Revista Médica del Hospital General de México (Jan 2015)

Cognitive and affective empathy: The role in violent behavior and psychopathy

  • K.X. Díaz-Galván,
  • F. Ostrosky-Shejet,
  • C. Romero-Rebollar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hgmx.2015.03.006
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 78, no. 1
pp. 27 – 35

Abstract

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Antecedents: Several studies have suggested empathy impairment in psychopathy. It has been highly associated to violent and criminal behavior. Empathy is not a univariate concept; however, studies about the role of empathy components in this population are inconclusive and they are mostly made in forensic samples. Objective: To explore the relationships of psychopathy with the empathy dimensions and to probe if there is a continuum considering general population and forensic groups. Material and methods: Eighty adult males were recruited and divided into three groups: control group (healthy man from general population; n = 21), violent group 1 (violent men from general population; n = 24) and violent group 2 (criminal offenders; n = 35), who were case files of inmates in high security prisons in Mexico. All subjects were assessed with an aggression questionnaire (RPQ), a Psychopathy checklist (PCL-R; SV) and an empathy scale (IRI). One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were carried out to compare age, education years, empathy factors and psychopathy scores between groups; we also conducted regression analyses to probe the effect of psychopathy on each empathy subscale. Results: We found psychopathy differences between groups where violent group 2 obtained the highest scores, followed by the violent group 1 and the controls with the lowest scores. The perspective taking subscale showed differences between the control group and the two violent groups; the violent groups did not differ. Additionally, there were significant differences in the personal distress subscale between the three groups where violent group 2 had the highest scores. Moreover, we found a positive association between personal distress sand psychopathy; meanwhile, perspective taking scores were negatively associated with psychopathy. Conclusions: Psychopathy and violent behavior are known for a lack of empathy; however, the empathy dimensions provide a better understanding of the mechanism underlying this non-prosocial behavior.

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