sheep's clothing: Why people choose the wrong leaders
Robert Livingston, Taya Cohen & Nir Halevy
Northwestern University Working Paper, March 2010
Abstract:
Three studies explored the possibility that one source of corruption in organizations is the paradoxical human tendency to choose socially appealing leaders who do not necessarily value the welfare of group members. We investigated the relative weight of sociality versus prosociality in leader perceptions, leader emergence, and leader behavior. The results reveal a stark dissociation between the type of leader that people say they want and the type of leader that people actually choose. Although people reported an explicit preference for prosocial over social leaders, they revealed a significant behavioral preference for social over prosocial leaders. Leader choice was mediated by perceived status, such that social individuals were viewed as high status, and high status individuals were preferred as leaders. Prosociality, on the other hand, did not lead to higher status, and actually caused individuals to be perceived as less leader-like. Moreover, social individuals were more likely than prosocial individuals to be power-seeking, self-promoting, and self-serving when they attained leadership positions. Taken together, these data reveal, ironically, that the leaders most likely to be elected are not the leaders most likely to show concern for those who empowered them.
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Measuring the Suicidal Mind: Implicit Cognition Predicts Suicidal Behavior
Matthew Nock, Jennifer Park, Christine Finn, Tara Deliberto, Halina Dour & Mahzarin Banaji
Psychological Science, April 2010, Pages 511-517
Abstract:
Suicide is difficult to predict and prevent because people who consider killing themselves often are unwilling or unable to report their intentions. Advances in the measurement of implicit cognition provide an opportunity to test whether automatic associations of self with death can provide a behavioral marker for suicide risk. We measured implicit associations about death/suicide in 157 people seeking treatment at a psychiatric emergency department. Results confirmed that people who have attempted suicide hold a significantly stronger implicit association between death/suicide and self than do psychiatrically distressed individuals who have not attempted suicide. Moreover, the implicit association of death/suicide with self was associated with an approximately 6-fold increase in the odds of making a suicide attempt in the next 6 months, exceeding the predictive validity of known risk factors (e.g., depression, suicide-attempt history) and both patients' and clinicians' predictions. These results provide the first evidence of a behavioral marker for suicidal behavior and suggest that measures of implicit cognition may be useful for detecting and predicting sensitive clinical behaviors that are unlikely to be reported.
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The Effect of a Derogatory Professional Label: Evaluations of a "Shrink"
Orly Gadon & Craig Johnson
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, March 2009, Pages 634-655
Abstract:
A study was designed to examine the consequences of hearing a mental health professional referred to as a "shrink." Participants (N = 129) viewed a videotape of a simulated therapy session after hearing a psychologist referred to as a shrink, a psychologist, or Mr. Smith. As hypothesized, exposure to shrink lowered evaluations of the therapist. However, this was focused on specific characteristics (e.g., expertise). After hearing the label shrink, participants expressed less interest in seeking therapy from the psychologist portrayed. The commenter of the shrink label was also viewed more negatively. The findings imply that the use of the term shrink may undermine people's attitudes toward mental health professionals, a consequence with implications for the utilization of their services.
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Teneille Brown & Emily Murphy
Stanford Law Review, April 2010, Pages 1119-1208
Abstract:
As with phrenology and the polygraph, society is again confronted with a device that the media claims is capable of reading our minds. Functional magnetic resonance imaging ("fMRI"), along with other types of functional brain imaging technologies, is currently being introduced at various stages of a criminal trial as evidence of a defendant's past mental state. This Article demonstrates that functional brain images should not currently be admitted as evidence into courts for this purpose. Using the analytical framework provided by Federal Rule of Evidence 403 as a threshold to a Daubert/Frye analysis, we demonstrate that, when fMRI methodology is properly understood, brain images are only minimally probative of a defendant's past mental states and are almost certainly more unfairly prejudicial than probative on balance. Careful and detailed explanation of the underlying science separates this Article from others, which have tended to paint fMRI with a gloss of credibility and certainty for all courtroom-relevant applications. Instead, we argue that this technology may present a particularly strong form of unfair prejudice in addition to its potential to mislead jurors and waste the court's resources. Finally, since fMRI methodology may one day improve such that its probative value is no longer eclipsed by its extreme potential for unfair prejudice, we offer a nonexhaustive checklist that judges and counsel can use to authenticate functional brain images and assess the weight these images are to be accorded by fact finders.
