Psychopathy in the media: a content analysis

Psychopathic Personality

“…Although a detailed discussion is beyond the scope of the present review, we invite the reader to consider this perspective: The “jingle fallacy” involves labeling two quite different things equivalently—in this case, labeling primary and secondary variants as psychopathic (see Thorndike, 1904). The fallacy introduces unique dangers in the present context because the label “psychopath” tends to invite assumptions from laypeople and professionals alike that an individual is an unfeeling, hardwired superpredator (e.g., Edens, 2006; Stevens, 2008; Vidal & Skeem, 2007; cf., Cox, DeMatteo, & Foster, 2010). This assumption is questionable for either variant (see “Common Misconceptions” above) but is particularly questionable for emotionally reactive secondary psychopaths.…”

Effect of a psychopathy diagnosis, offender gender, and offender age on juror decision making

“…Jurors will assess their beliefs of that label and may therefore participate in discrimination if those beliefs are based on false information. Preliminary research into the portrayal of psychopaths in the media has found that they are generally depicted accurately (Stevens, 2008), therefore whether harsher decisions can be considered prejudicial will later be discussed.…”

“…Very few studies have examined the portrayal of psychopathy in the media and it would be interesting to further investigate how mock jurors' decisions are shaped by their pre-existing notions of psychopathy. One recent content analysis has revealed that although some features of psychopathy are generally accurately depicted in newspapers and on the internet, this is not true of the treatment literature; psychopaths are constantly depicted as unbeatable (Stevens, 2008).…”