Backstabbers and Bullies by Adrian Furnham

Author:Adrian Furnham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

7.6 Possible causes

Babiak and Hare (2006) summarize the issue neatly.

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Are psychopathic features the product of nature or nurture? As with most other things human, the answer is that both are involved. A better question is ‘To what extent do nature and nurture influence the development of the traits and behaviours that define psychopathy?’

* * *

The answer to this question is becoming much clearer with the application of behavioural genetics to the study of personality traits and behavioural dispositions.

Several recent twin studies provide convincing evidence that genetic factors play at least as important a role in the development of the core features of psychopathy as do environmental factors and forces. Researchers Blonigen et al. (2003) stated that the results of their study of 271 twin pairs provided ‘substantial evidence of genetic contributions to variance in the personality construct of psychopathy’. Subsequently, researchers Larrson et al., (2006) arrived at a similar conclusion in their study of 1090 adolescent twin pairs: ‘A genetic factor explains most of the variation in the psychopathic personality.’ Viding et al., (2005) studied 3687 seven-year-old twin pairs and also concluded that ‘the core symptoms of psychopathy are strongly genetically determined’. They reported that the genetic contribution was highest when callous unemotional traits were combined with antisocial behaviours.

Evidence of this sort does not mean that the pathways to adult psychopathy are fixed and immutable, but it does indicate that the social environment will have a tough time in overcoming what nature has provided. As noted in Without Conscience, the elements needed for the development of psychopathy – such as a profound inability to experience empathy and the complete range of emotions, including fear – are provided in part by nature and possibly by some unknown biological influences on the developing foetus and neonate. As a result, the capacity for developing internal controls and conscience and for making emotional ‘connections’ with others is greatly reduced. To use a simple analogy, the potter is instrumental in moulding pottery from clay (nurture) but the characteristics of the pottery also depend on the sort of clay available (nature). (pp. 24–25).

One obvious question is how common psychopathic traits are in the average population. One recent big study found it affects less than 1 per cent of the population but it is more common among prisoners, homeless people and psychiatric patients. Psychopaths tend to be violent, young males. It is argued that of the prison population around 8 per cent of males and 2 per cent of females are psychopaths (Cold et al., 2009)

However, the biological psychologists have a different model. Goa and Raine (2010) in a paper on the neurobiological differentiators of successful and unsuccessful psychopaths note: We postulate that intact or enhanced neurobiological processes, including better executive functioning, increased autonomic reactivity, normative volumes of prefrontal gray and amygdala, and normal frontal functioning, may serve as factors that protect successful psychopaths from conviction and allow them to attain their life goals, using more covert and nonviolent approaches. In contrast, brain structural and

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