Psychopaths struggle to recognise genuine emotion

New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found people with high levels of psychopathic traits have difficulty telling when someone is genuinely afraid or upset, based on people's facial expressions. The study involved participants looking at photographs of faces expressing different emotions. Some faces were showing real emotions and others were faking it. Lead researcher Dr Amy Dawel of the ANU Research School of Psychology said the results showed people with high levels of psychopathic traits don't respond to genuine emotions in the same way as most people. "For most people, if we see someone who is genuinely upset, you feel bad for them and it motivates you to help them," Dr Dawel said. "People who are very high on the psychopathy spectrum don't show this response." "We found people with high levels of psychopathic traits don't feel any worse for someone who is genuinely upset than someone who is faking it. They also seem to have problems telling if the upset is real or fake.