Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
Can You Spot a Psychopath?
Teresa Jones
Faculty Mentor: David Lane
Psychology
Individuals with psychopathic personality have been described as having predatory or
empty stares. Earlier research has shown that psychopaths tend to maintain eye
contact with others for longer periods of time than nonpsychopaths. Other research has
shown that people convey emotion through facial expressions and body language, and
that individuals high in empathy have greater accuracy in recognizing facial
expressions.
The aim of this study was to determine if laypeople could distinguish between
psychopathic and nonpsychopathic individuals by viewing interviewees’ nonverbal
behavior, particularly eye contact with the interviewer. Three people, including one who
had a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, completed a survey measuring
subclinical levels of psychopathy and participated in a video interview. Eighteen
participants viewed the three videos without audio and indicated how likely they thought
the interviewee had psychopathic personality. Participants also completed the Big Five
Inventory and scales on empathy, altruism, and psychopathy.
In general, participants rated the psychopathic interviewee as most likely to have
psychopathic personality, and the rating was significantly higher than the rating for the
nonpsychopathic interviewee in the first video. However, the participants also rated the
nonpsychopathic interviewee in the third video significantly higher than the
nonpsychopathic interviewee in the first video. Participants with more empathy were not
more accurate.
Additionally, people who reported to have known a potential
psychopath were more inaccurate than other participants. This suggests that people are
not able to identify those with psychopathic tendencies, and may even misidentify nonpsychopaths.