Examining the association between childhood cognitive ability and psychopathic traits at age 48
Authors
Kavish, NickBergstrøm, Henriette
Narvey, Chelsey
Piquero, Alex R.
Farrington, David P.
Boutwell, Brian B.
Affiliation
Sam Houston UniversityUniversity of Derby
The University of Texas at Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas
University of Cambridge
University of Mississippi
Issue Date
2020-03-01
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Despite early theorists suggesting that psychopathic traits are associated with higher intelligence, meta-analytic work has found that global psychopathy scores are actually negatively related to intelligence, albeit weakly. Furthermore, it was reported in the same meta-analytic work that the various dimensions of psychopathy were differentially related to intelligence. Importantly, virtually all of the research to date has relied on cross-sectional associations. The current study examined whether intelligence scores (verbal comprehension, non-verbal IQ, and a global intelligence composite) at age 8 were associated with psychopathy scores at age 48 in a sample of white, urban males from London (analytical n = 292). Results suggested a significant, but weak, inverse association between intelligence and the affective, lifestyle, and antisocial facets of psychopathy and a nonsignificant association with the interpersonal facet, as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that psychopathy, as conceptualized in most modern models, is either very weakly inversely related to, or simply not a correlate of intelligence.Citation
Kavish, N. Bergstrøm, H., Narvey, C., Piquero, A.R., Farrington, D.P., Boutwell, B.B. (2020). 'Examining the association between childhood cognitive ability and psychopathic traits at age 48'. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, pp. 1-17.Publisher
American Psychological AssociationJournal
Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and TreatmentDOI
10.1037/per0000403Additional Links
https://psycnet.apa.org/PsycARTICLES/journal/per/11/2Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
1949-2715EISSN
1949-2723ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1037/per0000403