title: Psychopathy: Relations with three conceptions of intelligence.
abstract: Psychopathy is often associated with heightened intelligence in the eyes of clinicians and laypersons despite mixed research support for this possibility. We adopted a fine-grained approach to studying the relations among psychopathy and multiple indices of intelligence, including both cognitively based intelligence (CBI) and emotional intelligence (EI), in a large sample of undergraduates (N = 1,257, 70% female, 82% Caucasian). We found no clear support for marked associations between psychopathy and CB I measures, with the magnitudes of these relations being small. With the exception of the dimensions of Fearless Dominance (FD) and Coldheartedness (C), psychopathy dimensions were negatively associated with (EI). In contrast, we found some support for the hypothesis that intelligence served as a protective factor against antisocial behavior among individuals with high levels of psychopathy. On balance, our findings show weak relations between psychopathy and intelligence, suggesting that the link between them may be less robust than theoretical models portray, at least among undergraduates. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Emory University.
authors.forename: Ashley L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama.
authors.forename: Randall T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Salekin
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama.
authors.forename: Abby
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Emory University.
authors.forename: Irwin D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Waldman
authors.affiliation: Georgia Regents University.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Vitacco
authors.affiliation: Emory University.
authors.forename: Scott O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Lilienfeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056348:Emotional Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D065840:Protective Factors; D055815:Young Adult