title: Do psychopathic individuals possess a misaligned moral compass? A meta-analytic examination of psychopathy's relations with moral judgment.
abstract: Psychopathic individuals are often characterized as lacking a moral sense. Although this hypothesis has received ample experimental attention over the past decade, findings have been inconsistent. To elucidate the relationship between psychopathy and abnormal moral judgment, we conducted a meta-analysis of the research on psychopathy and morality-related variables (k = 23, N = 4376). A random effects model indicated a small but statistically significant relation between psychopathy and moral decision-making (rw = .16) and moral reasoning (rw= .10) tasks. These results reveal at best modest support for the common perception that psychopathic individuals fail to understand moral principles. A secondary meta-analysis (k = 9, N = 4294) of the growing body of literature on the relationship between psychopathy and moral reasoning on moral foundations measures provides preliminary evidence that psychopathic individuals may possess a differential set of "moral taste buds" than less psychopathic individuals. We discuss the implications of the results from both meta-analyses for models of the etiology of psychopathy and the criminal responsibility of psychopathic individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors: Department of Psychology, Yale University.
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Marshall
authors: Department of Psychology, Emory University.
authors: Ashley L
authors: AL
authors: Watts
authors: Department of Psychology, Emory University.
authors: Scott O
authors: SO
authors: Lilienfeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*