With or Without Empathy: Primary Psychopathy and Difficulty in Identifying Feelings Predict Utilitarian Judgment in Sacrificial Dilemmas

Understanding empathy deficits and emotion dysregulation in psychopathy: The mediating role of alexithymia

Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder marked by a wide range of emotional deficits, including a lack of empathy, emotion dysregulation, and alexithymia. Previous research has largely examined these emotional impairments in isolation, ignoring their influence on each other. Thus, we examined the concurrent interrelationship between emotional impairments in psychopathy, with a particular focus on the mediating role of alexithymia. Using path analyses with cross-sectional data from a community sample (N = 315) and a forensic sample (N = 50), our results yielded a statistically significant mediating effect of alexithymia on the relationship between psychopathy and empathy (community and forensic) and between psychopathy and emotion dysregulation (community). Moreover, replacing psychopathy with its three dimensions (i.e., meanness, disinhibition, and boldness) in the community sample revealed that boldness may function as an adaptive trait, with lower levels of alexithymia counteracting deficits in empathy and emotion dysregulation. Overall, our findings indicate that psychopathic individuals' limited understanding of their own emotions contributes to their lack of empathy and emotion dysregulation. This underscores the potential benefits of improving emotional awareness in the treatment of individuals with psychopathy.

Beyond Trolleyology: The CNI Model of Moral-Dilemma Responses

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

How do people make judgments about actions that violate moral norms yet maximize the greater good (e.g., sacrificing the well-being of a small number of people for the well-being of a larger number of people)? Research on this question has been criticized for relying on highly artificial scenarios and for conflating multiple distinct factors underlying responses in moral dilemmas. The current article reviews research that used a computational modeling approach to disentangle the roles of multiple distinct factors in responses to plausible moral dilemmas based on real-world events. By disentangling sensitivity to consequences, sensitivity to moral norms, and general preference for inaction versus action in responses to realistic dilemmas, the reviewed work provides a more nuanced understanding of how people make judgments about the right course of action in moral dilemmas.

The role of empathy in trolley problems and variants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The role of empathy in morality is a subject of ongoing scientific debate due to the lack of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on this topic. To address this gap, we conducted a PRISMA-based systematic quantitative review to investigate the role of empathy in moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations using trolley problems and variants, which are popular types of moral dilemmas that explore utilitarianism and deontology. We searched for articles in four databases (PsycINFO, Pubmed, WorldWideScience, and Scopus) and performed citation searches. Out of 661 records, we selected 34 that studied the associations between empathy and moral judgements, moral decision-making, and/or moral inclinations. Six meta-analyses and systematic reviews of these records consistently showed small to moderate associations between affective empathy and these moral parameters, particularly in personal moral dilemmas involving intentional harm (although some approaches highlighted more complex associations between these parameters). Regarding other empathy domains, most studies found limited or insignificant links between cognitive empathy domains and moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations. We discuss the nuances and implications of these results.

Effects of Alexithymia on Moral Decision-Making in Sacrificial Dilemmas: High Alexithymia is Associated with Weaker Sensitivity to Moral Norms

Purpose

Although several studies have investigated the association between alexithymia and moral decision-making in sacrificial dilemmas, the evidence remains mixed. The current work investigated this association and how alexithymia affects moral choice in such dilemmas.

Methods

The current research used a multinomial model (ie, CNI model) to disentangle (a) sensitivity to consequences, (b) sensitivity to moral norms, and (c) general preference for inaction versus action irrespective of consequences and norms in responses to moral dilemmas.

Results

Higher levels of alexithymia were associated with a greater preference for utilitarian judgments in sacrificial dilemmas (Study 1). Furthermore, individuals with high alexithymia showed significantly weaker sensitivity to moral norms than did those with low alexithymia, whereas there were no significant differences in sensitivity to consequences or a general preference for inaction versus action (Study 2).

Conclusion

The findings suggest that alexithymia affects moral choice in sacrificial dilemmas by blunting emotional reactions to causing harm, rather than through increased deliberative cost-benefit reasoning or general preference for inaction.

