Motives Linking Subclinical Psychopathy and Benign Masochism to Recreational Drug use

• Published date: 01 January 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221145024
• Author: Christina Sagioglou,Tobias Greitemeyer
• Date: 01 January 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Journal of Drug Issues

2024, Vol. 54(1) 22–37

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00220426221145024

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Motives Linking Subclinical

Psychopathy and Benign

Masochism to Recreational

Drug use

Christina Sagioglou

1

and Tobias Greitemeyer

1

Abstract

As the use of some psychoactive substances continues to be a global health risk, it is important to

understand why people use them. We compared the predictive power of psychopathy and

masochism with regard to lifetime recreational drug use and tested the underlying motives in a

sample of 415 US-based adults. Psychopathy predicted use of illicit drugs, cannabis, and nicotine,

while masochism predicted cannabis, alcohol, and caffeine use. Both traits were related to most

motives, but the motives differentially predicted substance use. Expansion motivation was the sole

motive for illicit drug use, whereas cannabis was predicted mainly by expansion and enhancement.

Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine were used to escape daily worries, and alcohol was further used for

social reasons. Benign masochism is a newly identif‌ied predictor of popular drug use. Future

research could investigate masochism and expansion motivation as predictors of potentially

harmful substance use.

Keywords

subclinical psychopathy, benign masochism, recreational drug use, motives for recreational drug

use, general personality

Introduction

Recreational drug use continues to be common around the world. Caffeine is by far the most

widely consumed psychoactive substance, with 89% of adult US Americans consuming it

regularly (Fulgoni, Keast, & Lieberman, 2015). Alcohol is second, with just 27 countries

worldwide (mostly those where it is illegal) listing consumption of less than 1 L (net alcohol) per

person per year (World Bank, 2022), and 50% of US Americans reporting to have consumed

alcohol in the past month (NSDUH, 2020). Despite decreasing numbers, smoking tobacco is still

prevalent, with 21% of US Americans aged 12 or older having used nicotine products in the past

1

Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Corresponding Author:

Christina Sagioglou, Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, AT-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.

Email: christina.sagioglou@uibk.ac.at

month (NSDUH, 2020), and 15% of daily smokers (IHME, 2022). Apart from these popular and

mostly legal drugs, there are a number of (mostly) illicit drugs that are consumed frequently

around the globe, such as cannabis, cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines, and opiates (United Nations,

2022). As many drugs are harmful for physical and mental health (Nutt, King, Saulsbury, &

Blakemore, 2007), it is important to identify potential risk factors. Here, we investigate trait

psychopathy and masochism as predictors of lifetime recreational drug use of various psycho-

active substances, with a particular focus on the motives that link these traits to drug use.

One of the personality traits most closely linked to drug use is psychopathy, both clinical and

nonclinical manifestations of psychopathy (Hare, 1999;Lebreton, Binning, & Adorno, 2006). It is

characterized by malevolent interpersonal behavior such as deceit and manipulation, affective

def‌icits such as callousness and lack of empathy, and impulsive, reckless, often criminal be-

havioral tendencies (Mahmut, Menictas, Stevenson, & Homewood, 2011;Williams, Paulhus, &

Hare, 2007). It is particularly the latter that relate psychopathy to psychoactive substance use

(Schulz, Murphy, & Verona, 2016;Walsh et al., 2007). Psychopathy is characterized by low self-

control (Jonason & Tost, 2010), pursuit of immediate gratif‌ication at the cost of long-term interests

(Hare, 1999), risk taking (Jones & Paulhus, 2017;Lyons, 2015), and a high need for stimulation

and sensation seeking (Blackburn, 1969;Hare, 1999). In combination, these tendencies result in

the use of illicit drugs, nicotine, and alcohol (Jonason, Koenig, & Tost, 2010), often to alleviate

boredom (Hare, 1999;Lebreton et al., 2006).

Opposed to Machiavellianism, which is characterized by a similarly manipulative interpersonal

style (Jones & Paulhus, 2009), psychopathy is associated with extraordinary levels of impulsivity

in situations where Machiavellianism predicts more thoughtful and controlled behavior, linking

psychopathy to higher levels of risk taking (Jones & Paulhus, 2017). Notably, it is the lack of self-

control and future perspective that link psychopathy to the use of illicit substances, whereas the

interpersonal and emotional def‌icits—aspects they share with Machiavellists, for example—are

unrelated or even negatively related to drug use (Schulz et al., 2016;Smith & Newman, 1990).

Accordingly, research studying psychopathy jointly with Machiavellianism and narcissism as the

Dark Triad constellation (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) found that only psychopathy predicts illicit

drug use and cigarette smoking. In contrast, all three traits were linked to alcohol use—albeit

possibly for different reasons (Jonason et al., 2010).

In part via shared sensation seeking tendencies, subclinical levels of psychopathy are linked to

non-sexual, common masochism (Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2020). Masochism refers to the

enjoyment of everyday aversive stimuli that simulate threat (Rozin, Guillot, Fincher, Rozin, &

Tsukayama, 2013;Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2016,2020). Typical examples are aversive aes-

thetic preferences (sadness-inducing art; disgust- and fear-inducing horror f‌iction), the liking of

painful activities such as ice bathing (Ferris, 2018), and fear-inducing experiences such as haunted

house attractions (Andersen et al., 2020), but masochism also encompasses the enjoyment of spicy

food and strong tastes such as alcohol or black coffee (Rozin et al., 2013;Sagioglou &

Greitemeyer, 2020). The pleasure in the experience seems to be due to (not in spite of) the

negative arousal induced by the stimuli (Andersen et al., 2020;Ferris, 2018;Rozin & Schiller,

1980), and people’s favorite level of aversiveness is often the one they can barely tolerate (Klein,

2014;Rozin et al., 2013). For example, enjoyment of horror f‌ilms and haunted houses is positively

correlated with the fear felt during these experiences (Andersen et al., 2020;Andrade & Cohe n,

2007).

A number of motivational accounts have been offered for masochistic pleasure. Rozin (1996)

and Rozin et al. (2013) theorized that masochists enjoy the mind-over-body experience that

aversive stimuli induce. Individuals react to the stimuli as though there was a threat as in the

pounding heart when experiencing fear or the repulsive tendencies when consuming bitter

substances. At the same time, at higher-order cognitive levels the mind is aware of the simulation

Sagioglou and Greitemeyer 23