A Moderated Mediation Analysis to Further Examine the Role of Verbal Intelligence in the Association Between Psychopathic Personality and Crime

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X231159877
• Author: Sonja Etzler,Martin Rettenberger,Sonja Rohrmann
• Date: 01 November 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X231159877

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(15) 1509 –1525

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X231159877

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Article

A Moderated Mediation

Analysis to Further Examine

the Role of Verbal Intelligence

in the Association Between

Psychopathic Personality and

Crime

Sonja Etzler1,2, Martin Rettenberger2,3 ,

and Sonja Rohrmann1

Abstract

The current study examined the association between psychopathy, criminal behavior,

and the role of verbal intelligence. One promising approach is to examine alternative

links between psychopathic traits and criminality like moderation and mediation

effects by considering the potential relevance of verbal intelligence as a possible

moderating variable. We hypothesized that psychopathic traits linearly predict

antisocial behavior (ASB) but that a conviction because of ASB is moderated by

verbal intelligence. To test a path model of this hypothesis, N = 305 participants (42%

women; n = 172 inmates of German correctional facilities) filled in questionnaires

to assess psychopathic traits, ASB, criminal behavior, and verbal intelligence. The

moderated mediation analysis revealed that high psychopathic traits go along with a

higher number of ASB, whereas individuals with higher verbal intelligence were more

likely to evade detection, thus being more successful in their antisocial acts. These

results sheds further light on the construct of adaptive psychopathy, supporting

the notion that also non-incarcerated psychopathic individuals act highly antisocial.

Only separate factors like verbal intelligence might mitigate negative consequences.

Further implications for the concept of successful psychopathy are discussed.

1Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

2Centre for Criminology (Kriminologische Zentralstelle – KrimZ), Wiesbaden, Germany

3Johannes Gutenberg-University (JGU), Mainz, Germany

Corresponding Author:

Sonja Etzler, Department of Psychology, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6,

Frankfurt 60323, Germany.

Email: etzler@psych.uni-frankfurt.de

1159877IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X231159877International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyEtzler et al.

research-article2023

1510 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(15)

Keywords

psychopathy, verbal intelligence, moderated mediation, criminality, antisocial behavior

In his influential monograph “The Mask of Sanity” Cleckley (1941) defined affective

and interpersonal detachment as well as an disinhibited behavioral disposition as core

constructs of the psychopathic personality disorder. Although there are different con-

ceptualizations of psychopathy (Cleckley, 1941; Hare, 2003; Lilienfeld & Andrews,

1996), all of them agree that there is a strong relationship between (high) psychopathic

traits on the one hand and the likelihood of deviant and delinquent behavior on the other

hand. Consequently, the prevalence of psychopathy is substantially higher in prison

samples than in non-criminal samples (e.g., 15% vs. 1%, Coid et al., 2009; Hare, 1991,

2003). However, there are also individuals scoring high in psychopathic traits but are

still not sentenced for an official crime (Hare, 1996). These individuals represent a

group of non-criminal, adaptive, or sometimes called “successful” psychopaths

(Benning et al., 2018) who can succeed in private and particularly in professional life at

least from a subjective point of view (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Dutton, 2012).

Widom (1977) was the first to study adaptive psychopaths, which she recruited

through advertisements in the newspaper. Although not providing a criminal psycho-

pathic control group, Widom (1977) revealed that a high number of the adaptive psy-

chopaths had been arrested (64%), whereas only 18% of the sample reported to ever

have been convicted, thus indicating an antisocial but still “successful” lifestyle, in

terms of avoiding serious consequences of their antisocial behavior (ASB). Besides

this, the group of successful psychopathic individuals showed a higher level of educa-

tion than their criminal counterparts, whereas the socioeconomic was positioned at the

lower end of the spectrum and only somewhat higher than traditionally defined psy-

chopaths. No differences were found in Machiavellism and executive functioning but

the majority of the sample chose the inhibitation option in a delay of gratification task.

To systemize the differences between adaptive and criminal psychopathy or

between psychopathic personality and crime, respectively, Benning et al. (2018)

described three models for successful psychopathy, representing three possible links

between psychopathic traits and criminal behavior: First, the non-criminal psychopath

is a subclinical manifestation of the criminal psychopath assuming a linear relation-

ship between psychopathy and crime with many shared characteristics, for example,

personality correlates and drug use. Second, in the model of moderated psychopathy,

there are additional compensatory variables that moderate the association between

psychopathy and criminality to separate non-criminal from criminal psychopaths,

such as age, intelligence, executive functioning, parenting, socioeconomic status,

physiology, and neuroanatomy. Third, in the multiprocess model of psychopathy, there

are two different etiologically distinct dimensions of psychopathy, weak defensive

(fear) reactivity that is associated with the interpersonal-affective features of psychop-

athy, such as manipulativeness and low empathy, and deficits in executive functioning

that could manifest in relatively high degrees of impulsivity and irresponsibility.