SSSP

Big thanks to everyone, participants and helpers who contributed to this study and to @mburghart.bsky.social for leading this paper!

We found that people how know each other better in cognitive empathy, but not those higher in psychopathic traits. However, higher psychopathy was related less affective sharing and less physiological synchrony.

Empathy, physiological synchrony, and psychopathy: preliminary insights from naturalistic dyadic interactions Empathy forms the basis of all human social interactions. Yet, most existing research neglects the social component of empathy and relies on questionnaires or artificial settings that fail to captu...

So excited to share that the first publication from our eMotion project is out: what does empathy look like in interaction with psychopathy? tinyurl.com/yp8ykphe

Psychophysiological Investigation of Psychopathy: From Robert Hare to Contemporary Research - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Psychophysiological reactivity has been a critical emphasis in the quest to understand the underlying mechanisms of psychopathy. The...

A great opportunity to reflect with colleagues on psychophysiological correlates of PCL-R assessed psychopathy in this new review paper in a special issue honoring Bob Hare: tinyurl.com/4bn2duw4

Don’t forget to register for the SSSP 2026 conference! Registration is open with an early bird discount until 1st April 2026: tinyurl.com/4rkpz3p2

We are happy to announce that the program for the 2026 SSSP Biennial Meeting held in Dallas, TX is now available at the following link: tinyurl.com/4rkpz3p2

So excited: our paper on "Empathy, physiological synchrony, and psychopathy: Preliminary insights from naturalistic dyadic interactions" just got accepted for publication at Cognition & Emotion - great work by Matthias Burghart and Roydon Goldsack based on our eMotion study - stay tuned

Resting-state network connectivity correlates of psychopathic traits in a japanese community sample: sex matters

Higher psychopathy in a community sample found to be related with lower brain connectivity during resting state, only in male bit not female participants: tinyurl.com/3sk3yrfj

Frontiers | Psychopathy is a neglected public health problem Although psychopathy has been widely studied within criminal justice contexts, its impact on society is rarely considered in public health contexts. Even so,...

Psychopathy as a neglected Public Health concern: new opinion piece by Dave Kosson and colleagues: tinyurl.com/5f42mwjk

Frontiers | The association between interoception and psychopathic traits IntroductionPsychopathic traits are characterized by pervasive emotional deficits, including diminished empathy and remorse, heightened impulsivity, and anti...

Interception - here operationalized with the overlap between self-reported arousal feelings with Skin conductance response was found higher in those higher in self-centered impulsivity traits of psychopathy, but lower in those with coldheartedness traits of psychopathy: tinyurl.com/mr3upt9a

Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3) Antagonism (ANT) scale as a proxy measure for Psychopathy - validity tests reported here: tinyurl.com/dswbnywe

Is the Psychopathic Heart Beating for Fear? A Psychophysiological Investigation of Fear Experience in Psychopathy The Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis posits that individuals with elevated psychopathy traits experience fear-inducing stimuli less negatively and more posit…

More evidence for the fear enjoyment hypothesis of psychopathy: people higher in primary / Factor 1 - psychopathy seem to experience fear-evoking contexts more joyful than those lower on these traits: tinyurl.com/bdfbeda6

Predicting the Thrill: How Individual and Environmental Factors Shape Thrilling Perceptions of Violent and Non-violent Crime - Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology This study longitudinally investigates how individual and environmental factors predict thrilling perceptions of criminal behavior using a sample of 1009 justice-involved youth (ages 15–21) who were f...

Is it the thrill of offending? Thrilling perceptions of violent and non-violent crime found associated with youth offending and their impulsive-irresponsible traits. And: The thrill from peer delinquency seems to weaken with age: tinyurl.com/bdz4nwc2

<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library Background Callous–unemotional (CU) traits identify youth with more severe and chronic trajectories of conduct problems. However, the etiology of CU traits may be heterogeneous, undermining the sear...

Evidence for different factors shaping callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children's development: children with CU traits and with higher anxiety seem more influenced by non-shared environmental factors (e.g. adversity) and less by genetics: tinyurl.com/msvm2dem

Socioaffective Dynamics of Psychopathy in Daily Life - Colin E. Vize, Lori N. Scott, Thomas W. Kamarck, Aidan G. C. Wright, 2025 Affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy are considered hallmarks of the disorder. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which is well suited for ex...

How do people's momentary emotions interact with their psychopathic traits? Only one replicated effect across two samples: Higher self-centered impulsivity facet of psychopathy associated with higher hostile affect: tinyurl.com/ye2xnxev

Low Parental Empathy Predicts Callous‐Unemotional Traits in Children With Enhanced Autonomic Sensitivity to the Environment Introduction Recent evidence suggests that autonomic nervous system functioning can reflect individual differences in sensitivity to the environment, which in turn moderates the effects of family co...

