Psychopaths can’t tell if a person is genuinely sad or afraid, study suggests
People with psychopathic traits find it harder to tell the difference between genuine and fake emotions, a
study has suggested.
Researchers based in Australia arrived at this conclusion by asking people to look at photographs of faces
showing different emotions, such as fear or sadness.
[5] Study author Dr. Amy Dawel, of the Australian National University Research School of Psychology,
explained in a statement: “For most people, if we see someone who is genuinely upset, you feel bad for
them and it motivates you to help them. People who are very high on the psychopathy spectrum don’t show
this response.”
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by amoral behavior, such as callousness, poor empathy
[10] skills and shallow affect: — the inability to experience deep emotions even when in scenarios where the
average person might be distressed. They might lack remorse or guilt in appropriate situations, and have a
disregard for social conventions and law. Balancing this is their superficial charm and ability to mimic
emotional behavior, which can help them function in society. Patrick Bateman, the murderous Wall Street
banker in American Psycho, is one of the most famous fictional depictions of psychopathy.
[15] The team behind the study published in the journal Personality Disorders recruited 140 participants, and
tested them for psychopathic traits. They were also shown photos of facial expressions. In some images, the
emotions where genuine, while others were faked.
Those who scored low on the psychopathy report were better able to pick up genuine and fabricated
emotions. The higher a participant scored, the harder they found it to differentiate between genuine and fake
[20] feelings of sadness or fear. They could, however, detect genuine happiness, anger, and disgust.
“The results were very specific to expressions of distress,” said Dawel. “We found people with high levels
of psychopathic traits don’t feel any worse for someone who is genuinely upset than someone who is faking
it.”
“They also seem to have problems telling if the upset is real or fake. As a result, they are not nearly as
[25] willing to help someone who is expressing genuine distress as most people are.”
The researchers hope their paper will form the basis of further work into pinpointing and treat psychopathy,
particularly by identifying it in childhood.
“There seems to be a genetic contribution to these traits, we see the start of them quite early in childhood,”
said Dawel.
[30] “Understanding exactly what is going wrong with emotions in psychopathy will help us to identify these
problems early and hopefully intervene in ways that promote moral development.”
The research is the latest to delve into psychopathic traits. Last year, Harvard University researchers
published the results of a study into almost 50 prisoners. They found the brains of those with psychopathic
traits were wired to value immediate reward, while not considering long-term consequences.
[35] Commenting on the paper published in Neuron, study author Josh Buckholtz, associate professor of
psychology at Harvard University, said in a statement: “For years, we have been focused on the idea that
psychopaths are people who cannot generate emotion and that’s why they do all these terrible things.
“But what we care about with psychopaths is not the feelings they have or don’t have, it’s the choices they
make. Psychopaths commit an astonishing amount of crime, and this crime is both devastating to victims
[40] and astronomically costly to society as a whole.”
Fonte: GANDER, Kashmira. Psychopaths can’t tell if a person is genuinely sad or afraid, study sugests. Disponível em: http://www.newsweek.com/psychopaths-cant-tell-if-person-genuinely-sad-or-afraid-study suggests-1055599. Publicado em: 8 março 2018. Acesso em: 14 out. 2018.
No trecho “They found the brains of those with psychopathic traits were wired to value immediate reward, while not considering long-term consequences.” (linhas 33-34), o pronome “they” substitui: