A new study has revealed a subtle indicator of psychopathy: the tendency to focus on the big picture while forgetting the details.
A psychopathy, a personality disorder that affects about 1% of the population, is characterized by traits such as egocentrism, callousness, impulsivity and antisocial behavior. It is often associated with a lack of empathy or remorse.
The study involved 236 participants aged between 18 and 40 from the UK. Using a questionnaire called the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (E-LSRP), researchers assessed participants for three psychopathic traits: antisociality, egocentrism and callousness.
They then measured their “breadth of attention”the ability to focus on global information (big picture) vs. local information (small details).
Participants were presented with Navon stimuli, images in which a large letter is made up of smaller letters. For example, a large “T” made up of smaller “E”.
Participants were asked to quickly identify the large or small letter by pressing a key. This test assessed how participants processed visual information and how quickly they were able to switch their attention between the big picture and the details.
The results, recently in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, revealed no relationship between psychopathy and attention span.
However, underlines the , individuals who scored high in terms of antisociality revealed a faster expansion of attention, meaning they had more likely to focus on the bigger picture than in the details.
In social contexts, this can translate into an ability to assess a situation without noticing the subtleties.
Interestingly, the other psychopathic traits – egocentrism and callousness – did not show any significant relationship with attention patterns. This suggests that the tendency to prioritize the big picture may be specific to people with strong antisocial tendencies.
The researchers acknowledge the limitations of the study, given the relatively small sample size. The authors hope that future studies with larger and more diverse groups will confirm or expand these results.
This research builds on previous studies that link psychopathy to distinct behaviors, such as remaining quiet during conversations to hide personality traits or tolerating higher levels of pain.
