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An Examination of the Communication Styles Associated with Psychopathy and Their Influence on Observer Impressions

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Abstract

Psychopathic individuals are characterized as “intra-species predators”—callous, impulsive, aggressive, and proficient at interpersonal manipulation. For example, despite their high risk for re-offending, psychopathic offenders often receive early release on parole. While reputed to be social chameleons, research suggests that even naive observers can accurately infer high levels of psychopathic traits in others with very brief exposures to behavior, but accuracy degrades with extended observation. We utilized a lens model approach to examine the communication styles (emotional facial expressions, body language, and verbal content) of offenders varying in levels of psychopathic traits using “thin slice” video clips of psychological assessment interviews and to reveal which cues observers use to inform their evaluations of psychopathy. Psychopathic traits were associated with more (a) Duchenne smiles, (b) negative (angry) emotional language, and (c) hand gestures (illustrators). Further, psychopathy was associated with a marked behavioral incongruence; when individuals scoring high in psychopathic traits engaged in Duchenne smiles they were also more likely to use angry language. Naïve observers relied on each of these valid behavioral signals to quickly and accurately detect psychopathic traits. These findings provide insight into psychopathic communication styles, opportunities for improving the detection of psychopathic personality traits, and may provide an avenue for understanding successful psychopathic manipulation.

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Notes

  1. Participants in Fowler et al.’s (2009) study also watched six 2-s clips in a combined audio–video modality. Due to the small number, and extremely brief nature of these videos, they were not included in the present study.

  2. Achievement (accuracy) correlations reported by Fowler et al. (2009) are slightly different than those reported here, because we use a smaller sub-set (N = 88) of their original sample (N = 96).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Denver, 2155 S. Race St., Denver, CO, 80208, USA

    Leanne ten Brinke

  2. University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada

    Stephen Porter

  3. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Natasha Korva

  4. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Katherine Fowler & Scott O. Lilienfeld

  5. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Christopher J. Patrick

Authors
  1. Leanne ten Brinke
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  2. Stephen Porter
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  3. Natasha Korva
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  4. Katherine Fowler
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  5. Scott O. Lilienfeld
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  6. Christopher J. Patrick
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leanne ten Brinke.

Appendix

Appendix

Definitions of Factor 1, Factor 2, and Overall Psychopathy, provided to naïve raters:

  • Factor 1—People high in Factor 1 psychopathy tend to have an inflated sense of self-importance, to be “smooth talkers” and to lie and manipulate others without feeling guilty. They lack empathy for other people, and rarely accept responsibility for the things they do wrong.

  • Factor 2—People high in Factor 2 psychopathy have a long history of behavior problems, beginning with juvenile delinquency. They are impulsive, frequently seek stimulation because of boredom, lack realistic long-term goals of their own, and often find ways to live off the support of parents, friends, and sexual partners.

  • Overall—Psychopaths tend to be charming and engaging on the surface, but often manipulate, lie to, and exploit others to get what they want, without guilt or empathy. They tend to be irresponsible and to lack impulse control.

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ten Brinke, L., Porter, S., Korva, N. et al. An Examination of the Communication Styles Associated with Psychopathy and Their Influence on Observer Impressions. J Nonverbal Behav 41, 269–287 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-017-0252-5

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