A recent study of incarcerated women found that those with pronounced psychopathic traits tended to hold their head more rigidly during a clinical interview. The study used an automated detection algorithm to assess head position and dynamics. The research was published in Personality and Individual Differences.
Psychopathic traits are a specific cluster of personality characteristics that include a profound lack of empathy and remorse resulting in indifferent or callous attitudes towards others. Individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits tend to display shallow emotional responses and have difficulty forming genuine emotional attachments with others. They tend to be deceitful and manipulative, using charm or deceit to achieve their goals.
A strong sense of egocentricity and a grandiose sense of self-worth are also common, making them overconfident and disdainful of others. Furthermore, individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits tend to be impulsive and thrill-seeking, showing poor behavior controls and a disregard for social norms and the law. These traits make such individuals a challenge in social and professional settings and pose risks for antisocial behavior.
Scientists have also studied behavioral specificities of individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits. One study found that psychopathic murderers tend to use subordinating conjunctions when they talk (e.g., because, since, etc.) more often than non-psychopathic murderers. Other studies found that incarcerated psychopathic men tend to use higher number of hand gestures serving to break up communication, that psychopathic men in general tend to use more hand gestures compared to non-psychopathic individuals, and that they blinked more often.
Study author Samantha N. Rodriguez and her colleagues aimed to determine whether individuals with psychopathic traits exhibit specific patterns of head movement. The researchers noted that head movements are a crucial part of nonverbal communication, often used to support or contradict spoken words and convey various messages. Additionally, multiple studies have associated specific head movement patterns with various psychopathological conditions. The authors hypothesized that psychopathic traits might be linked to distinctive head movement patterns.
The study involved 213 incarcerated women from medium- and maximum-security correctional facilities in the United States. Their ages ranged from 21 to 57 years, with data collection spanning from 2009 to 2019.
Participants underwent an assessment of psychopathic traits using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), which included a semi-structured interview recorded by the study’s authors. An automated detection algorithm was then used to assess the participants’ head positions and dynamics during the interview, aiming to identify patterns specific to those with pronounced psychopathic traits.
The results indicated that individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits tended to move their heads less during the interview than those with lower levels of these traits. In other words, they held their heads in a more rigid position compared to individuals without psychopathic traits. This tendency was associated with both interpersonal/affective and lifestyle-related psychopathic traits.
“The current study identified unique patterns of head dynamics associated with psychopathic traits in a sample of incarcerated women. Specifically, women scoring high on PCL-R Factor 1 (interpersonal/affective psychopathic traits), and Factor 2 (lifestyle/behavioral and antisocial/developmental psychopathic traits) were characterized by increased time spent in τ1 [position minimally different from the average head position], or the proportion of interview time with a head position within the range of minimal movement away from AHP [average head position],” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on one of the specificities of nonverbal behavior of psychopathic individuals. However, it should be noted that these data came from a single clinical interview session held in a prison setting. Head movements of psychopathic individuals in other types of situations might not be the same.
The paper, “Automated patterns of head dynamics are associated with psychopathic traits in incarcerated women,” was authored by Samantha N. Rodriguez, Aparna R. Gullapalli, Palmer S. Tirrell, J. Michael Maurer, Ugesh Egala, Bethany G. Edwards, Nathaniel E. Anderson, Carla L. Harenski, Jean Decety, Craig S. Neumann, and Kent A. Kiehl.