The dark side of personality functioning: associations between antisocial cognitions, personality functioning (AMPD), empathy and mentalisation.

With the introduction of the new psychiatric diagnostic manuals, personality functioning has gained new prominence. Several studies have reported consistent findings that individual showing high levels of antisocial features are associated with alterations in interpersonal functioning domains such as empathy and mentalisation. The focus of the current study ( We implemented a hypothesis-driven approach using logistic regression and a data-driven approach using machine learning to examine distinct but related measures of personality functioning as predictors of antisocial cognitions. Antisocial cognitions were associated with low interpersonal functioning as expected, but only when not adjusting for antisocial traits, which accounted for almost all the association. The data-driven analysis revealed that individual items assessing empathic concern in personality functioning scales (as opposed to the whole scores) explained low antisocial cognitions even when adjusting for antisocial traits. Antisocial cognitions appear to be associated to two distinct traits, the antisocial and a specific type of personality functioning. This finding is discussed in terms of the possible distinction between two motivational forces: to harm others/prioritize one's advantage, and to help suffering others.

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Copyright © 2024 Rabl, Maerz, Viviani and Labek.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor HK declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors KL.