Is Fear Deficit a Harbinger of Future Psychopaths?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110519122242.htm

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2011) — Psychopaths are charming, but they often get themselves and others in big trouble; their willingness to break social norms and lack of remorse means they are often at risk for crimes and other irresponsible behaviors.

One hypothesis on how psychopathy works is that it has to do with a fear deficit. A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that children with a particular risk factor for psychopathy don't register fear as quickly as healthy children.

The hypothesis that psychopaths don't feel or recognize fear dates back to the 1950s, says the study's primary author Patrick D. Sylvers, of the University of Washington. "What happens is you're born without that fear, so when your parents try to socialize you, you don't really respond appropriately because you're not scared." By the same token, if you hurt a peer and they give you a fearful look, "most of us would learn from that and back off," but a child with developing psychopathy would keep tormenting their classmate.

Some recent research has suggested that the problem is attention; that people with psychopathy just don't pay attention to fearful faces. That would mean you might be able to help troubled children recognize fear by training them to look into people's eyes, for example. Some studies have suggested that might help

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The researchers were most interested in "callous unemotionality" -- a lack of regard for others' feelings. Children who rank high on callous unemotionality are at risk of developing psychopathy later

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he researchers also found that children in the study tended to respond more slowly to faces showing disgust, another threatening emotion -- in this case, one that suggests something is toxic or otherwise wrong. Sylvers says psychological scientists should consider that psychopathy may not be related just to fearlessness, but to a more general problem with processing threats

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