TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotion attributions in the psychopath
AU - Blair, R. J.R.
AU - Sellars, C.
AU - Strickland, I.
AU - Clark, F.
AU - Williams, A. O.
AU - Smith, M.
AU - Jones, L.
N1 - Funding Information:
A~,krloM,/p~~Xrnle,lts-JameBsla ir was supported by a Wellcome Mental Health Training Fellowship (Ref. 37 132/Z/92/2/ I .4Q). We thank the staff at Broadmoor Special Hospital and at Wormwood Scrubs H.M.P. We are also grateful to Professor J. Morton and Dr L. Cipolotti for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to James Blair, MRC Cognitive Development Unit, 4 Taviton Street, London WC I H OHT.
PY - 1995/10
Y1 - 1995/10
N2 - This study investigates the ability of psychopaths and non-psychopathic, incarcerated controls to attribute emotions to others. Twenty-five psychopaths and 25 controls, identified using the Revised Psychopathy Checklist [PCL-R: Hare (The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, 1991)], were presented with short vignettes of happiness, sadness, embarrassment and guilt inducing contexts. They were asked to attribute emotions to the story protagonist. The psychopaths and controls did not differ in their emotion attributions to protagonists in the happiness, sadness and embarrassment stories. However, the psychopaths and controls did differ in their emotion attributions to the guilt stories. The dominant attribution of the controls to the story protagonist was, as expected, guilt. In contrast, the dominant attribution of the psychopaths to the story protagonist was happiness or indifference. The results are interpreted within the Violence Inhibition Mechanism model of the development of the psychopath (Blair, Cognition, in press).
AB - This study investigates the ability of psychopaths and non-psychopathic, incarcerated controls to attribute emotions to others. Twenty-five psychopaths and 25 controls, identified using the Revised Psychopathy Checklist [PCL-R: Hare (The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, 1991)], were presented with short vignettes of happiness, sadness, embarrassment and guilt inducing contexts. They were asked to attribute emotions to the story protagonist. The psychopaths and controls did not differ in their emotion attributions to protagonists in the happiness, sadness and embarrassment stories. However, the psychopaths and controls did differ in their emotion attributions to the guilt stories. The dominant attribution of the controls to the story protagonist was, as expected, guilt. In contrast, the dominant attribution of the psychopaths to the story protagonist was happiness or indifference. The results are interpreted within the Violence Inhibition Mechanism model of the development of the psychopath (Blair, Cognition, in press).
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U2 - 10.1016/0191-8869(95)00080-P
DO - 10.1016/0191-8869(95)00080-P
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001643434
SN - 0191-8869
VL - 19
SP - 431
EP - 437
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
IS - 4
ER -