A twin study of self-reported psychopathic personality traits

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00184-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous twin studies attempting to assess the origins of psychopathic personality traits have mainly focused on an overt behavioral conceptualization of the syndrome as defined by a history of chronic antisocial behaviors. This investigation instead focused on a personality-based approach which emphasizes maladaptive personality traits as central to the syndrome. Psychopathic traits were indexed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), a self-report measure designed to assess the personality domain of the disorder. Biometric parameters obtained from the responses of 353 male twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry revealed significant genetic influences, largely non-additive in nature. Although preliminary due to the modest sample size, the findings encourage a larger scale investigation with greater statistical power to evaluate competing models of genetic influence.

Introduction

The construct of psychopathy has been the topic of extensive investigation. The disorder is defined by a conjunction of affective, behavioral, and interpersonal features including egocentricity, fearlessness (Lykken, 1982a), impulsivity (Zuckerman, 1978), shallow emotions, lack of empathy or guilt, manipulativeness, and recurrent violations of social norms (Cleckley, 1941/1988). However, psychopathy research has been plagued throughout its history by a lack of consensus regarding the conceptualization of the syndrome. In clarifying the conceptual boundaries of psychopathy, two prominent approaches have emerged. One group of scholars view psychopathy primarily from a personality-based approach (e.g. Hare, 1970, Lilienfeld, 1994, Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996, Lykken, 1995, McCord & McCord, 1964). This is exemplified by Cleckley's classic clinical description of psychopathy as a constellation of deviant personality traits. Other scholars, however, (e.g. Cloninger, 1978, Spitzer et al., 1975) conceptualize psychopathy as a behavioral syndrome that should instead be operationalized in terms of a history of chronic antisocial behaviors. Such behavioral, categorical conceptualizations continue to dominate the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV [American Psychiatric Association, 1994]; Miller et al., 2001, Widiger, 1997, Widiger & Clark, 2000).

Although previous behavior genetic studies have attempted to ascertain the relative influence of genetic and environmental etiological factors to the syndrome by adopting a behavioral approach, they have not specifically tapped the core personality features as defined by Cleckley. Therefore, this investigation sought to determine via twin methodology the relative genetic and environmental contributions to the variance in the personality construct of psychopathy.

A multitude of prior twin and adoption studies have examined genetic and environmental influences on criminality (Coccaro & McNamee, 1998, Eysenck & Eysenck, 1978, Goldsmith & Gottesman, 1996, Hutchings & Mednick, 1975, Tehrani & Mednick, 2001), juvenile delinquency (Jacobson et al., 2000, Jacobson et al., 2000, Rowe, 1983, Rowe, 1986, Taylor et al., 2000), and adult antisocial behavior (Cadoret et al., 1990, Cadoret et al., 1987, Crowe, 1974, Dilalla & Gottesman, 1989, Krueger et al., 2001, Lyons et al., 1995, McGuffin & Thapar, 1998). These studies have for the most part utilized behavioral measures related to criminality as well as criteria and symptom counts for the diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) from the DSM-III (APA, 1980), DSM-III-R (APA, 1987), or DSM-IV (APA, 1994).

Research of this kind has consistently revealed substantial genetic contributions to the antisocial phenotype (c.f. Dilalla & Gottesman, 1989). A review of the literature also suggests that while the shared or family environment may promote adolescence-limited delinquency (Moffitt, 1993), genetic influence is more prominent among those individuals who start young and continue to engage in a pattern of life-course persistent antisocial behavior (see also Dilalla & Gottesman, 1989, Lyons et al., 1995, Moffitt, 1993, Taylor et al., 2000; for exceptions see Rowe, 1983, Rowe, 1986). For example, Taylor, Iacono, and McGue (2000), reported probandwise concordance rates for twins selected as either early starter (i.e. life-course persistent) or late starter (i.e. adolescence-limited) antisocial phenotypes. With respect to the early starter phenotype, co-twins of monozygotic (MZ) pairs were at a substantially greater risk than co-twins in dizygotic (DZ) pairs (55 and 29% probandwise concordances, respectively). In contrast, for the late starter phenotype, there was relatively little differential risk to co-twins based on zygosity (MZ and DZ probandwise concordance, 43 and 39%, respectively).