COVID-19 prevention behaviour is differentially motivated by primary psychopathy, grandiose narcissism and vulnerable Dark Triad traits

Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism) are associated with nonadherence to COVID-19 prevention measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks, although the psychological mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. In contrast, high threat-sensitivity may motivate compliance, and maybe seen in relation to vulnerable dark traits (secondary psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism and borderline personality disorder). The relationship between vulnerable dark traits and COVID-19 prevention behaviour has not been examined. During April 2021, participants (n = 263) completed an online psychometric study assessing engagement with COVID-19 prevention behaviour, traditional DT traits (primary psychopathy; grandiose narcissism) and vulnerable DT traits. Potential indirect effects were fear of COVID-19, perceived coronavirus severity, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and altruism. Model of path analysis identified predictors of engagement in disease prevention behaviour. Primary psychopathy, grandiose narcissism, secondary psychopathy and BPD were associated with less COVID-19 prevention behaviour, with an indirect effect of reduced coronavirus severity. Grandiose narcissism and BPD were also motivated by COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and increased prevention behaviour when fear of COVID-19 was higher. No direct or indirect effects were observed for vulnerable narcissism. The current study is the first to elucidate psychological mechanisms linking vulnerable dark traits with COVID-19 prevention behaviour.

Effects of Primary and Secondary Psychopathy on Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies: The Mediator Role of Alexithymia

(1) Background: The purpose of this study is to provide more nuanced insights into the effects of sub-dimensional levels of psychopathy on moral dilemma judgments. To this end, this study examined the effects of primary and secondary psychopathy on utilitarian and deontological response tendencies. Moreover, this study also explored the mediating role of alexithymia as well as the moderating role of gender in these effects. (2) Methods: A total of 1227 participants were recruited through the online questionnaire service wjx.cn. After deleting unfinished questionnaires, the remaining 1170 participants were included in the final data analysis. Each participant completed a demographic information questionnaire, the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, and six pairs of moral dilemmas. Descriptive and correlational analyses of study variables were conducted in SPSS 22.0. Mediation and gender difference analyses were conducted in AMOS 23.0. (3) Results: Primary psychopathy was negatively correlated with deontological response tendencies and uncorrelated with utilitarian response tendencies. By contrast, secondary psychopathy also correlated negatively with deontological response tendencies, but it correlated positively with utilitarian response tendencies. Mediation analysis revealed that alexithymia only mediated the relationship between secondary psychopathy and deontological response tendencies. Multi-group analysis revealed that there was no difference between females and males in the indirect effect model. (4) Conclusions: People with high primary psychopathy are less likely to reject harm in moral dilemmas. By contrast, people with high secondary psychopathy have high alexithymia, which causes them to be less concerned about avoiding harm, and they are more likely to maximize outcomes in moral dilemmas. These findings shed new light on the moral dilemma judgments of individuals with primary and secondary psychopathy.

Individual and situational influences on the propensity for unethical behavior in responses to organizational scenarios

This article reports two studies evaluating the impact of moral intensity, work experience, and gender on the propensity (attitude, behavioral intention, and subjective norm) for unethical behavior of Venezuelan students and employees responding to different organizational scenarios, and controlling the effects of moral disengagement and empathy. One study singled out moral disengagement as a covariate, and the other did the same with empathy. In both studies, moral intensity, work experience, and gender acted as independent variables. Each study consisted of around 400 participants (totaling 801 participants in both studies): one-half were students without work experience and the other half were employees. For manipulating moral intensity, we used six scenarios describing ethically questionable situations. After reading each of the scenarios, participants answered the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to measure propensity for unethical behavior. After completing this phase, participants responded to the moral disengagement scale in Study 1 and the empathy scale in Study 2. This research did not find concluding, significant effects of moral intensity on the measures of the propensity for unethical behavior. Employees expressed higher intentions of acting unethically than students, though the effect was small (ε2 Study 1 = .016. ε2 Study 2 = .026). Gender had no significant effect on attitude and subjective norm; but, in behavioral intention, men's scores were significantly higher than women's in Study 1, but not in Study 2. Moral disengagement had a stronger effect than empathy on the propensity for unethical behavior (ε2 moral disengagement: attitude = .225, behavioral intention = .179, subjective norm = .159. ε2 empathy: attitude = .016, behavioral intention = .011, subjective norm = .010). The authors highlight the relevance of contrasting findings from less-developed countries with those from developed countries, commonly found in the literature, and suggest avenues for further research.

