| Although primary and secondary psychopaths are often contrasted according to their hypo- and hyper-utilization of emotional cues, this distinction has yet to be examined. Using Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (A.P.A., 1994), I identified primary and secondary psychopaths and control participants matched on the Welsh Anxiety Scale (Welsh, 1956) and examined their performance on a lexical decision task, two Stroop tasks, and a measure of emotional intelligence. Unexpectedly, compared to controls, both primary and secondary psychopaths demonstrated less facilitation to emotion words relative to neutral words on the lexical decision task and comparable interference to emotion words on the Stroop tasks. As predicted, these groups earned differential profiles on the emotional intelligence questionnaire. The response modulation hypothesis is offered as a potential explanation for these results. Alternative assessment criteria for these criminal subtypes and directions for future investigation are discussed. |
