TITLE
Psychopaths May Be Immune To Contagious Yawning
DESCRIPTION
“In the study, which will be published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences in November, psychologists from Baylor University in Texas showed that people who are more coldhearted are less likely to engage in the natural behavior of “catching” yawns.” In this research, students were given a personality questionnaire that specifically measured traits on a psychopathy scale. Psychopaths are manipulative, “coldhearted,” engage in a variety of negative behaviors, and lack empathy. The students were shown videos wherein they saw people yawning and were scored if they yawned after watching the video (contagious yawning). Those scoring higher in the “coldhearted” scale showed less reaction (yawning). The authors hypothesize that “These data suggest that psychopathic traits may be related to the empathic nature of contagious yawning in our species.”
SOURCE
Huffington Post, August 17, 2015, by Carolyn Gregoire
Original Article
Rundle, B.K. and others, 2015, 86 (11), 33-37.
LINK TO RESOURCE
(shortened URL) http://tinyurl.com/ogblyua
Link to original:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886915003645
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
•What is Psychopathy? How is it measured?
•Do traits that are measured on a test translate to actual behavior?
•Issues of reliability and validity can be discussed in terms of personality testing.
•Does the lack of yawning, as found in the study, translate to a “lack of empathy?”•Open a discussion on methodology in the psychology of personality.
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