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Combat exposure and mental health: the long-term effects among US Vietnam and Gulf war veterans
Daniel Gade & Jeffrey Wenger
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a random sample of more than 4000 veterans, we test the effects of combat exposure on mental health. We focus on two cohorts of veterans: those who served in Vietnam (1964-1975) and the Gulf War (1990-1991). Combat exposure differed between these groups in intensity, duration and elapsed time since exposure. We find that combat exposure generally, and exposure to dead, dying, or wounded people, specifically, is a significant predictor of mental health declines as measured by an individual's Mental Component Summary score. Under our general specifications, the negative effects of combat on mental health were larger for Gulf war veterans than for Vietnam veterans as of 2001. These effects persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, insurance coverage, income and assets. Using discrete factor, nonparametric maximum likelihood (DFML) estimation we controlled for unobserved heterogeneity as well as the factors above. In the DFML specifications we find a negative impact of exposure to dead, wounded or dying people for both Gulf and Vietnam veterans, but find no statistically significant effect for combat exposure overall for Vietnam veterans as of 2001. Based on our Gulf war parameters, we estimate that the costs of mental health declines to be between $87 and $318 per year for each soldier with combat service and exposure to dead, dying and wounded people.
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Estimating aggression from emotionally neutral faces: Which facial cues are diagnostic?
Justin Carré, Mark Morrissey, Catherine Mondloch & Cheryl McCormick
Perception, March 2010, Pages 356-377
Abstract:
The facial width-to-height ratio, a size-independent sexually dimorphic property of the human face, is correlated with aggressive behaviour in men. Furthermore, observers' estimates of aggression from emotionally neutral faces are accurate and are highly correlated with the facial width-to-height ratio. We investigated whether observers use the facial width-to-height ratio to estimate propensity for aggression. In experiments 1a - 1c, estimates of aggression remained accurate when faces were blurred or cropped, manipulations that reduce featural cues but maintain the facial width-to-height ratio. Accuracy decreased when faces were scrambled, a manipulation that retains featural information but disrupts the facial width-to-height ratio. In experiment 2, computer-modeling software identified eight facial metrics that correlated with estimates of aggression; regression analyses revealed that the facial width-to-height ratio was the only metric that uniquely predicted these estimates. In experiment 3, we used a computer-generated set of faces varying in perceived threat (Oosterhof and Todorov, 2008 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105 11087 - 11092) and found that as emotionally neutral faces became more ‘threatening', the facial width-to-height ratio increased. Together, these experiments suggest that the facial width-to-height ratio is an honest signal of propensity for aggressive behaviour.
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Personality and psychophysiological profiles of police officer and firefighter recruits
Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault, Anna Ruef & Scott Orr
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Some have suggested that people who join emergency-services professions have a unique set of personality and response characteristics that allow them to manage the intense stressors of their particular jobs. The nature of personality and response profiles of individuals from different emergency-services professions could have both clinical and policy implications. The present study examined self-reported personality traits of police and firefighter recruits, as well as their psychophysiological response patterns during a loud-tone procedure. Police recruits scored higher than firefighters on gregariousness, a facet of Extraversion, and on dutifulness and deliberation, facets of Conscientiousness. Compared to a normative sample, police and firefighters both scored higher on excitement-seeking, a facet of Extraversion. Comparisons with psychophysiological data from a non-rescuer sample suggest that the firefighter recruits exhibited higher heart rate and skin conductance (SC) levels, while police recruits showed larger eyeblink electromyogram (EMG) startle responses and required more trials to reach SC habituation criteria.
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Successful and unsuccessful psychopaths: A neurobiological model
Yu Gao & Adrian Raine
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, March/April 2010, Pages 194-210
Abstract:
Despite increasing interest in psychopathy research, surprisingly little is known about the etiology of non-incarcerated, successful psychopaths. This review provides an analysis of current knowledge on the similarities and differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths derived from five population sources: community samples, individuals from employment agencies, college students, industrial psychopaths, and serial killers. An initial neurobiological model of successful and unsuccessful psychopathy is outlined. It is hypothesized that successful psychopaths have intact or enhanced neurobiological functioning that underlies their normal or even superior cognitive functioning, which in turn helps them to achieve their goals using more covert and nonviolent methods. In contrast, in unsuccessful, caught psychopaths, brain structural and functional impairments together with autonomic nervous system dysfunction are hypothesized to underlie cognitive and emotional deficits and more overt violent offending.
