A new study suggests that people with heightened psychopathic traits may find enjoyment in frightening situations rather than experiencing a lack of fear. The survey results are personality journalchallenges long-held beliefs about the relationship between psychopathic tendencies and fearful experiences.
Psychopathy is a psychological condition characterized by a variety of behaviors and personality traits, including a lack of empathy, superficial charm, manipulativeness, deceitfulness, and impulsivity. Psychopaths often disregard the rights and feelings of others, leading to antisocial behavior.
Traditionally, psychopathy has been associated with abnormalities in fear processing, and most theories assume that individuals with psychopathic traits have reduced or absent fear responses. This reduction in fear is thought to underlie the risk-taking and antisocial behavior seen in psychotic individuals.
of fear enjoyment hypothesis provides a new perspective on how individuals with psychopathic traits perceive and experience fear. In contrast to traditional views that emphasize a lack of fear, this hypothesis suggests that psychopaths may not only experience fear, but may actually enjoy it. According to this theory, people high in psychopathic traits may be more likely to evaluate fear-inducing situations positively and seek out such experiences.
To further investigate the fear-enjoyment hypothesis, the researchers recruited participants from both academic settings and the general population. Efforts were made to specifically engage individuals from contexts likely to exhibit higher levels of the traits of interest. This includes communities that engage in high-risk sports such as boxing and those that frequent tattoo studios, environments where higher psychopathy scores, sensation-seeking, and fear-indulgence may be more prevalent. was included.
The study’s final sample included 353 participants, with women making up nearly 69% of the group. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 77 years, with a mean age of 37.30 years.
This study consisted of two main parts: a research component and an experimental component. The study included a variety of questionnaires designed to measure participants’ current emotional state, psychopathic traits, sensation-seeking tendencies, and ability to enjoy fear, including the Fear Enjoyment Questionnaire ( FEQ).
In the experimental component, participants were shown six video clips categorized into three types: excitement-inducing, fear-inducing, and neutral (control). These clips were presented in random order to minimize order effects, and participants viewed the clips from a first-person perspective to increase immersion and emotional engagement. After viewing each clip, participants rated their emotional reactions using a series of adjectives that captured both positive and negative aspects of their experience.
Consistent with the fear enjoyment hypothesis, researchers found a significant positive association between self-reported fear enjoyment and psychopathic traits. Additionally, individuals who scored higher on Factor 1 Psychopathic Traits (which includes interpersonal and emotional components such as lack of empathy and superficial charm) showed unique response patterns to fear-inducing videos. I did. These participants reported significantly more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions in response to fear-inducing stimuli compared to responses to excitement-inducing or neutral stimuli.
Although this study confirmed the hypothesis that individuals high in Factor 1 psychopathic traits would experience fear-evoking situations more actively and have fewer negative emotions, findings regarding psychopathic boldness shows a more complex situation. Psychopathic boldness is characterized by a strong resilience to stress and a tendency toward social dominance.
Participants who scored high on boldness showed a pattern of less negative evaluations of all types of video stimuli, including fear-inducing, excitement-evoking, and neutral videos. . This suggests that trait boldness may influence a general tendency toward fewer negative emotions or broader stress tolerance, rather than the enjoyment of specific fears. doing.
The disparate findings related to boldness highlight the multifaceted nature of psychopathy, with the subjective experience of fear and its enjoyment being more closely linked to the interpersonal and emotional deficits encapsulated in the trait of factor 1. This suggests that there is a possibility that
The results of this study provide additional evidence supporting the fear-enjoyment hypothesis. However, this study is not without limitations. Its online format and reliance on self-reported data means that further research is needed to improve our understanding of these findings, particularly studies that can measure physiological responses to fear.
the study, “The pleasure of being scared: The experience of fear in psychopathology” is written by Miriam J. Hoffmann, Andreas Moklos, and Sabrina Schneider.