Furthermore, in behavior genetic studies of adult criminality, MZ twins typically have higher concordance rates than DZ twins (Dilalla & Gottesman, 1989, Eysenck & Eysenck, 1978, McGuffin & Thapar, 1998, Tehrani & Mednick, 2001). In a review of genetic studies of adult criminality, Goldsmith and Gottesman (1996) calculated MZ and DZ pairwise concordance rates of 52% and 23%, respectively, indicating that MZ twins are more than twice as likely to be concordant for criminal conduct than DZ twins. In another review, Dilalla and Gottesman (1989) noted an average MZ pairwise concordance of 51% and DZ pairwise concordance rate of 22% across several studies.

In addition, adoption studies of criminality have provided evidence for genetic contributions to the etiology of antisocial behavior. Several investigations and reviews have shown that adoptees with biological parents who were criminal had higher rates of criminal convictions than control samples of adoptees without such pedigrees (Crowe, 1974, Hutchings & Mednick, 1975, Tehrani & Mednick, 2001). Data from two sets of adult adoptees also support the importance of genetic influences on antisocial behavior as diagnosed by DSM- III criteria (Cadoret et al., 1987, Cadoret et al., 1990).

Although these findings regarding heritable influences on antisocial behavior have appeared consistently across several studies and designs, their relevance to the construct of psychopathy is unclear. Essentially, these studies have all focused on the etiology of behaviors associated with ASPD, delinquency, and criminality. These investigations have not examined psychopathy in terms of a constellation of maladaptive personality traits as delineated by Cleckley (1941/1988).

A system that exists for assessing this alternative conceptualization of psychopathy is Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Probably the best validated and most widely used measure of psychopathy, the PCL-R has been consistently utilized in forensic settings and has shown excellent psychometric properties. The PCL-R is a diagnostic inventory consisting of 20 items that is scored on the basis of a structured interview and review of collateral file information.

Factor analysis of the PCL-R has yielded a latent two-factor model of psychopathy (Harpur, Hare, & Hakstian, 1989). Factor 1, encompasses emotional detachment and affective-interpersonal features of psychopathy, including many of the core personality traits suggested by Cleckley (1941/1988) such as lack of guilt, shallow affect, and narcissism. Factor 2, in contrast, relates to an impulsive, antisocial lifestyle, and comprises many chronic behaviors typical of ASPD such as a parasitic dependence, juvenile delinquency, and irresponsibility. These two facets of psychopathy show differing patterns of relations with various external criteria, including personality trait measures (Harpur et al., 1989, Patrick, 1994, Verona et al., 2001) and indices of emotional reactivity (Patrick, 1994, Patrick et al., 1993).

Based on the operational criteria used in the previously mentioned behavior genetic designs, these studies appear to have tapped the antisocial behaviors related to Factor 2 of the PCL-R, but not the core personality traits of Factor 1. Although the two factors are moderately correlated, it is important to determine whether there is differential heritability for the personality dimension of psychopathy. However, the PCL-R was constructed specifically for use within prison populations where researchers have access to file data. An alternative approach is to use a well-validated self-report personality inventory to investigate the etiology of psychopathy in non-criminal populations. This issue is vital given the fact that many psychopathic individuals may function successfully outside of prisons at a sub-clinical level (Ishikawa et al., 2001, Levensone et al., 1995, Widom, 1977).

