Social cognition in nonforensic psychopathy : further evidence for a dissociation between intact 'theory of mind' and impaired emotion processing

Background: Psychopathy is a developmental disorder characterized by antisocial behaviour identified in forensic settings using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare 1991). Forensic psychopaths, like autistic individuals, show social cognition abnormalities linked to amygdala dysfunction (eg impaired recognition of negative affect). These developmental disorders differ, however, with respect to theory of mind (ToM); while psychopaths are adept at imputing others’ causal mental states (intentions/beliefs), ToM deficits characterize autism. In line with recent research that has used nonforensic groups to further examine the dissociation of sociocognitive skills in psychopathy, this study investigated conscious and preconscious processing of facial affect, ToM and empathy in a university sample assessed for psychopathic traits using the Self Report Psychopathy Scale III (SRP-III; Paulhus et al. in press), an instrument styled on the PCL-R. Method: About 416 university students completed the SRP-III. Sixty individuals with high (>75 percentile), medium (40–60 percentile) and low (