Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain: Effects of Perspective and Stimulus Type

Daly, NL, Jones, AJ ORCID: 0000-0001-5951-889X, Rotshtein, P and Gillespie, SM (2026) Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain: Effects of Perspective and Stimulus Type. Journal of Personality Disorders, 40 (2). pp. 93-112. ISSN 0885-579X

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Abstract

Psychopathic tendencies are associated with deficits in empathic responses that may underpin psychopathic individuals' characteristic propensity for aggressive and antisocial behavior. Evidence suggests that distinct facets of psychopathy may be differentially associated with empathic responses to pain. We analyzed the association between psychopathy facets and self-reported ratings of the intensity of the pain in (a) the image, (b) the individual's own arousal, and (c) the valence of the image for stimuli depicting painful versus neutral facial expressions and hands in painful versus neutral situations. Overall, our findings highlighted that the three psychopathic traits are dissociated in the way they affect empathy to painful stimuli. Meanness was generally associated with reduced differentiation between ratings for painful and nonpainful stimuli, whereas boldness was associated with increased differentiation. Our findings also highlight the need for careful methodological considerations of the type of stimulus used in empathy research.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain: Effects of Perspective and Stimulus Type:Natasha L. Daly, Andrew J. Jones, Pia Rotshtein and Steven M. Gillespie. 2026. Copyright Guilford Press. Reprinted with permission of The Guilford Press.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans; Pain; Facial Expression; Empathy; Arousal; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Adolescent; Adult; Female; Male; Young Adult; empathy for pain; psychopathic traits; self-reported empathy; triarchic psychopathy; Humans; Empathy; Male; Adult; Female; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Young Adult; Pain; Facial Expression; Adolescent; Arousal; 52 Psychology; 5205 Social and Personality Psychology; 5201 Applied and Developmental Psychology; Mental Health; Pain Research; Behavioral and Social Science; Chronic Pain; Clinical Research; Humans; Empathy; Male; Adult; Female; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Young Adult; Pain; Facial Expression; Adolescent; Arousal; 1701 Psychology; Psychiatry; 5201 Applied and developmental psychology; 5203 Clinical and health psychology; 5205 Social and personality psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Guilford Publications
Date Deposited:	22 May 2026 12:17
Last Modified:	22 May 2026 12:17
DOI or ID number:	10.1521/pedi.2026.40.2.93
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28555

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