Psychopathic personality traits are associated with experimentally induced approach and appraisal of fear-evoking stimuli indicating fear enjoyment

The extent to which deficits in the perception and experience of fear contribute to psychopathic symptoms is an ongoing matter of debate. Traditional theories emphasize diminished threat processing as the core fear deficit in psychopathic individuals, whereas recent approaches, such as the fear enjoyment hypothesis (FEH), propose that anomalies in the subjective experience of fear are related to interpersonal-affective psychopathic traits. In order to test predictions of the FEH, we conducted an online experimental study to examine whether approach and avoidance tendencies in response to fear-eliciting stimuli are related to specific psychopathic traits (interpersonal-affective symptoms and boldness). We expected these traits to be associated with faster approach towards and slower avoidance of fear-evoking images in an approach-avoidance task (AAT). In a community-based sample of 211 individuals (69% female), self-reported interpersonal-affective traits predicted more positive appraisal ratings of and a faster approach towards fear-evoking stimuli in the AAT paradigm. The link between psychopathic traits and faster approach towards fear images could not be explained by traits related to impulsiveness or impaired inhibitory control. The present findings shed light on the subjective appraisal of fear-evoking situations by individuals with elevated psychopathic traits. Implications on etiological models of psychopathy are discussed.