Psychopathy and choice of immediate versus delayed punishment.

This study tested the hypothesis that psychopathic Ss would show less preference for immediate shock than would nonpsychopathic Ss. 12 psychopathic and 12 nonpsychopathic criminals and 19 noncriminals were presented with 6 trials in which they were required to choose between an immediate shock and 1 delayed 10 sec. The results confirmed the hypothesis (p ,001). The psychopaths chose immediate shock 55.5 % of the time while the nonpsychopaths chose it 82.3 % of the time. The preference for immediate shock increased over trials for the nonpsychopathic Ss but not for the psychopathic ones. The results were interpreted in terms of a conditioned fear hypothesis. Recent evidence indicates that normal subjects (5s) tend to prefer an immediate punishment (electric shock) over one that is delayed (Cook Barnes, 1964), or randomly delayed (DAmato Gumenik, 1960). While it is obvious that many interacting variables are involved in choice behavior of this sort, relatively few empirical data concerning their effects are available. Among the variables likely to be of importance are (a) the relative delay, intensity, and probability of punishment associated with each of the alternatives presented to the S; (6) the type of punishment involved and the characteristics of the situation in which it is administered; and (c) certain characteristics (e.g., personality and motivational) of the individual making the choice. The present study investigated what was considered to be a particularly relevant example of the latter, namely, psychopathy. 2 It is well known clinically that the psychopath tends to avoid immediate discomfort and that he appears to be relatively unconcerned about the long term consequences of