IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0301085.html

Understanding empathy deficits and emotion dysregulation in psychopathy: The mediating role of alexithymia

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Burghart
  • Alexander H J Sahm
  • Sergej Schmidt
  • Jan Bulla
  • Daniela Mier

Abstract

Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder marked by a wide range of emotional deficits, including a lack of empathy, emotion dysregulation, and alexithymia. Previous research has largely examined these emotional impairments in isolation, ignoring their influence on each other. Thus, we examined the concurrent interrelationship between emotional impairments in psychopathy, with a particular focus on the mediating role of alexithymia. Using path analyses with cross-sectional data from a community sample (N = 315) and a forensic sample (N = 50), our results yielded a statistically significant mediating effect of alexithymia on the relationship between psychopathy and empathy (community and forensic) and between psychopathy and emotion dysregulation (community). Moreover, replacing psychopathy with its three dimensions (i.e., meanness, disinhibition, and boldness) in the community sample revealed that boldness may function as an adaptive trait, with lower levels of alexithymia counteracting deficits in empathy and emotion dysregulation. Overall, our findings indicate that psychopathic individuals’ limited understanding of their own emotions contributes to their lack of empathy and emotion dysregulation. This underscores the potential benefits of improving emotional awareness in the treatment of individuals with psychopathy.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Burghart & Alexander H J Sahm & Sergej Schmidt & Jan Bulla & Daniela Mier, 2024. "Understanding empathy deficits and emotion dysregulation in psychopathy: The mediating role of alexithymia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(5), pages 1-20, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0301085
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0301085
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0301085&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0301085?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bryan Neo & Martin Sellbom & Sarah F. Smith & Scott O. Lilienfeld, 2018. "Of Boldness and Badness: Insights into Workplace Malfeasance from a Triarchic Psychopathy Model Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 187-205, April.
    2. Silje Haga & Pål Kraft & Emma-Kate Corby, 2009. "Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 271-291, June.
    3. Gillespie, Steven M. & Garofalo, Carlo & Velotti, Patrizia, 2018. "Emotion regulation, mindfulness, and alexithymia: Specific or general impairments in sexual, violent, and homicide offenders?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 56-66.
    4. Garofalo, Carlo & Neumann, Craig S. & Velotti, Patrizia, 2018. "Difficulties in emotion regulation and psychopathic traits in violent offenders," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 116-125.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meddeb, Adam & Garofalo, Carlo & Karlén, Malin Hildebrand & Wallinius, Märta, 2023. "Emotion dysregulation – A bridge between ACE and aggressive antisocial behavior," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Matthias Pelster & Stefan Schaltegger, 2022. "The dark triad and corporate sustainability: An empirical analysis of personality traits of sustainability managers," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 80-99, January.
    3. Ribeiro da Silva, Diana & Lindberg, Nina & Garofalo, Carlo, 2025. "Exploring mental health profiles of male youth detained in forensic settings: Implications for research and clinical practice," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Ioanna Giannoukou, 2023. "Personality Traits and Charismatic Leader: An Innovative Perspective on Leadership," Technium Business and Management, Technium Science, vol. 6(1), pages 105-125.
    5. S. Balzarotti & F. Biassoni & D. Villani & A. Prunas & P. Velotti, 2016. "Individual Differences in Cognitive Emotion Regulation: Implications for Subjective and Psychological Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 125-143, February.
    6. N. Rickard & D. Vella-Brodrick, 2014. "Changes in Well-Being: Complementing a Psychosocial Approach with Neurobiological Insights," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 437-457, June.
    7. Wenfeng Wu & Hongxiang Wu & Xiaoqing Wu & Jiao Gu & Xin Qi, 2024. "A Meta-Analysis of Life Satisfaction’s Association with Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression: The Influences of Age, Gender, and Cultural Values," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1-24, April.
    8. Kosson, David S. & Garofalo, Carlo & McBride, Cami K. & Velotti, Patrizia, 2020. "Get mad: Chronic anger expression and psychopathic traits in three independent samples," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Prachi Sharma & Urmila Rani Srivastava, 2020. "Emotion Regulation and Job Satisfaction as Predictors of Subjective Well-being in Doctors," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(1), pages 7-14, February.
    10. Alparslan Kale & Zumrut Gedik, 2020. "Quality of Life in Riot Police: Links to Anger, Emotion Regulation, Depression, and Anxiety," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 107-125, March.
    11. Chris Jackson & Christian Criado-Perez & Benjamin R. Walker & Anar Purvee, 2025. "How disinhibition explains reward omission leadership," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 50(3), pages 895-916, August.
    12. Melrona Kirrane & Adeela Farqan & Emer Cloak, 2025. "Exploring a paradox: Psychopathy, Morality and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 197(4), pages 873-892, April.
    13. Ming Chen & Rebecca Y. M. Cheung, 2021. "Testing Interdependent Self-Construal as a Moderator between Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, and Psychological Health among Emerging Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-12, January.
    14. Neerpal Rathi & Kidong Lee, 2021. "Does It Pay to Be Authentic? Implications of Authenticity for Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being in a Collectivist Culture," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 147-161, January.
    15. De Cock, Robin & Denoo, Lien & Clarysse, Bart, 2020. "Surviving the emotional rollercoaster called entrepreneurship: The role of emotion regulation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(2).
    16. Salman Yousaf & Soonchul Hyun & Jong Min Kim, 2026. "Do employees with dark personality traits review their jobs unfavorably? Textual content analysis of online employee reviews," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    17. Garofalo, Carlo & Velotti, Patrizia, 2021. "Shame coping and psychopathy: A replication and extension in a sample of male incarcerated offenders," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    18. Magdalena Marszał-Wiśniewska & Magdalena Nowicka, 2018. "Individual Differences in Mood Changes," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(5), pages 1415-1438, June.
    19. Berta Schnettler & Marianela Denegri & Horacio Miranda & José Sepúlveda & Ligia Orellana & Galo Paiva & Klaus Grunert, 2015. "Family Support and Subjective Well-Being: An Exploratory Study of University Students in Southern Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 833-864, July.
    20. Xiang Feng & Yaojia Wei & Xianglin Pan & Longhui Qiu & Yongmei Ma, 2020. "Academic Emotion Classification and Recognition Method for Large-scale Online Learning Environment—Based on A-CNN and LSTM-ATT Deep Learning Pipeline Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0301085. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.