Summary: A new study finds that psychopaths do not automatically adopt the perspectives of others, but can deliberately do so when prompted.
Source: Yale University
Psychopathy is commonly associated with cold, callous behavior and a disregard for others’ welfare, which suggests a failure to understand other people’s perspectives. At the same time, many individuals with psychopathic traits are highly adept at charm and manipulation, which implies some capacity to infer what others think. A recent study from Yale helps resolve this apparent contradiction.
Researchers from Yale, led by professor Arielle Baskin-Sommers, examined how people with psychopathic traits process the thoughts and perspectives of others. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show a clear distinction between automatic and deliberate perspective-taking. Psychopathic individuals appear to lack the spontaneous, automatic tendency to represent another person’s viewpoint, but they retain the ability to adopt someone else’s perspective when they are explicitly instructed to do so.
Baskin-Sommers and colleagues Lindsey Drayton and Laurie Santos tested incarcerated individuals in maximum-security facilities with permission from the Connecticut Department of Correction. Participants completed a computerized task that required them to perform actions either from their own viewpoint or from the viewpoint of an on-screen avatar dressed as an inmate. The task is designed to measure two different processes: automatic theory of mind (the unintentional, spontaneous representation of others’ perspectives) and controlled theory of mind (the intentional effort to take another person’s perspective).
Most people experience interference from another person’s perspective even when they are instructed to use their own viewpoint—an effect that reflects automatic perspective-taking. In contrast, the study found that individuals scoring higher on measures of psychopathic traits did not show this automatic perspective-taking. They were less influenced by the avatar’s perspective unless they were specifically asked to consider it. In other words, their controlled perspective-taking remained intact, but the automatic, reflexive tendency to represent others’ thoughts was diminished.
The absence of automatic perspective-taking was not only a laboratory finding: the degree of this deficit correlated with real-world behavior. Inmates who showed the largest impairment in automatic perspective-taking were more likely to have assault convictions. This link suggests that a reduced propensity to spontaneously consider other people’s minds may contribute to the callous and aggressive behaviors commonly associated with psychopathy.
“Psychopaths can be extremely manipulative, which requires understanding another person’s thoughts,” Baskin-Sommers said. “But if they can understand thoughts when asked, why do they cause so much harm? Our results indicate that they may not automatically engage in thinking about others unless it serves a specific goal.”
The researchers emphasize that these findings refine our understanding of psychopathy by separating cognitive processes into automatic and controlled components. Previous studies typically measured theory of mind with tasks that require deliberate effort, which can obscure differences in spontaneous social-cognitive processing. By using a task sensitive to automatic perspective-taking, the study reveals a specific cognitive vulnerability that may underlie some antisocial behaviors.
Understanding this distinction opens possibilities for interventions. If individuals with psychopathic traits can deliberately adopt others’ perspectives, training or therapeutic strategies might aim to increase the likelihood that they do so spontaneously. The goal would be to develop practical approaches that help these individuals recognize and account for others’ states in day-to-day interactions, potentially reducing harm and improving social functioning.
Funding: This research was supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Reporting: Bill Hathaway, Yale University.
Publisher note: Organized and reported by NeuroscienceNews.com.
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Original research: Study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS); doi: 10.1073/pnas.1721903115. The original article describes how psychopathic individuals show diminished automatic theory of mind (altercentric interference) while retaining controlled theory of mind abilities, and reports that the magnitude of this automatic ToM deficit correlates with real-world measures of callous behavior such as assault charges.
The study demonstrates that psychopathic behavior may arise in part from a cognitive deficit: a reduced tendency to automatically adopt other people’s perspectives. Controlled theory of mind—when an individual intentionally considers another person’s thoughts—remains functional in psychopathic individuals. However, automatic theory of mind—when another’s perspective is represented unintentionally—is diminished. Using a sample of incarcerated offenders and tasks designed to tap both automatic and controlled processes, researchers found that psychopathic participants lacked a typical signature of automatic perspective-taking known as altercentric interference. Further, the size of this dysfunction was associated with higher numbers of assault charges, suggesting a link between diminished spontaneous perspective-taking and real-world callous behavior.
Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use with appropriate attribution to Yale University and the original research publication in PNAS.