Altered effective connectivity from the posterior insula to the amygdala mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and endorsement of the Harm foundation

Psychopathic traits have been demonstrated to be associated with different moral foundations. However, the neuropsychological mechanism underlying the relationship between psychopathic traits and moral foundations remains obscure. Our study examined the effective connectivity (EC) of psychopathy-related brain regions and its association with endorsement to moral foundations (Harm, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity)-combining questionnaire measures, resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI), and Granger causality analysis. We administered the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and Moral Foundation Questionnaire to 78 college students after RS-fMRI scanning. Our results showed that total and primary psychopathy negatively predicted endorsement of the Harm foundation. The EC from the posterior insula to the amygdala was negatively associated with primary psychopathy but positively associated with endorsement of the Harm foundation. Altered posterior insula-amygdala EC partially mediated the relationship between primary psychopathy and endorsement of the Harm foundation. Our findings demonstrated that individuals with elevated psychopathic traits may have atypical processes in recognizing and integrating bodily state information into emotional responses -leading to less concern for harm-related morality. Our findings deepen the understanding of the neuropsychological mechanism underlying the relationship between psychopathic traits and morality, providing potential neurobiological explanations for increased moral transgressions, especially those harm-related transgressions, committed by psychopathic individuals.

Understanding Emotion Regulation and Humor Styles in Individuals with Callous-Unemotional Traits and Alexithymic Traits

Alexithymia is a personality trait which is characterized by impairments in identifying and describing emotions. Both psychopathic and alexithymic personality traits have been associated with impairments in emotion processing. This study aims to clarify the conceptual overlap between psychopathic traits (focusing on callous-unemotional traits) and alexithymic traits, with emotion regulation strategies and humor styles using a community sample. A battery of self-report measures was distributed through an online platform to 538 male and female participants between the ages of 18 to 65. Hierarchal linear regression analyses demonstrated that emotion regulation strategies were the strongest predictors and accounted for the largest variance of callous-unemotional traits and alexithymic traits. More specifically, expressive suppression arose as a positive predictor while cognitive reappraisal arose as a negative predictor for both personality traits. Aggressive humor (maladaptive) arose as a positive predictor while self-defeating humor (maladaptive) and affiliative humor (adaptive) arose as negative predictors for callous-unemotional traits. In contrast, self-defeating humor arose as a positive predictor for alexithymic traits while affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor arose as negative predictors. Findings indicate that there are similarities and differences between these personality traits. The implications regarding tailoring interventions that target specific deficits associated with each personality trait are discussed.

Individual and Environmental Correlates of Adolescents' Moral Decision-Making in Moral Dilemmas

While extensive research has been conducted on adults' judgments in moral sacrificial dilemmas, there is little research on adolescents. The present study aimed at: (1) adding further empirical evidence about adolescents' moral decisions (deontological vs. utilitarian) in sacrificial moral dilemmas and (2) investigating how these moral decisions relate with gender, school grade, emotional traits (callous-unemotional traits), context-related experiences (perceived parental rejection and community violence exposure), and moral-related factors (moral disengagement and universalism value). A sample of 755 Italian adolescents (54.7% females; Mean age=16.45, SD=1.61) attending the second and the fifth year of secondary school took part in the study. Two sacrificial trolley-type dilemmas (where harmful actions promote the greater good) were presented. In the "switch" scenario (impersonal sacrificial dilemma), the choice is whether to hit a switch to save five people killing only one person. In the "footbridge" scenario (personal sacrificial dilemma), the choice is whether to push a large man off a footbridge saving five persons. For each scenario, participants had to indicate whether the proposed action was "morally acceptable" or not. Data were analyzed performing generalized linear mixed models. Our results showed that: (1) Adolescents were more likely to indicate as admissible to hit the switch rather than to push the large man; (2) male adolescents, compared to females, were more likely to say it was morally acceptable to intervene in the footbridge dilemma, whereas younger adolescents said it was morally acceptable both in the switch and the footbridge situations; and (3) higher levels of callous-unemotional traits, perceived parental rejection, and moral disengagement, on the one hand, and lower levels of universalism, on the other hand, were associated to higher admissibility to intervene in the footbridge scenario. Higher community violence exposure was associated with a lower propensity to intervene in the switch scenario. Overall, the present study expands the research on sacrificial dilemmas involving a sample of adolescents. The findings support previous studies concerning the role of emotions in making moral decisions but, at the same, open new perspectives regarding the role of contextual experiences and moral-related factors.