While analysis of normal range personality traits relevant to psychopathy and other antisocial phenotypes has also revealed genetic contributions (Taylor et al., 2000, Tellegen et al., 1988, Zuckerman et al., 1980), well-known self-report psychopathy scales such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale (McKinley & Hathaway, 1944) and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Socialization (So) scale (Gough, 1960), appear not to assess the core personality traits outlined by Cleckley. Empirically, these instruments correlate primarily with the antisocial deviance facet (Factor 2) of the PCL-R, rather than the affective-interpersonal facet (Factor 1; Hare & Cox, 1978, Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996). Studies examining the Constraint superfactor of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen, 1978/1982), which is closely linked to externalizing and antisocial behavior (Krueger, 1999, Krueger et al., 1996, Krueger et al., 2001, Krueger et al., 1994), are insufficient as well. Evidence from an analysis by Verona et al. (2001), shows that normal range traits related to Constraint also correlate primarily with Factor 2 rather than Factor 1 of the PCL-R. Consequently, twin studies using these self-report indices of personality, although informative, may fail to measure important aspects of psychopathic personality per se.

To facilitate research aimed at comparing the validity of the personality and behavior-based approaches, Lilienfeld and Andrews (1996) introduced the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). The PPI was constructed specifically to assess the core personality traits of psychopathy rather than the antisocial behavior facet. The criterion validity of the PPI has been demonstrated through correlations with the PCL-R. Analyses from a study in which the PPI and PCL-R were administered to prison inmates (Poythress, Edens, & Lilienfeld, 1998) revealed that most of the unique variance in PPI scores was associated with the affective-interpersonal features (Factor 1) rather than the antisocial deviance features (Factor 2) of the PCL-R. This attests to the validity of the PPI as a measure of the core personality facet of psychopathy.

This synopsis of the behavioral genetic research on psychopathy leads us to the primary objectives of the present study. Previous behavior genetic research has addressed issues related to etiological influences on antisocial behavior as characterized by ASPD and chronic criminality. The current investigation, in contrast, seeks to determine the relative genetic and environmental contributions to variance in the core personality facet of psychopathy. We used the PPI to assess this dimension. As such, this study was the first behavior genetic study to examine the etiology of psychopathy using a personality-based approach.

We expected the results to reveal a substantial genetic influence. While it is difficult to predict the degree and type of genetic loading, twin studies of personality in some instances have suggested effects of genetic non-additivity for complex personality traits (Finkel & McGue, 1997, Tellegen et al., 1988). Non-additive genetic effects consist of dominance, epistasis and emergensis. The first two effects involve the interaction among genes within and across loci, respectively. Emergenesis, however, entails several traits, genetically determined independently from one another, combining in a configural manner.

In summary, this investigation sought to assess the relative genetic and environmental contributions to variance in the personality trait dimension of psychopathy. Previous investigations have repeatedly demonstrated the heritability of relevant maladaptive personality traits, as well as antisocial behavior operationalized by criminality and criteria from the DSM. However, it is unclear whether these findings are applicable to the personality domain of psychopathy.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 165 monozygotic (MZ) and 106 dizygotic (DZ) male twin pairs (N=542 individuals) from the Minnesota Twin Registry (MTR) born between the years of 1961 – 1964. The MTR is a birth-record based registry of twins born in Minnesota. Ascertainment procedures for the MTR have been described previously (Lykken, Bouchard, McGue, & Tellegen, 1990). Twin pairs still living and intact were located and recruited by mail. During the original recruitment of twins, a biographical questionnaire

Descriptive statistics

Table 2 lists the means, standard deviations and ranges of the PPI total score and sub-scales for all subjects as well as MZ and DZ twins separately. In order to determine if any differences existed due to birth order or zygosity, separate MANOVA were performed for each of these factors as an omnibus test across all PPI scales. No significant difference was found between the older and younger members of the twin pairs, F(9, 343)=0.591, ns, or between MZ versus DZ twin membership, F(9,

Discussion

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate genetic and environmental contributions to psychopathy defined in terms of a personality construct. Intraclass correlations and model fitting analyses revealed substantial evidence of genetic contributions to variance in the personality construct of psychopathy. Specifically, the wide disparity between the relatively large and significant MZ correlations and the non-significant (i.e. indistinguishable from zero) DZ correlations appears

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the University of Minnesota's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and a University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Senior Honors Thesis Grant awarded to Daniel M. Blonigen, and by Grants MH52384 and MH65137 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

References (76)

  • R.J. Cadoret et al.

