The escalating global concerns surrounding radicalization and violent extremism necessitate a comprehensive understanding and explanation. Identifying the risk factors associated with radicalism and violent extremism is critical to the development of risk assessment, prevention, and intervention strategies. It is imperative to distinguish these risks from civic responsibilities (i.e., activism) to safeguard individual rights. This study aims to examine the association between well-established risk factors for violence-personality disorder symptoms-and violent extremist attitudes, radicalism, and activism. Findings indicate that antisocial personality disorder symptoms were linked to violent extremist attitudes and radicalism, whereas obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms were related to activism. This suggests that obsessive-compulsive personality disorder may signify a readiness for legal and nonviolent political action; in contrast, antisocial personality disorder symptoms signify a readiness for extremist violence and illegal political action.

In the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD), psychopathy is marked by the presence of attention seeking, low anxiousness, and lack of social withdrawal, along with traits from the domains of Antagonism and Disinhibition. The triarchic model of psychopathy (TriPM) posits three biobehaviorally based traits underlying it: disinhibition, meanness, and boldness. The current study directly compared relations for measures of the two models with the broad dimensions of externalizing, internalizing, and positive adjustment. Participants (1,678 adults) were surveyed regarding maladaptive personality traits, clinical symptoms, and positive adjustment features. The TriPM model explained more variance than the AMPD in substance use, positive adjustment, and empathy, whereas the AMPD model explained more variance in internalizing symptoms. In addition, AMPD Antagonism and the Psychopathy Specifier diverged from TriPM Meanness and Boldness in their associations with some specific outcomes. Overall, our study provides evidence for complementarity of the two models in characterizing the multifaceted nature of psychopathy.

We investigated the putative redundancy of the Dark Tetrad (specifically, Machiavellianism-psychopathy and sadism-psychopathy) through an examination of the differences between correlations with self-reported narrowband personality traits. In addition to measures of the Dark Tetrad, participants in four studies completed measures of various narrowband traits assessing general personality, aggression, impulsivity, Mimicry Deception Theory, and Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. Results generally supported empirical distinctions between Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and between sadism and psychopathy. Machiavellianism significantly differed from psychopathy across correlations for nine of 10 traits (Study 1), 8 of 25 facets (Study 2), aggression (Study 3), 12 of 25 facets (Study 3), four of five facets (Study 4), impulsivity (Study 4), and five of six facets (Study 4). Sadism significantly differed from psychopathy across correlations with five of 10 traits (Study 1), eight of 25 facets (Study 2), reactive aggression (Study 3), 10 of 25 facets (Study 3), three of six facets (Study 4), impulsivity (Study 4), and three of six facets (Study 4). Our findings challenge the claims that Machiavellianism and psychopathy, as well as sadism and psychopathy, as currently measured, are redundant.

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are characterized by impulsive behavior and a lack of empathy, which can eventually lead to criminal behavior. In our narrative review, we are investigating the neurological differences in the function, structure, and connectivity of those with ASPD in comparison to those without, with a major focus on psychopathic cluster B populations of ASPD individuals. We reviewed 86 published articles, and five of these met the inclusion criteria for distinct psychopathic and non-psychopathic groups. After reviewing these sources, we found deficits in function and structure leading to a lack of empathy and adherence to social norms in individuals with ASPD. Currently, there are very few treatment options for those living with ASPD. It is our opinion that with a better understanding of the structural and functional differences in those with ASPD, we might see more efficacious treatment therapies for this population group in the medical community.

This study examined a proposed model of relations among lie-telling self-efficacy, moral disengagement, and willingness to tell antisocial lies among children and adolescents. Children and adolescents aged 6 to 15 years completed measures of lie-telling self-efficacy and moral disengagement. They also read vignettes about a character committing a transgression and telling a lie to conceal the transgression. For each vignette, children and adolescents made a hypothetical decision about telling the truth or a lie if they were in the character\'s position to assess their lie-telling propensity. Lie-telling self-efficacy was related to willingness to tell lies, and this relationship was mediated by moral disengagement. Children and adolescents with higher lie-telling self-efficacy had higher moral disengagement, and those who had higher moral disengagement were more willing to tell antisocial lies. Overall, results support Bandura\'s social cognitive theory as a framework for understanding the psychosocial mechanisms underlying attitudes toward lie-telling. Moreover, these findings suggest that interventions to address problematic lie-telling behavior should focus on children\'s and adolescents\' use of moral disengagement mechanisms.

Psychopathy is characterized by antisocial behavior, poor behavioral control and lacking empathy, and structural alterations in the corresponding neural circuits. Molecular brain basis of psychopathy remains poorly characterized. Here we studied type 2 dopamine receptor (D2R) and mu-opioid receptor (MOR) availability in convicted violent offenders with high psychopathic traits (n = 11) and healthy matched controls (n = 17) using positron emission tomography (PET). D2R were measured with radioligand [11C]raclopride and MORs with radioligand [11C]carfentanil. Psychopathic subjects had lowered D2R availability in caudate and putamen, and striatal D2R availability was also associated with degree of psychopathic traits in this prisoner sample. No group differences were found in MOR availability, although in the prisoner sample, psychopathic traits were negatively correlated with MOR availability in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens. We conclude that D2R signaling could be the putative neuromolecular pathway for psychopathy, whereas evidence for alterations in the MOR system is more limited.

