General trust impedes perception of self-reported primary psychopathy in thin slices of social interaction

Abstract

Little is known about people’s ability to detect subclinical psychopathy from others’ quotidian social behavior, or about the correlates of variation in this ability. This study sought to address these questions using a thin slice personality judgment paradigm. We presented 108 undergraduate judges (70.4% female) with 1.5 minute video thin slices of zero-acquaintance triadic conversations among other undergraduates (targets: n = 105, 57.1% female). Judges completed self-report measures of general trust, caution, and empathy. Target individuals had completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale. Judges viewed the videos in one of three conditions: complete audio, silent, or audio from which semantic content had been removed using low-pass filtering. Using a novel other-rating version of the LSRP, judges’ ratings of targets’ primary psychopathy levels were significantly positively associated with targets’ self-reports, but only in the complete audio condition. Judge general trust and target LSRP interacted, such that judges higher in general trust made less accurate judgments with respect to targets higher in primary and total psychopathy. Results are consistent with a scenario in which psychopathic traits are maintained in human populations by negative frequency dependent selection operating through the costs of detecting psychopathy in others.

Who sees the most? Differences in students’ and educational research experts’ first impressions of classroom instruction

“…Similarly, Carney et al (2007) found significant correlations between thin slices ratings of negative affect, extraversion, conscientiousness, and intelligence that were based on 5-s observations as well as targets' self-reports and test scores. Moreover, studies applying the thin slices procedure have repeatedly shown that first impressions are a sufficient basis for detecting signs of personality or developmental disorders in strangers (Fowler et al 2009;Manson et al 2018;Oltmanns and Turkheimer 2006;Walton and Ingersoll 2016). In more applied domains, thin slices ratings have frequently shown predictive validity regarding different practical outcomes.…”

Psychopathic traits mediate guilt-related anterior midcingulate activity under authority pressure

“…On the other hand, the lack of guilt, as observed in individuals with psychopathy, does not consistently result in a life of criminality and immorality 13 . Researchers argue that psychopathic individuals are well integrated in society, and some studies even demonstrated that individuals with psychopathic traits performed better—with more moral choices—than controls on moral dilemma tasks 14 , 15 . As the presence of guilt cannot deter all antisocial behavior, and the lack of guilt can still produce moral actions, it is very likely that the relationships between guilt, psychopathic traits, and antisocial behavior is highly complex and worth exploring.…”

Detection of Psychopathic Traits in Emotional Faces

“…In this study, it was shown that raters performed better with less information about the target, supporting the idea that detecting psychopathy based on a 5-second video clip about the target, even a first glance only, is possible. Finally, a third study showed participants were accurate in their perception of subclinical psychopathy when given a 1.5-minute video with audio ( Manson et al 2018 ).…”

“…Some used video clips of forensic target subjects (e.g., Fowler et al 2009 or Manson et al 2018 ). However, the use of video clips is possibly a source of confounding variables.…”

“…Thus, it is important for highly psychopathic persons that they are not perceived as such. Nevertheless, several studies have found that psychopathic traits can be detected based on thin slices (e.g., Holtzman 2011 ; Fowler et al 2009 ; Solomon and Lyons 2020 ; Manson et al 2018 ; Brown et al 2017 ).…”