Increases in callous-unemotional traits in children with heightened sensitivity to the environment found to partially explained by lower parental empathy: tinyurl.com/3nn8kaz8

Causal Effect of Psychopathy on Partner Well‐Being: A National Longitudinal Study Objective Psychopathy is associated with harmful behaviors in romantic relationships, but its causal effect on partner well-being remains elusive. Across two studies, we apply robust observational m...

New paper out from our lab by our lab member Aaron Hissey, showing with causal inference modelling that the combination of psychopathic traits has negative impact on their romantic partners over time: tinyurl.com/562zepp5

Still a few days to get your abstract ready for submission for the SSSP 2026 conference!

The Abstract submission date has been extended to 15 December 2025. We look forward to more of your best work being submitted for our SSSP 2026 conference. @ssspstudents.bsky.social
psychopathysociety.org/page/Upcomin...

Assessing the Relationship Among Childhood Maltreatment, Personality Dysfunction, and Externalizing Behavior | Journal of Personality Disorders Research has sought to understand the relationship among childhood maltreatment, maladaptive personality, and antisocial behaviors. However, most of the literature overlooks possible gender differences by using primarily male samples. The current study examined these relationships, focusing on the mediating role of personality dysfunction, in samples of women who are incarcerated (N = 200) and undergraduate students (N = 187). Correlations revealed moderate to strong associations among childhood trauma, personality psychopathology, and antisocial behavior (rs = .31-.66). The findings demonstrated a mediation pathway from childhood trauma to BPD (β = .37) and ASPD/psychopathy (βs = .25-.34) to antisocial behavior (βs = .35-.67). This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the associations among childhood trauma, personality psychopathology, and antisocial behavior. Additionally, it expands existing research by presenting a mediation model, demonstrating the role of personality dysfunction in mediating the relationship between childhood maltreatment and antisocial behavior in women.

Associations between early life trauma and antisocial behaviour found to be mediated by antisocial and psychopathic personality traits in women who offended and from an UG population: tinyurl.com/kww83xf7

Identifying latent profiles of psychopathy in general and higher psychopathic groups of people who offended: some overlaps but also some differences: tinyurl.com/6dn7bnpj

Neuroendocrine profiles in relation to female callous-unemotional traits and distress facilitation Emerging evidence supports that primary and secondary callous-unemotional (CU) variants show distinct physiological correlates, though prior research …

Neuroendocrine profiles of undergraduate women show a hypoactive and a hyperactive profile for those high on Callous-Unemotional variant, maybe related to different types of stress dysregulation: tinyurl.com/bc29x6ty

Childhood physical neglect found to be strongest related to psychopathic traits in adulthood in a community sample while other types of abuse or neglect's associations differed base on gender: tinyurl.com/yf2bup68

High resting heart rate reduces risk of white-collar criminality Low resting heart rate (RHR) is considered the best-replicated biological correlate for antisocial and conventional criminal behaviors, but there is l…

In a large Swedish population base study, high resting heart rate found related to lower (!) risk of white collar crime (not low resting heart rate): tinyurl.com/5n728d8h

The Abstract submission date has been extended to 15 December 2025. We look forward to more of your best work being submitted for our SSSP 2026 conference. @ssspstudents.bsky.social
psychopathysociety.org/page/Upcomin...

Callous-Unemotionality in a Sample of Justice-Involved Adolescents: Distinct Associations With Attachment Avoidance and Attachment Anxiety - Child Psychiatry & Human Development Attachment insecurity is associated with callous-unemotionality (CU), but few studies have considered whether specific dimensions of insecurity are differentially associated with CU. The first aim of ...

Callous-unemotional traits positively correlated with attachment avoidance and negatively with attachment anxiety in justice involved youth, but emotion regulation or trauma exposure do not explain that association: tinyurl.com/y6a7yv8e

Psychopathy and Self‐Construal: Trait‐Specific Associations With Independent and Interdependent Self‐Construal Three direct replication studies were conducted to investigate the association between psychopathy and self-construal. Participants were undergraduate college students who completed two comprehensive....

Higher emotional callousness found to be correlated with lower self-concept as depending on others as an individual, but not as a member of a group; boldness associated with an independent self perception: tinyurl.com/8dvfbrd5

Brain Responses During Face Processing in Conduct Disorder: Considering Sex and Callous-Unemotional Traits Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of conduct disorder (CD) have mostly been limited to males. Here, we examined whether male and female youths with CD showed similar or distinct alteration...

Differential amygdala reactivity in response to emotional facial expressions for female versus male youth with conduct problems with/without callous-unemotional traits pointing to distinct pathways: tinyurl.com/2e3x3t87

Just a few more weeks until the submission date for the SSSP conference in Dallas: submit your best work by December 1st.

Extensive examination of self and other-reported narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian traits: higher correlation between self and other reports than expected but structural variance: tinyurl.com/4ce42nfy