The present study examined whether people higher in psychopathy experienced less self-reported and psychophysiological nociceptive pressure than people lower in psychopathy. We also examined whether psychopathy affects empathy for others\' pain via self-reported and psychophysiological measures. Three hundred and sixty-nine students (18-78 years; M = 26, SD = 9.34) were screened for psychopathic traits using the Youth Psychopathy Inventory (YPI). Stratified sampling was used to recruit 49 adults residing in the highest (n = 23) and lowest (n = 26) 20% of the psychopathy spectrum. Using skin conductance response (SCR) and self-report responses, participants responded to individually adjusted intensities of pneumatic pressure and others\' pain images and completed self-reported psychopathy and empathy measures (Triarchic Psychopathy Measure, TriPm; Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI). People higher in psychopathy self-reported feeling less nociceptive pressure compared to people lower in psychopathy, yet we did not find any differences in SCR to nociceptive pressure. However, when viewing other people in pain, the high psychopathy group displayed lower SCR and lower self-reported empathy compared to those lower in psychopathy. Our results suggest psychopathic traits relate to problems empathising with others\' pain, as well as the perception of nociceptive pressure. We also show support for the theory of dual harm which has been receiving increasing attention. Consequently, psychopathy interventions should focus both on recognising and empathising with the pain of others.

Facial mimicry serves as an evolutionarily rooted important interpersonal communication process that touches on the concepts of socialization and empathy. Facial electromyography (EMG) of the corrugator muscle and the zygomaticus muscle was recorded while male forensic psychopathic patients and controls watched morphed angry or happy facial expressions. We tested the hypothesis that psychopathic patients would show weaker short latency facial mimicry (that is, within 600 ms after stimulus onset) than controls. Exclusively in the group of 20 psychopathic patients, we tested in a placebo-controlled crossover within-subject design the hypothesis that oxytocin would enhance short-latency facial mimicry. Compared with placebo, we found no oxytocin-related significant short-latency responses of the corrugator and the zygomaticus. However, compared with 19 normal controls, psychopathic patients in the placebo condition showed significantly weaker short-latency zygomaticus responses to happy faces, while there was a trend toward significantly weaker short-latency corrugator responses to angry faces. These results are consistent with a recent study of facial EMG responses in adolescents with psychopathic traits. We therefore posit a lifetime developmental deficit in psychopathy pertaining short-latency mimicry of emotional facial expressions. Ultimately, this deficit in mimicking angry and happy expressions may hinder the elicitation of empathy, which is known to be impaired in psychopathy.

OBJECTIVE: The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in adolescence predisposes youth to negative behavioral and social outcomes and may be particularly damaging to youth involved in the justice system. Whereas research has shown that CU traits predict later arrest, it remains unknown whether rearrest predicts changes in CU traits and whether these associations may be modified by maternal relationship quality. The present study assessed whether being rearrested predicted changes in CU traits and whether these associations varied by maternal warmth and maternal hostility.
OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that self-reported CU traits would increase at data collection time points following rearrest. Further, we hypothesized that maternal warmth would buffer the negative effects of rearrest, whereas maternal hostility would not have a significant moderating effect on the associations.
METHODS: Hypotheses were tested using a large, multisite longitudinal data set of 1,216 justice-involved male youth (Mage = 15.82 years at baseline; 47% Latino, 38% Black/African American, 15% White). Data from a series of nine interviews (across a 7-year period) were used to determine associations between rearrest at one-time point and CU traits at the subsequent time point.
RESULTS: Rearrest is associated with a significant increase in CU traits. However, these associations are not moderated by either maternal warmth or maternal hostility.
CONCLUSIONS: Rearrest predicts increases in a known risk factor for healthy socioemotional development among justice-involved youths (CU traits). Moreover, the way rearrest is associated with CU traits does not change depending on maternal warmth; rearrest is associated with increases in CU traits irrespective of the quality of a youth\'s relationship with their mother. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The triarchic model posits that distinct trait constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition underlie psychopathy. The triarchic model traits are conceptualized as biobehavioral dimensions that can be assessed using different sets of indicators from alternative measurement modalities; as such, the triarchic model would hypothesize that these traits are not confined to any one item set. The present study tested whether the triarchic model dimensions would emerge from a hierarchical-structural analysis of the facet scales of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA), an inventory designed to comprehensively index psychopathy according to the five-factor personality model. Study participants (Ns = 811, 170) completed the EPA and three different scale sets assessing the triarchic traits along with criterion measures of antisocial/externalizing behaviors. Bass-ackwards modeling of the EPA facet scales revealed a four-level structure, with factors at the third level appearing similar to the triarchic trait dimensions. An analysis in which scores for the Level-3 EPA factors were regressed onto corresponding latent-trait dimensions defined using the different triarchic scale sets revealed extremely high convergence (βs = .84-.91). The Level-3 EPA factors also evidenced validity in relation to relevant criteria, approximating and sometimes exceeding that evident for the Level-4 EPA factors. Together, these results indicate that the triarchic trait constructs are embedded in a psychopathy inventory designed to align with a general personality model and effectively predict pertinent external criteria. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).