title: Attention Moderates the Relationship Between Primary Psychopathy and Affective Empathy in Undergraduate Students.
abstract: Psychopathy is personality traits, which is consisted of primary psychopathy characterized by affective and interpersonal problems and secondary psychopathy characterized by behavioral problems. Prior researchers have suggested that people with psychopathy have peculiar attention, which prevents them from detecting information peripheral to their concern, and we hypothesized that this explains their low empathy. Based on these reasoning, the present study assessed whether attention moderates the relationship between psychopathy and affective empathy. Eighty-five undergraduates (40 men and 45 women; mean age = 19.8 years; SD = 1.6) completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and a perceptual load task. Hierarchical regression showed that a significant moderation effect was found: primary psychopathy was negatively associated with affective empathy, among those with reduced interference from task-irrelevant stimuli under a medium level of perceptual load. Future study should need to replicate this finding with clinical population.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan d146256@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Ayame
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.affiliation: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Sociology, Kansai University, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moriya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Psychopathy; attention; empathy