Međedović, Janko and Knežević, Goran (2026) Similarities and differences between psychopathy and sadism in response inhibition to affective stimuli. Current Psychology, 45 (17). ISSN 1936-4733
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Little is known about response inhibition to affective-saturated stimuli in psychopathy and sadism. These two traits partially share their content, especially regarding a lack of empathy; hence, it is conceptually important to explore whether there are differences between them in emotional processing. In the present research, we analyzed the associations between psychopathy (and its facets), sadism, and the scores on the go/no-go task (utilized as commission and omission errors, and reaction time) that uses facially expressed emotions as stimuli (N = 663). Four emotions are explored: happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. Bivariate analysis showed positive associations between both types of errors and psychopathy and sadism, while demonstrating negative associations between reaction time and psychopathy. However, multivariate analyses (canonical correlation analysis and structural model) highlighted the differences between the two traits: psychopathy positively predicted commission errors (suggesting decreased response inhibition and lower emotional recognition) and negatively predicted reaction time; sadism positively predicted omission errors (indicating potential attentional deficits) and also (marginally) positively predicted reaction time. Research findings show differences in emotion processing and response inhibition to emotional stimuli in psychopathy and sadism, thus aiding a deeper understanding of the unique feature of both traits and implicitly, different motivations for causing harm to other individuals.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| Depositing User: | Ivana Kovačević |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Sep 2026 11:42 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Sep 2026 11:42 |
| URI: | http://institutecsr.iksi.ac.rs/id/eprint/1278 |
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