Examining psychopathy: Connections with disgust, moral severity, and gender

This study aimed to determine the relationship between psychopathy, disgust, morality, and gender. Previous studies indicated that psychopathy was correlated with a lack of morality and that disgust encourages conformity. Further, both disgust and psychopathy have gender differences, with females having a higher disgust sensitivity and males having more psychopathic traits. It was hypothesized that disgust would predict psychopathy, which would mediate the relationship between disgust and conformity, as well as moral severity. In addition, disgust was expected to mediate the genderpsychopathy relationship. Results indicated that disgust and psychopathy positively and negatively, respectively, predicted moral conformity and severity. Contrary to the hypothesis, the amount of disgust participants reported was positively related to psychopathy. Further, the gender hypothesis was partially supported in that males reported greater psychopathy and lower disgust. Future research should consider gender complexity and the relationships between subfactors of disgust and psychopathy in the emergence of moral transgressions.