Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, USA.
Personal Disord. 2013 Apr;4(2):175-81. doi: 10.1037/a0026442. Epub 2012 Jan 23.
Mental health evidence concerning antisocial and psychopathic traits appears to be introduced frequently in capital murder trials in the United States to argue that defendants are a "continuing threat" to society and thus worthy of execution. Using a simulation design, the present research examined how layperson perceptions of the psychopathic traits exhibited by a capital defendant would impact their attitudes about whether he should receive a death sentence. Across three studies (total N = 362), ratings of a defendant's perceived level of psychopathy strongly predicted support for executing him. The vast majority of the predictive utility was attributable to interpersonal and affective traits historically associated with psychopathy rather than traits associated with a criminal and socially deviant lifestyle. A defendant's perceived lack of remorse in particular was influential, although perceptions of grandiose self-worth and a manipulative interpersonal style also contributed incrementally to support for a death sentence. These results highlight how attributions regarding socially undesirable personality traits can have a pronounced negative impact on layperson attitudes toward persons who are perceived to exhibit these characteristics.
心理健康方面的证据表明，反社会和精神病态特征在美国的死刑谋杀案审判中经常被提及，以证明被告对社会构成“持续威胁”，因此应被判处死刑。本研究采用模拟设计，考察了一般人对死刑被告表现出的精神病态特征的看法如何影响他们对被告是否应被判处死刑的态度。在三项研究中（总 N=362），对被告感知到的精神病态程度的评分强烈预测了对他执行死刑的支持程度。绝大多数预测能力归因于历史上与精神病态相关的人际和情感特征，而不是与犯罪和社会偏差行为方式相关的特征。特别是被告缺乏悔恨的感知，尽管对自负和操纵性人际关系风格的感知也对死刑判决的支持产生了额外的影响。这些结果强调了对社会不可接受的人格特征的归因如何对被认为表现出这些特征的人产生明显的负面影响。
