Behind the mask: Exploring public perceptions of psychopathy and their influence within the Canadian criminal justice system

This project aimed to determine public perceptions of psychopathic personality disorder and their implications within the Canadian criminal justice system. Participants were presented with 36 psychological symptoms related to psychopathy and other mental disorders and asked to identify those symptoms they believed were representative of a psychopathic personality. Additionally, participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions where they read a short vignette about a crime that varied in terms of the type of offence (violent versus non-violent) and psychological symptoms manifested by the offender (psychopathy versus schizophrenia). The results showed that participants generally recognized some symptoms of psychopathy, especially those that are affective and interpersonal in nature, but they often mistakenly identified symptoms associated with other major mental disorders. Further, the results of this study demonstrated that the more psychopathic an individual is perceived to be, the more participants favoured harsher punishments. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.