- Stronger psychopathic traits are associated with a decreased reaction to electrical pain, which is related to reduced empathy.
- Individuals exhibiting high psychopathic traits also state experiencing less fear related to pain, which supports the idea of emotional detachment.
- Electrical pain was uniquely predictive of empathy levels, unlike pain caused by cold or pressure.
- Lower pain awareness might make legal evaluations of empathy, regret, or accountability more complex.
Most people automatically react when someone else is injured, a natural reaction connected to our personal understanding of pain. However, for individuals with elevated psychopathic traits, this reflection of empathy may be damaged or completely absent. New research indicates that these individuals not only show emotional distance from the suffering of others but could also feel less physical pain themselves. This connection between personal pain sensitivity and empathy provides a different way to understand the neuroscience behind psychopathy and may change how we consider its treatment, legal consequences, and societal understanding.
Understanding Psychopathic Traits
Psychopathic traits include a group of personality features frequently linked to antisocial actions, emotional coldness, and interpersonal manipulation. These traits include
- Coldness and a lack of empathy
- Emotional distance and superficial emotions
- Impulsivity and weak control over behavior
- Manipulation and dishonesty
It is important to note that psychopathic traits exist on a spectrum. Many people might show some traits without fulfilling all requirements for clinical psychopathy. This wider view allows researchers to examine psychopathic behavior in general populations, showing detailed patterns of thought and behavior.
While somewhat uncommon in the general population (1–4%), these traits are found more often among criminal offenders, with rates from 15% to 25% in these groups. Psychopathy is not just a behavioral issue; it is a complicated condition with neurological, emotional, and physiological foundations. Among these foundations, pain awareness may have a larger role than previously thought.
The Neurobiology of Pain and Empathy
Pain is more than just a sensation; it is a deeply emotional experience that is connected with brain areas responsible for emotion and social behavior. Functional MRI studies have revealed that areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, and somatosensory cortex are activated when we feel pain and when we see pain in others.
This shared neural activation pattern is sometimes called the “pain matrix” or “resonance system.” It highlights the biological basis of empathy. When these systems work normally, they assist individuals in recognizing another’s suffering and responding emotionally to it.
However, in individuals with high psychopathic traits, these empathic neural responses are often weakened. Reduced activity in the ACC and insula has been seen, suggesting they might not process others’ pain in a typical way. If someone does not emotionally react to their own pain, they are less likely to react to someone else’s pain. This is a crucial insight that was investigated in the recent study.
Study Overview
To examine the connection between pain awareness and empathy deficits in psychopathy, Dimana V. Atanassova and colleagues performed a detailed experimental study with 74 healthy Dutch adults (average age 32, 60% women). The researchers used a comprehensive set of methods to evaluate both psychological traits and physiological pain responses.
Participants completed psychometric evaluations including
- Self-Report Psychopathy–Short Form: Measured the presence of psychopathic personality characteristics.
- Fear of Pain Questionnaire: Evaluated how worried participants were about feeling pain.
- Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy: Assessed participants’ empathy levels, especially their ability to understand and emotionally connect with others’ pain.
Next, participants underwent physical pain sensitivity testing. Each stimulus was designed to activate different sensory and emotional responses
- Electrical Pain: Mild to moderate shocks were given using electrodes.
- Pressure Pain: Applied using a calibrated mechanical device.
- Cold Pain: Involved putting a hand into very cold water.
Afterward, participants looked at photographs showing painful and non-painful situations involving hands and feet. They were asked to rate how painful these scenes appeared, giving insight into their empathy levels.
Key Findings
The most revealing result of the study was the strong link between increased psychopathic traits and decreased sensitivity to electrical pain. Individuals who reported higher psychopathic tendencies not only handled electrical shocks better, but also showed
- Lower self-reported fear of pain
- Reduced capacity to empathize with others’ painful experiences
In contrast, pressure and cold pain did not show notable links with empathy levels or psychopathic scores. This indicated a specific way different pain types relate to personality traits.
As the researchers concluded, electrical pain, representing a sudden, unavoidable threat, was a more revealing indicator of the overlap between pain awareness and emotional empathy.
Why Electrical Pain?
Among the three kinds of pain used in the study, electrical pain was especially important. But why does this type of pain connect more strongly with psychopathic traits and empathy deficits?
- Nature of Stimulus: Electrical stimuli are often unpredictable and sharp, causing immediate physical and emotional reactions.
- Neurological Impact: Electric shocks might activate both peripheral nerve pathways and deeper emotional centers like the limbic system more effectively than pressure or cold, which build up slowly.
- Emotional Relevance: Electrical pain may better represent sudden, real-world threats, similar to violent events that psychopaths might face or cause.
This explains why electrical pain sensitivity may be more closely linked to emotional and cognitive processes central to empathy. For psychopaths, this system appears to be unbalanced, leading to weaker responses that affect how they understand others’ pain as well.
