Empathic, moral and antisocial outcomes associated with distinct components of psychopathy in healthy individuals: a Triarchic model approach

Abstract

In the present report we analyzed the associations between the facets of the recent Triarchic Measure of Psychopathy (TriPM) and distinct dimensions of empathy, morality, and antisocial behavior.

Three hundred and seventy-four participants from the community completed the TriPM, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. A subset of one hundred and three participants completed a self-reported delinquency scale.

In line with the multidimensional nature of the TriPM, we found that different facets of psychopathy were associated with distinct domains of empathy and morality. In addition, every TriPM subscale was positively related to self-reported delinquency, although meanness lost its predictive power when its shared variance with disinhibition was controlled.

Our results lend conceptual validity to each of the Triarchic model’s traits and suggest that psychopathy should not be regarded as a unitary construct, but rather as a combination of dimensional traits with distinct etiologies