Psychopathic traits, delinquency, positively predicts future dating involvement [study]

Article: Secondary psychopathy in high school boys positively predicts future dating involvement, study finds.

Study: Longitudinal Associations Between Primary and Secondary Psychopathic Traits, Delinquency, and Current Dating Status in Adolescence

Couple important caveats:

Psychopathy is not a real mental disorder (not recognised DSM 5).
One study does not imply a scientific wisdom - remember the replication crisis.
The study has several limitations, notably the self-assessment of dating success.
Do not confuse correlation for causation! More about that below.
There is a heated polemic about the validity of the article and the study itself on r/science.
I for one agree with those saying that most of Psychology is on the border of not being a real science :).

That being said, I think this article is notable, because it opens the following themes:

Psychopathy is not a fluke:

Evidence shows how psychopathy is cross-culturally ubiquitous and that it extends deep into the history of human civilization.

Boys are not simply "bad people". Men are three to five times more likely to be diagnosed with ASPD than women [Wikipedia]:

However, the results seemed to apply specifically to boys and not to girls. These findings seem to provide some support for the popular idea that impulsive and delinquent ‘bad boys’ are attractive dating partners in adolescence.”

Maybe there is a reason for all this:

Psychopathy is considered as a personality disorder and is associated with a number of negative outcomes. But some scientists have argued that the reproductive tactics associated with psychopathy indicate that the condition is an evolutionary adaptation.

We have to be hones about the problem before we can help both the suffering individuals and the suffering society.

Please be careful not to jump into conclusions. This is just one study and correlation does not imply causation:

Do psychopathic youth exploit and prey on mates who are vulnerable? Do they devote more time and energy to pursuing casual sex and dating relationships? Are they more opportunistic and willing to take advantage of mating opportunities as they arise? Are they more attractive because of their brazen and dominant demeanor?

[–]Oncefa2left-wing male advocate 11 points12 points13 points 4 years ago* (3 children) | Copy Link

One study does not imply a scientific wisdom - remember the replication crisis.

This finding has been replicated over and over again. It's hardly news at this point. What this study did was drill into why this might be. Is it because psychopathic males ignore rules and boundaries, especially sexual boundaries? Is it because psychopathy is more attractive? Is it because attractive males become psychopathic? Is it because psychopathic males have less stable relationships, causing them to go through partners faster?

A gross simplification of what this study is hinting at is that women find psychopathic traits in a partner to be fun and exciting. This is based on their finding that a history of delinquency and secondary psychopathy (impulsivity / boredom / irresponsibility / antisocial behavior) is predictive for future mating success in men but not in women.

Do not confuse correlation for causation! More about that below.

This study is longitudinal meaning causation is specifically what they're trying to measure, and not correlation. The study talks about how previous research on this topic has been cross-sectional so they set out to investigate the casual mechanisms more closely. In particular, the paragraph you quote in the OP is the question that they're asking and are trying to get closer to an answer for.

There is a heated polemic about the validity of the article and the study itself on r/science.

Of course there is. They always get worked up about research on this topic.

I for one agree with those saying that most of Psychology is on the border of not being a real science :).

Not getting into this right now.

You mentioned the replication crisis though so maybe you'd be interested to hear that theoretical physics, pharmacology, and many other disciplines also have a replication crisis.

The field of psychology was the first to recognize and try to address this problem so people associate it with this field. But in many ways you can think of it as a good thing because we are doing what you're supposed to be doing in science by addressing this, whereas other fields were not (at least not until recently). The replication crisis is not unique to psychology but psychology has probably done more to try and fix it than any other field has.

In the context of physics, for example, I think people get arrogant because it's a "hard" science so they assume it can't happen to them. But if you're too arrogant about it then you're not going to do good science, which will make the problem worse until you do finally admit that you're not perfect.

[–]griii2right-wing guest[S] 1 point2 points3 points 4 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

This finding has been replicated over and over again.

Sources please?

This study is longitudinal meaning causation is specifically what they're trying to measure, and not correlation.

I don't think that is what longitudinal means. Yes, the implied causation is stronger than with cross-sectional study but not as strong as with controlled experiment and very far from "proven". I am not an expert though and I may be wrong.

Of course the replication crisis is not unique to psychology - I believe the wikipedia page I linked to makes this pretty clearly. All I wanted to say is that people should not bet everything on one study.

[–]Oncefa2left-wing male advocate 5 points6 points7 points 4 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

The paper itself actually cites some of the previous research.

I can give you that but it's definitely not as big of a problem with this type of research. Psychopathy could correlate with another variable (for example delinquency) which then leads to greater reproductive success. But reproductive success is not leading to psychopathy, so it's not like the relationship can be reversed. There is now an established directionality, which is often a weakness in research like this.

Also the purpose of this paper is actually to investigate this question. There is still more research to be done but it's not like this is an initial study pointing out a correlation. It is actually investigating this correlation which had previously been established by other research.

Well again this isn't just one study. I appreciate your notes though and I'm not trying to be critical.

If you want to see some of the other research you can find a bunch of it linked right at the top of the study (although there is more referenced later).

"Blanchard et al., 2016; Jauk et al., 2016; Jonason et al., 2009; Jones & de Roos, 2017; Rauthmann & Kolar, 2013; Visser et al., 2010"

I've also seen huge compilations of similar research posted over on r/MensRights.

[–]FightOrFreight 0 points1 point2 points 4 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

Title	Psychopathic traits, delinquency, positively predicts future dating involvement [study]
Author	griii2
Upvotes	10
Comments	5
Date	April 24, 2022 10:59 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/uasb8q/psychopathic_traits_delinquency_positively/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/psychopathic-traits-delinquency-positively.1111360 https://theredarchive.com/post/1111360

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