Introduction: Decision-making and emotion recognition are two
fundamental themes in social cognition. Disorders in these areas can lead
to interpersonal, psychosocial, and legal problems for the individual and
society. The likelihood of consequent aggression and crime makes them
foci of forensic psychiatry over time. In this study, two developmental
disorders that have a clear relationship with crime, that are antisocial
personality disorder (ASPD), and psychopathy are investigated for their
relationship with these social cognitive deficits.
Methods: The present study involved 23 male prison inmates who were
diagnosed with both antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy,
as well as 23 control participants who were matched for age, gender,
and level of education. Following the psychiatric interview, Reading the
Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), Toronto
Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Defense Styles Questionnaire (DSQ), Childhood
Psychic Trauma Scale (CTQ), Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) were
administered to all participants.
Results: The results of the study showed that ASPD group performed
statistically worse than healthy controls in TAS, CTQ, all items of DSQ,
PCL-R Factor 1 and 2, and all the IGT scores (p<0.05). There were no
statistically significant difference between in the RMET test performances
Conclusion: These results suggest that ASPD and psychopathy lead to
impaired decision-making behaviors due to the inability to recognize
one’s own emotions and impulsivity, and that these characteristics play a
critical role in the criminal behavior of individuals. In addition, contrary
to expectations, the results of affective theory of mind assessed with the
RMET showed similar characteristics in homicide convicts and healthy
controls. These data indicate the need for further research in the field of
forensic psychiatry.
Keywords: Antisocial personality disorder, criminality, decision making,
forensic psychiatry, psychopathy, social cognition