Psychopathy and Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotions:
A Systematic Review
Keywords:
Psychopathy, Facial expressions, EmotionsAbstract
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by anti-social behavior, compromised judgment and deficits
of emotional processing. Researchers have been investigating the ability of psychopaths and individuals with psychopathic traits
to recognize emotions expressed through the face. The present study performed a systematic review using the main international
databases of articles about this theme, published between 1975 and 2013. Seventeen articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria of
this review. The results evidenced the use of non-converging methods and suggest that psychopathy is related to deficits in
recognition of negative feelings. Confirmatory data can only be achieved through a methodological standardization. In future
studies the use of distinct stimuli exposure time is suggested.
Downloads
References
American Psychiatric Association - APA (2013). Diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders (5a ed.). Washington,
DC: APA.
Arrigo, B., & Shipley, S. (2001). The confusion over psychopathy
(I): Historical considerations. International Journal of Offender
Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45(3), 325-344.
Birbaumer, N., Veit, R., Lotze, M., Erb, M., Hermann, C., Grodd, W.,
& Flor, H. (2005). Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy:
A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of
General Psychiatry, 62, 799”“805.
Blair, R. J. R. (2006). The emergence of psychopathy: Implications
for the neuropsychological approach to developmental
disorders. Cognition, 101, 414”“442.
Blair, R. J. R. (2008). The cognitive neuroscience of psychopathy
and implications for judgments of responsibility. Neuroethics,
, 149-157.
Blair, R. J. R. (2010). Neuroimaging of psychopathy and antissocial
behavior: A targeted review. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12,
”“82.
Blair, R. J. R., & Coles, M. (2000). Expression recognition
and behavioral problems in early adolescence. Cognitive
Development, 15, 421-434.
Blair, R. J. R., Colledge, E., Murray, L., & Mitchell, D. G. (2001).
A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful
expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies. Journal
of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 491-498.
Blair, R. J. R., Mitchell, D. G. V., Peschardt, K. S., Colledge, E.,
Leonard, R. A., Shine, J. H. . . . Perrett, L. K. (2004). Reduced
sensitivity to others´ fearful expressions in psychopathic
individuals. Personal and Individual Differences, 37, 1111-
Blonigen, D. M., Hicks, B. M., Krueger, R. F., Patrick, C. J.,
& Iacono, W. G. (2005). Psychopathic personality traits:
Heritability and genetic overlap with internalizing and
externalizing psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 35,
-648.
Book, A. S., Quinsey, V. L., & Langford, D. (2007). Psychopathy
and the perception of affect and vulnerability. Criminal Justice
and Behavior, 34, 531-544.
Cleckley, H. (1941). The mask of sanity (5a ed.). St Louis, MO:
Mosby.
Dadds, M. R., Perry, Y., Hawes, D. J., Merz, S., Riddell, A. C.,
Haines, D. J., . . . Abeygunawardane, A. I. (2006). Attention
to the eyes and fear-recognition déficits in child psychopathy.
British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 180-181.
Dawel, A., O´Kearney, R., McKone, E., & Palermo, R. (2012). Not
just fear and sadness: Meta-analytic evidence of pervasive
emotion recognition deficits for facial and vocal expressions
in psychopathy. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews,
, 2288-2304.
Del Gaizo, A. L., & Falkenbach, D. M. (2007). Primary and
secondary psychopathic-traits and their relationship to
perception and experience of emotion. Personality and
Individual Differences, 45, 206-212.
Dolan, M., & Fullam, R. (2006). Face affect recognition deficits
in personality-disordered offenders: Association with
psychopathy. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1563-1569.
Dolan, M., & Völlm, B. (2009). Antisocial personality disorder and
psychopathy in women: A literature review on the reliability
and validity of assessment instruments. International Journal
of Law and Psychiatry, 32(1), 2-9.
Eisenbarth, H., Alpers, G. W., Segrè, D., Calogero, A., & Angrilli,
A. (2008). Categorization and evaluation of emotional faces
in psychopathic women. Psychiatry Research, 159, 189-195.
Ekman, P. (1992). Facial expression of emotion: New findings, new
questions. Psychological Science, 3, 34-38.
Ekman, P. (2003). Emotions revealed: Recognizing faces and
feelings to improve communication and emotional life. New
York: Times Book.
Ekman, P. (2006). Cross-cultural studies in facial expressions. In
P. Ekman (Ed.), Darwin and facial expressions: A century of
research review (pp. 169-222). Cambridge: Malor Books.
Forth, A. E., Kosson, D. S., & Hare, R. D. (2003). Hare Psychopathy
Youth Version Manual. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
Freedman, L. F., & Verdun-Jones, S. N. (2010). Blaming the
parts instead of the person: Understanding and applying
neurobiological factors associated with psychopathy. Canadian
Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 52, 29”“53.
Freitas-Magalhães, A. (2011). O código de Ekman: O cérebro, a
face e a emoção. Porto: Universidade Fernando Pessoa.
Glass, S. J., & Newman, J. P. (2006). Recognition of facial affect
in psychopathic offenders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology,
, 815-820.
Habel, U., Kuhn, E., Salloum, J. B., Devos, H., & Schneider, F.
(2002). Emotional processing in psychopathic personality.
Aggressive Behavior, 28, 394-400.
Hansen, A. L., Johnsen, B. H., Waage, L., & Thayer, J. F. (2008).
Brief communication: Psychopathy and recognition of facial
expression of emotion. Journal of Personality Disorders, 22,
-645.
Hare, R. D. (1980). A research scale for the assessment of
psychopathy in criminal populations. Personality and
Individual Differences, 1(2), 111-119.