The Link Between Personal Pain and Empathy
Empathy is not just magic; it is neurobiology and psychology working together. One common idea about the origins of empathy is that it starts with a person’s own sensitivity to pain and discomfort. When you understand how something feels in your own body, you are better prepared to understand someone else’s distress.
This study supports that idea. Individuals who barely reacted to electrical pain were consistently less able to feel for others experiencing similar pain. Essentially, a weakened personal experience of suffering reduced their emotional connection to others’ pain.
This suggests a concerning possibility: empathy might depend on a person’s ability, both biologically and emotionally, to process and recognize pain. If this internal connection is weak or broken, the social consequences can be significant.
Emotional Detachment and Its Real-World Implications
Emotional detachment, a key characteristic of psychopathy, is not just an emotional weakness. It may arise from a reduced ability to understand physical pain and emotional suffering.
This emotional detachment has real-world results
- Aggression and Violence: A lack of empathy removes internal limits that would usually stop someone from hurting others.
- Manipulative Behavior: Emotional coldness allows manipulation without guilt or regret.
- Relationship Dysfunction: Without the ability to connect emotionally, interpersonal relationships often suffer.
From a psychological viewpoint, reduced sensitivity to one’s own suffering weakens the motivational factors that typically encourage prosocial behaviors. It lowers obstacles to harming others and raises questions about moral thinking in people with high psychopathic traits.
Potential Implications in Clinical Settings
For therapists and clinical psychologists, these findings can inform assessments, diagnoses, and treatments. Pain sensitivity analysis may become a helpful method to identify empathy deficits that are not immediately obvious in self-report questionnaires or clinical interviews.
Clinical uses might include
- Forensic Risk Assessment: Profiles that include pain sensitivity could help predict behavior risks in secure or correctional settings.
- Therapeutic Targeting: Treatments could concentrate on re-sensitizing individuals to physical and emotional signals, possibly through biofeedback, mindfulness practices, or sensory empathy training.
- Monitoring Treatment Progress: Changes in pain sensitivity or empathic response over time could act as measurable signs of how well therapy is working.
Understanding the biological basis of empathy deficits provides a new direction for early treatments, especially in at-risk adolescents or offender populations.
Legal and Criminal Justice Considerations
Findings from this research also have important implications for the legal and criminal justice systems. Concepts like responsibility, regret, and rehabilitation depend on the emotional abilities of the offender.
If someone feels less pain and is emotionally detached because of their neurobiology
- Can they truly feel regret?
- Is rehabilitation that depends on empathy possible?
- How should intent be calculated in sentencing?
Courts may increasingly use neuroscience and pain-responsivity data to evaluate the psychological state of defendants. This does not mean removing agency or reducing accountability, but instead making sure that sentencing and treatment plans match the biological realities of psychopathy.
Limitations of the Study
No study is perfect. This one, while well-done, does have points to consider that limit the conclusions
- Sample Size: With 74 participants, the sample is somewhat small. Larger studies could confirm and add to the findings.
- Gender Imbalance: The higher number of female participants might affect how widely the results can be applied, as psychopathic traits may show up differently based on gender.
- Pain Variability: Only electrical pain was significantly linked to traits. This suggests a need to study more pain types, intensities, and cultural views of pain.
Repeating the study with different population groups, including clinical populations and offender samples, would give richer insights.
Broader Ethical Questions
If psychopathy involves measurable biological differences, like reduced pain sensitivity, it brings up important ethical questions.
- Should treatment focus on changing the individual or making up for their differences?
- Can empathy be effectively taught if the person’s internal makeup resists it?
- Is a lack of empathy an illness to be treated or a risk to be managed?
These are not just theoretical problems. They affect how society uses resources, rehabilitates offenders, or protects communities. Informed, compassionate discussion between scientists, mental health professionals, and policymakers is crucial as physical understandings of emotional disturbance become more common.
Future Research and Opportunities
This study is only a beginning. There is much room and need for more research. Future directions include
- Functional Neuroimaging: Scanning brains while people process pain stimuli to track emotional detachment in real time.
- Intervention Trials: Trying programs like virtual-reality empathy walkthroughs or pain-awareness therapy to reset emotional cues.
- Cross-Cultural Studies: Checking if similar results happen around the world, considering different societal rules about pain and emotion.
- Developmental Angles: Studying if children with early signs of emotional disconnection also have changed pain sensitivity.
Finally, a better understanding of how our own capacity for pain affects morality and empathy could start new ways to reduce harmful behaviors and improve societal well-being.
Empathy may not only be taught through life experiences; it might also be felt through the nerves, in the body’s reaction to harm. Recognizing that emotional detachment in psychopathy may come from narrower biological pathways related to pain sensitivity brings us closer to not only understanding these individuals, but also creating better ways to reach them, treat them, and protect others from their most harmful behaviors.
Citations
Atanassova, D. V., Brazil, I. A., Tomassen, C. E. A., & Oosterman, J. M. (2024). Pain sensitivity mediates the relationship between empathy for pain and psychopathic traits. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-87892-x