    Gene-environmental interaction in the genesis of aggressivity and conduct disorders

    Archives of General Psychiatry

    (1995)
  • G. Carey et al.

    Genetics and personality temperamentsimplicity or complexity?

    Behavior Genetics

    (1983)
  • Cleckley, H. (1941/1988). The mask of sanity. St. Louis:...
  • C.R. Cloninger

    The antisocial personality

    Hospital Practice

    (1978)
  • E.F. Coccaro et al.

    Biology of aggression: Relevance to crime

  • R.R. Crowe

    An adoption study of antisocial personality

    Archives of General Psychiatry

    (1974)
  • L.F. Dilalla et al.

    Heterogeneity of causes for delinquency and criminalitylifespan perspectives

    Development and Psychopathology

    (1989)
  • H.J. Eysenck et al.

    Psychopathy, personality, & genetics

  • D. Finkel et al.

    Sex differences and nonadditivity in heritability of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire scales

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1997)
  • H.H. Goldsmith et al.

    Toddler and childhood temperamentexpanded content, stronger genetic evidence, new evidence for the importance of environment

    Developmental Psychology

    (1997)
  • H.H. Goldsmith et al.

    Heritable variability and variable heritability in developmental psychopathology

  • H.G. Gough

    Theory and method of socialization

    Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

    (1960)
  • M.E. Hamburger et al.

    Psychopathy, gender, and gender rolesimplications for antisocial and histrionic personality disorders

    Journal of Personality Disorders

    (1996)
  • R.D. Hare

    Psychopathy: theory and research

    (1970)
  • R.D. Hare

    Manual for the revised psychopathy checklist

    (1991)
  • R.D. Hare et al.

    Clinical and empirical conceptions of psychopathy, and the selection of subjects for research

  • T.J. Harpur et al.

    Two-factor conceptualization of psychopathyconstruct validity and assessment implications

    Psychological Assessment

    (1989)
  • B. Hutchings et al.

    Registered criminality in the adoptive and biological parents of registered male criminal adoptees

  • S.S. Ishikawa et al.

    Autonomic stress reactivity and executive functions in successful and unsuccessful criminal psychopaths from the community

    Journal of Abnormal Psychology

    (2001)
  • K.C. Jacobson et al.

    Genetic and environmental influences on juvenile antisocial behaviour assessed on two occasions

    Psychological Medicine

    (2000)
  • K.C. Jacobson et al.

    Cohort differences in genetic and environmental influences on retrospective reports of conduct disorder among adult male twins

    Psychological Medicine

    (2000)
  • R.F. Krueger

    Personality traits in late adolescence predict mental disorders in early adulthooda prospective epidemiological study

    Journal of Personality

    (1999)
  • R.F. Krueger

    Phenotypic, genetic, and nonshared environmental parallels in the structure of personalitya view from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (2000)
  • R.F. Krueger et al.

    Personality traits are differently linked to mental disordersa multitrait-multidiagnosis study of an adolescent birth cohort

    Journal of Abnormal Psychology

    (1996)
  • R.F. Krueger et al.

    Altruism and antisocial behaviorindependent tendencies, unique personality correlates, distinct etiologies

    Psychological Science

    (2001)
  • R.F. Krueger et al.

    Assortative mating for antisocial behaviordevelopmental and methodological implications

    Behavior Genetics

    (1998)
  • R.F. Krueger et al.

    Personality traits are linked to crime among men and womenevidence from a birth cohort

    Journal of Abnormal Psychology

    (1994)
  • M.R. Levenson et al.

    Assessing psychopathic attributes in a noninstitutionalized population

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1995)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text