Psychopaths feel fear but face trouble in responding

​London: Psychopathic individuals can feel fear, but face trouble while detecting threats and responding to it, a new study has found.

According to the study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the researchers reviewed theoretical and empirical brain and behavioural data pertaining to fear and psychopathy and found that psychopathic individuals have trouble detecting threats.

There was little evidence that the conscious experience of fear was affected, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy.

The study provided empirical evidence that the automatic and conscious processes can be independently affected within one psychiatric disorder.

The researchers reviewed the relationship between fear and psychopathy in adult individuals and generated a model that separates brain mechanisms involved in automatic detection and responding to threats from those involved in the conscious experience of fear as an emotion.

The evidence for impairments in brain areas involved in the experience of fear was less consistent than is often assumed, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy.

The researchers showed that psychopathic individuals have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat but may in fact feel fear, providing direct empirical support that the conscious experience of fear may not be impaired in these individuals.