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Different Provocations Trigger Aggression in Narcissists and Psychopaths
Daniel Jones & Delroy Paulhus
Social Psychological and Personality Science, January 2010, Pages 12-18
Abstract:
Although previous research has demonstrated that ego-threatened narcissists react aggressively, no allowance was made for the overlap of subclinical narcissism with subclinical psychopathy. Nor is there research directly comparing the reactions of these two personalities to physical threat. To investigate these distinctions, the present study examined the degree to which narcissists and psychopaths respond with aggression to ego threat versus physical provocation. Participants were given the opportunity to aggress with a white noise blast against an ostensible partner who had provoked them. Results replicated previous findings that narcissists aggress in response to ego threat provocation (a personal insult), even when overlap with psychopathy is controlled. By contrast, psychopathy emerged as the unique predictor of aggression in response to physical provocation (a gratuitous blast of loud white noise). The results point to qualitatively different aggression mechanisms underlying narcissistic and psychopathic aggression.
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Psychopathy, sexual behavior, and esteem: It's different for girls
Beth Visser, Julie Pozzebon, Anthony Bogaert & Michael Ashton
Personality and Individual Differences, May 2010, Pages 833-838
Abstract:
We examined the relations of psychopathy with physical attractiveness, several aspects of sexual behavior, and appearance-related self-esteem. In a mixed-sex sample of 198 undergraduate students, we found substantial sex differences in the correlates of psychopathy. Consistent with previous research, psychopathy was associated with early and promiscuous sexual behavior and affairs in both men and women. However, there was a marked sex difference in the esteem correlates of psychopathy: Among men, psychopathy was associated with high self- (and other) rated attractiveness, low appearance anxiety, and low body shame, whereas psychopathy in women was associated with low self-esteem and high body shame. The differences between men and women in the links between psychopathy and body esteem variables were not attributable to any sex differences in the effect of promiscuous sexual behavior on esteem, as sexual behavior was roughly uncorrelated with the esteem variables in both sexes. Further research is required to investigate the nature of this puzzling sex difference.
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Mesolimbic dopamine reward system hypersensitivity in individuals with psychopathic traits
Joshua Buckholtz, Michael Treadway, Ronald Cowan, Neil Woodward, Stephen Benning, Rui Li, Sib Ansari, Ronald Baldwin, Ashley Schwartzman, Evan Shelby, Clarence Smith, David Cole, Robert Kessler & David Zald
Nature Neuroscience, April 2010, Pages 419-421
Abstract:
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is strongly linked to criminal behavior. Using [18F]fallypride positron emission tomography and blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits selectively predicted nucleus accumbens dopamine release and reward anticipation-related neural activity in response to pharmacological and monetary reinforcers, respectively. These findings suggest that neurochemical and neurophysiological hyper-reactivity of the dopaminergic reward system may comprise a neural substrate for impulsive-antisocial behavior and substance abuse in psychopathy.
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Megan O'Leary, Jeanette Taylor & Lisa Eckel
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research indicates that psychopathic personality traits are associated with lower cortisol secretion in response to stress in men but not women. The current study explored whether prior null results for women were related to the latency of the cortisol stress response to two different types of stressors. Additionally, accuracy of self-reported menstrual phase was explored via salivary progesterone levels. A mixed-sex sample of 145 participants characterized by high (36 men, 37 women) and low (34 men, 38 women) scores on a screening measure of psychopathic personality traits were randomly assigned to either a performance-based stressor task or a social rejection stressor task. Salivary hormone samples were taken just prior to task onset (baseline) and at 0, 20, 40, and 60 min post-stressor. Results indicated that both men and women characterized by psychopathic personality traits exhibited lower stress-induced cortisol levels to the performance-based task in comparison with controls at 20 min post-stressor. The social rejection task produced a cortisol response 20 min post-stressor in the male controls only. Removal of women with low progesterone from the analyses strengthened the psychopathy group differences. Results could suggest that deficient cortisol production in response to stress might be another important neurobiological feature associated with psychopathic traits, and that biological verification of menstrual phase is an important aspect to obtaining accurate cortisol results in women.
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The impact of aggressive individuals on team training
Mark Bowler, David Woehr, Joan Rentsch & Jennifer Bowler
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examined the influence of aggressive individuals on a team training protocol. Overall, the presence of an aggressive individual was detrimental to the knowledge acquisition and performance of both the aggressive individual and his or her teammate. Specifically, when compared to teams without an aggressive individual, teams including an aggressive individual demonstrated significantly lower levels of (1) taskwork schema congruence with one another, (2) taskwork schema congruence with subject matter experts, (3) team performance, and (4) individual performance. Moreover, although no significant differences emerged in teamwork schema congruence between teams with and without an aggressive individual, teamwork and taskwork schema congruence demonstrated a differential relationship between teams with and without an aggressive individual.