Rational, emotional, or both? Subcomponents of psychopathy predict opposing moral decisions

Recent research has documented a small but significant correlation between psychopathic capacities and utilitarian moral judgment, although the findings are generally inconsistent and unclear. We propose that one way to make sense of mixed findings is to consider variation in perspective-taking capacities of psychopathic individuals. With this in mind, we had criminal offenders (n = 60), who varied in their psychopathy levels according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), respond to common sacrificial moral dilemmas (e.g., trolley dilemmas) under different conditions. In a baseline condition, participants simply responded to the sacrificial moral dilemmas as is typically done in previous research. In an "emotion-salient" condition, participants had to reason about the emotions of another person after solving moral dilemmas (deliberative processing). In the "emotion-ambiguous" condition, participants saw images of people in distress, after solving moral dilemmas, but did not have to explicitly reason about such emotions (spontaneous processing). The four PCL-R facets predicted distinct interference effects depending on spontaneous versus deliberative processing of hypothetical victim's emotions. The findings suggest that the use of a multi-faceted approach to account for cognitive and moral correlates of psychopathy may help address previously mixed results. Implications and future directions for theory and research are discussed.

Dark Triad Traits and Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

Those high on Dark Triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, primary and secondary psychopathy) are more likely to engage in sexual harassment and less likely to empathize with others. Few studies have, however, considered the impact of Dark Triad traits on perceptions of sexually aggressive behavior performed by others. The present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad traits and perceptions of sexual harassment. Heterosexual women (N = 142) aged 18 to 50 years (M = 20.86, SD = 5.62) completed the NPI-16 (Narcissistic Personality Inventory), Mach IV, Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, and Sexual Harassment Attitudes Questionnaire. Standard multiple regressions were conducted to investigate the extent to which Dark Triad traits predicted victim and perpetrator blame and attitudes toward victim responses to sexual harassment. Primary psychopathy was the only significant individual predictor such that women with higher levels of the trait were more likely to blame the victim and less likely to blame the perpetrator. In addition, primary psychopathy was related to higher endorsement of victim compliance, and lower likelihood of supporting confrontation of the perpetrator.

Correlates of Social Cognition and Psychopathic Traits in a Community-Based Sample of Males

Social cognition is the ability to identify, understand, and interpret mental states and emotions. Psychopathic traits are typically described in two ways; Primary: shallow affect, emotional detachment, and relationship difficulties, and Secondary Psychopathic Traits: antisocial traits, impulsiveness, and emotional dysregulation. People with high psychopathic traits tend to perform lower on measures of social cognition. This study investigated the relationship of social cognition (mentalising) to primary and secondary psychopathic traits in a non-clinical sample, and investigated the psychometric properties of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Short Forms (A and B). A community-based male sample (N = 1,000; age range 18-78) was recruited through an online platform. Psychopathic traits were measured using Levenson, Kiehl, and Fitzpatrick's Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, and stratified into Primary and Secondary Psychopathic traits. Secondary validation of the RMET Short Forms was completed investigating scale reliability, and validity. Findings suggest excellent psychometrics in a large community cohort for the RMET Short Forms (A and B), with significant negative correlations on social cognitive performance and high self-report psychopathy. The item valence within the social cognitive measure (positive, negative, and neutral affect stimuli) was also examined, and correlated significantly with both Primary and Secondary Psychopathic traits. This study provides further validation of the RMET Short Forms (A and B), and adds to the literature on the scale by investigating performance on short-form specific valence. This study further suggests that in a non-clinical community sample of males, that higher psychopathic traits correlated significantly, and negatively, with social cognitive performance.

Why People With High Alexithymia Make More Utilitarian Judgments

Although recent studies have investigated the effect of alexithymia on moral judgments, such an effect remains elusive. Furthermore, moral judgments have been conflated with the moral inclinations underlying those judgments in previous studies. Using a process dissociation approach to independently quantify the strength of utilitarian and deontological inclinations, the present study investigated the effect of alexithymia on moral judgments. We found that deontological inclinations were significantly lower in the high alexithymia group than in the low alexithymia group, whereas the difference in the utilitarian inclinations between the two groups was nonsignificant. Furthermore, empathic concern and deontological inclinations mediated the association between alexithymia and conventional relative judgments (i.e., more utilitarian judgments over deontological judgments), showing that people with high alexithymia have low empathic concern, which, in turn, decreases deontological inclinations and contributes to conventional relative judgments. These findings underscore the importance of empathy and deontological inclinations in moral judgments and indicate that individuals with high alexithymia make more utilitarian judgments over deontological judgments possibly due to a deficit in affective processing.