Non-criminal psychopathy and the electrodermal response: gender differences in self-report and psychophysiological arousal

The use of different psychophysiological and construct measures to investigate emotional deficits associated with psychopathy have compromised comparisons across studies with criminal and non-criminal samples. The aim of this two-part study was to determine if non-criminal psychopathy was associated with reduced electrodermal arousal using measures comparable to those employed with criminal samples. Part 1 involved recruiting a non-criminal sample with a range of psychopathic traits. Part 2 was the test phase and involved recording participants’ skin conductance response (SCR) to affective pictures. Similar to findings with criminal psychopaths, higher scores on the Criminal Tendencies facet of psychopathy were associated with a smaller SCR when viewing pleasant pictures. Gender differences found in the relationship between psychopathy, SCR and affective picture ratings provide possible insights into gender differences in the manifestation of psychopathy.