Deficient aversive-potentiated startle and the triarchic model of psychopathy: The role of boldness

Esteller, Àngels; Poy, Rosario; Moltó, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2016.03.012

Cited by 48 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…While Boldness was related to both aspects of fear enjoyment (e.g., lessened negative response to fear-inducing stimuli and heightened positive response), Meanness was related only to a lessened negative response and Disinhibition was not predicted by either type of response. This fits with both theory (e.g., Patrick et al, 2009) on fearlessness as a core feature of Boldness, and physiological research, including a recent study finding that Boldness (but not Meanness) was related to deficient startle response to threat (in a picture-viewing task) in an undergraduate sample (Esteller, Poy, & Moltó, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

In the eye of the beholder: Psychopathy and fear enjoyment

Book

Stark

MacEachern

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality

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Objective: We investigated the relations between psychopathic traits and fear enjoyment. Method: In Study 1, 140 undergraduate participants (62 men, 78 women) watched the footage of video game play meant to induce either excitement or fear, rating each on positive/negative adjectives. In Study 2, 150 undergraduate participants (94 women, 56 men) rated valence (positive/negative) of 20 sets of morphed surprise/ fear photos. Results: In Study 1, participants with higher levels of psychopathy rated the fear video as less negative and more positive. In Study 2, valence ratings became more negative as fear information increased (fear-laden faces were rated more negatively than surprise-laden faces). As well, there were significant interactions between psychopathy and morph level in predicting valence with psychopathic traits being associated with giving higher positivity ratings to fear-laden faces. Conclusions: The results of these two studies suggest that people with psychopathic traits have a more positive interpretation of the experience of fear, which could extend to evaluations of others' experiences of fear.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

In the eye of the beholder: Psychopathy and fear enjoyment

Book

Stark

MacEachern

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality

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“…Boldness entails social dominance, venturesomeness, and an emotional resilience to stressors, and is thought to reflect individual differences in sensitivity or responsiveness of the neural defensive system (i.e., amygdala and related limbic structures). Consistent with this conceptualization, boldness has been shown to relate in various studies to deficient fear-potentiated startle under conditions of aversive cuing (e.g., Benning, Patrick, & Iacono, 2005;Dvorak-Bertsch et al, 2009;Esteller, Poy, & Moltó, 2016;Vaidyanathan, Patrick, & Bernat, 2009). Meanness is described as involving a callous disregard for others, aggressive resource seeking, and an inability to form close personal attachments.…”

Section: Triarchic Trait Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Modeling Relations Between Triarchic Biobehavioral Traits and DSM Internalizing Disorder Dimensions

et al. 2019

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The biobehavioral traits of the triarchic model of psychopathy have well-known correlates with externalizing psychopathology. Although evidence also suggests associations with internalizing disorders, research has yet to formally model relationships between dimensions of internalizing psychopathology and triarchic traits. Employing a sample of 218 adults (50.2% female), the current study used confirmatory factor analysis to characterize how triarchic trait dimensions—delineated using different scale operationalizations—relate to internalizing when modeled as a single broad factor, and as distinct fear and distress subfactors. Findings demonstrated (a) robust opposing relations for triarchic boldness (+) and disinhibition (−), and an interactive association for the two, with general internalizing, along with a modest negative relationship for meanness; and (b) distinct associations for the three triarchic trait dimensions with fear and distress subfactors of internalizing. This work clarifies how facets of psychopathy relate to the internalizing psychopathology spectrum and provides a means for interfacing this spectrum with biological variables.

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“…The disorder is characterised by interpersonal (e.g., callousness, manipulative, grandiose), emotional (e.g., lack of remorse and empathy, blunted emotional experience) and behavioural traits (e.g., impulsivity, irresponsibility). Psychopathy has been associated with abnormal emotional processing; research has identified that psychopathic individuals show reduced recognition of affective faces [1–5], attenuated emotional modulation of behavioural responses [6–9], deficient physiological anticipatory anxiety [10, 11], autonomic hypo-responsivity to emotion [11–15], abnormal emotional modulation of the startle response [13, 16–22], as well as abnormal brain responses to emotion [23–34]. Furthermore, these deficits exist across both negative and positive affect, although greater emotional abnormalities may occur in response to aversive cues [35, 36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…offender or forensic psychiatric populations). Psychopathic traits in community samples have been associated with an attenuated fear-potentiated startle reflex [22, 45, 46], deficient fear conditioning [12, 47], reduced anticipatory autonomic responses [48], and reduced amygdala response to affective stimulus [15, 49–51]. Furthermore, the majority of this research has linked this hypo-responsivity to the interpersonal/affective components of psychopathy rather than the lifestyles/antisocial features [22, 45, 47–49, 52, 53], which parallels work in offender samples [13, 14, 16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

As Far as the Eye Can See: Relationship between Psychopathic Traits and Pupil Response to Affective Stimuli

2017

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Psychopathic individuals show a range of affective processing deficits, typically associated with the interpersonal/affective component of psychopathy. However, previous research has been inconsistent as to whether psychopathy, within both offender and community populations, is associated with deficient autonomic responses to the simple presentation of affective stimuli. Changes in pupil diameter occur in response to emotionally arousing stimuli and can be used as an objective indicator of physiological reactivity to emotion. This study used pupillometry to explore whether psychopathic traits within a community sample were associated with hypo-responsivity to the affective content of stimuli. Pupil activity was recorded for 102 adult (52 female) community participants in response to affective (both negative and positive affect) and affectively neutral stimuli, that included images of scenes, static facial expressions, dynamic facial expressions and sound-clips. Psychopathic traits were measured using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. Pupil diameter was larger in response to negative stimuli, but comparable pupil size was demonstrated across pleasant and neutral stimuli. A linear relationship between subjective arousal and pupil diameter was found in response to sound-clips, but was not evident in response to scenes. Contrary to predictions, psychopathy was unrelated to emotional modulation of pupil diameter across all stimuli. The findings were the same when participant gender was considered. This suggests that psychopathy within a community sample is not associated with autonomic hypo-responsivity to affective stimuli, and this effect is discussed in relation to later defensive/appetitive mobilisation deficits.

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Deficient aversive-potentiated startle and the triarchic model of psychopathy: The role of boldness

Cited by 48 publications

References 74 publications

In the eye of the beholder: Psychopathy and fear enjoyment

In the eye of the beholder: Psychopathy and fear enjoyment

Modeling Relations Between Triarchic Biobehavioral Traits and DSM Internalizing Disorder Dimensions

As Far as the Eye Can See: Relationship between Psychopathic Traits and Pupil Response to Affective Stimuli

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