Hare, R. D. (1991). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.
Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
Hare, R. D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (2a
ed.). Toronto: Multi Health Systems.
Hastings, M. E., Tangney, J. P., & Stuewig, J. (2008). Psychopathy
and identification of facial expressions of emotion. Personality
and Individual Differences, 44, 1474-1483.
Iria, C., & Barbosa, F. (2009). Perception of facial expressions of
fear: Comparative research with criminal and non-criminal
psychopaths. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology,
, 66-73.
Jones, A. P., Laurens, K. R., Herba, C. M., Barker, G. J., & Viding,
E. (2009). Amygdala hypoactivity to fearful faces in boys with
conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. American
Journal of Psychiatry,166, 95”“102.
Kiehl, K. A. (2006). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on
psychopathy: Evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction.
Psychiatry Research, 142,107”“128.
Kosson, D. S., Suchy, Y., Mayer, A. R., & Libby, J. (2002). Facial
affect recognition in criminal psychopaths. Emotion, 2, 398-
Lehmann, A., & Ittel, A. (2012). Aggressive behavior and
measurement of psychopathy in female inmates of German
prisons: A preliminary study. International Journal of Law
and Psychiatry, 35(3), 190-197.
Marsh, A. A., & Blair, R. J. R. (2008). Deficits in facial affect
recognition among antisocial populations: A meta-analysis.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 454-465.
Marsh, A. A., Finger, E. C., Mitchell, D. G. V., Reid, M. E., Sims,
C., Kosson, D. S., . . . Blair, R. J. R. (2008). Reduced amygdala
response to fearful expressions in children and adolescents with
callous-unemotional traits and disruptive behavior disorders.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 712”“720.
McCown, W., Johnson, J., & Austin, S. (1986). Inability of
delinquents to recognize facial affects. Journal of Social
Behavior and Personality, 1, 489-496.
Montagne, B., van Honk, J., Kessels, R. P. C., Frigerio, E., Burt,
M., van Zandvoort, M. J. E., . . . de Haan, E. (2005). Reduced
efficiency in recognising fear in subjects scoring high on
psychopathic personality characteristics. Personality and
Individual and Differences, 38, 5”“11.
Newman, J. P., Curtin, J. J., Bertsch, J. D., & Baskin-Sommers, A.
R. (2010). Attention moderates the fearlessness of psychopathic
offenders. Biological Psychiatry, 67, 66-70.
Pahn, T. H., & Philippot, P. (2010). Decoding of facial expression
of emotion in criminal psychopaths. Journal of Personality
Disorders, 24, 445-459.
Patrick, C. J (2010). Transtorno de personalidade antissocial e
psicopatia. In W. O´Donohue, K. A. Fowler, & S. O. Lilienfeld
(Eds.), Transtornos de personalidade: Em direção ao DSM-V
(pp. 415-436). São Paulo: Roca.
Schyns, P. G., Petro, L. S., & Smith, M. L. (2009). Transmission of
facial expressions of emotion co-evolved with their efficient
decoding in the brain: Behavioral and brain evidence. PLoS
ONE, 4, e5625.
Stevens, D., Charman, T., & Blair, R. J. (2001). Recognition of
emotion in facial expressions and vocal tones in children with
psychopathic tendencies. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 162,
-211.
van Honk, J., & Schutter, D. J. L. G. (2006). Unmasking feigned
sanity: A neurobiological model of emotion processing in
primary psychopathy. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 11, 285”“306.
Vasconcellos, C. T. V., & Vasconcellos, S. J. L. (2012). Quem
eram os psicopatas? A história de alguns conceitos e suas
implicações. In G. J. C. Gauer, S. J. L. Vasconcellos, & T.
R. Davoglio (Eds.), Adolescentes em conflito: violência,
funcionamento antissocial e traços de psicopatia (pp. 13-34).
São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo.
Verona, E., & Vitale, J. E. (2006). Psychopathy in women:
Assessment, manifestations, and etiology. In C. J. Patrick
(Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 415-436). New York:
The Guilford Press.
Viding, E., Blair, R. J. R., Moffitt, T. E., & Plomin, R. (2005).
Evidence for substantial genetic risk for psychopathy 7-yearsold.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 592-597.
Walker, D. W., & Leister, C. (1994). Recognition of facial affect
cues by adolescent with emotional and behavioral disorders.
Behavioral Disorders, 19, 269-276.
Walsh, T., & Walsh, Z. (2006). The evidentiary introduction of
PCL-R assessed psychopathy in U.S. courts: Extent and
appropriateness. Law and Human Behavior, 30, 493-507.
Walz, N. C., & Benson, B. A. (1986). Labeling and discrimination
of facial expressions by aggressive and nonaggressive
men with mental retardation. American Journal of Mental
Ratardation, 101, 282-29.
Weber, S., Habel, U., Amunts, K., & Schneider, F. (2008).
Structural brain abnormalities in psychopaths: A review.
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 26, 7-28.
Wilson, K., Juodis, M., & Porter, S. (2011). Fear and loathing
in psychopaths: a Meta-analytic investigation of the facial
affect recognition deficit. Criminal Justice and Behavior,
, 659-668.
Yang, Y., Raine, A., Narr, K. L., Colletti, P., & Toga, A. W.
(2009). Localization of deformations within the amygdala in
individuals with psychopathy. Archives of General Psychiatry,
, 986-994.
Zabel, R. H. (1979). Recognition of emotions in facial expressions
by emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed children.
Psychology in the Schools, 16, 119-126.
