Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 6001 Research Park Blvd., Madison, WI 53719, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Aug;7(6):708-14. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr048. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
Psychopathic behavior is characteristically amoral, but to date research studies have largely failed to identify any systematic differences in moral judgment capability between psychopaths and non-psychopaths. In this study, we investigate whether significant differences in moral judgment emerge when taking into account the phenotypic heterogeneity of the disorder through a well-validated distinction between psychopathic subtypes. Three groups of incarcerated participants [low-anxious psychopaths (n = 12), high-anxious psychopaths (n = 12) and non-psychopaths (n = 24)] completed a moral judgment test involving hypothetical dilemmas. The moral dilemmas featured 'personal' (i.e. involving direct physical harm) or 'impersonal' (i.e. involving indirect or remote harm) actions. Compared to non-psychopaths, both groups of psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the impersonal actions. However, only the low-anxious psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the personal harms when commission of the harm would maximize aggregate welfare-the 'utilitarian' choice. High-anxious psychopaths and non-psychopaths did not significantly differ in their personal moral judgments. These results provide novel laboratory evidence of abnormal moral judgment in psychopaths, as well as additional support for the importance of considering psychopathic subtypes.
心理变态行为通常是不道德的，但迄今为止，研究基本上未能确定心理变态者和非心理变态者在道德判断能力上存在任何系统性差异。在这项研究中，我们通过对心理变态亚型进行经过充分验证的区分，研究了在考虑该障碍的表型异质性时，道德判断是否会出现显著差异。三组被监禁的参与者[低焦虑型心理变态者（n = 12），高焦虑型心理变态者（n = 12）和非心理变态者（n = 24）]完成了一项涉及假设困境的道德判断测试。道德困境具有“个人”（即涉及直接身体伤害）或“非个人”（即涉及间接或远程伤害）行为。与非心理变态者相比，两组心理变态者都更有可能支持非个人行为。然而，只有低焦虑型心理变态者在实施伤害会最大化总福利的情况下，即“功利主义”选择时，更有可能支持个人伤害。高焦虑型心理变态者和非心理变态者在个人道德判断上没有显著差异。这些结果为心理变态者异常道德判断提供了新的实验室证据，并进一步支持了考虑心理变态亚型的重要性。
