Citation

Fernandes S, Aharoni E, Harenski CL, Caldwell M, Kiehl KA. J. Res. Pers. 2020; 86: e103962.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103962

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Since the historical conception of psychopathy, researchers have been interested in understanding moral functioning among psychopathic individuals. The present study investigated the association between psychopathic traits and moral intuitions among incarcerated juvenile offenders (N = 178). Participants were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist:Youth Version (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (Graham et al., 2011), which defines five core moral foundations: Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity. As expected, psychopathy in juvenile offenders negatively predicted endorsement of all five foundations. This study is the first to demonstrate broad abnormalities in Haidt et al.'s moral foundations in a juvenile sample and can help explain delinquent behavior in juveniles with psychopathic traits. Implications for theories of psychopathy are discussed.

Keywords: Juvenile justice

Language: en

Keywords

Morality; Juvenile delinquents; Moral foundations; Psychopathy