Myth: Psychopaths Cannot Feel Anything. Here Is What the Neuroscience Actually Shows.

Most people picture a psychopath the same way. Cold. Emotionless. Entirely cut off from the human experience. A person who feels nothing. A person who is, in some fundamental way, not quite human.

This is one of the most widespread myths about the brain. And like most myths about the brain, it is not just wrong, it is wrong in ways that matter in court.

The myth

The popular version of psychopathy, shaped largely by film and television, goes something like this: psychopaths are born without the capacity for emotion. They do not feel fear, empathy, guilt, or remorse. They are wired differently from the rest of us in a way that makes them permanently dangerous and permanently beyond reach.

This version is compelling. It is also inaccurate.

What the science actually shows

Psychopathy is a real clinical condition characterized by reduced empathy, shallow affect, poor impulse control, and a pattern of manipulative behavior. It is associated with measurable differences in brain structure and function, particularly in the amygdala, the region responsible for processing fear and emotional responses, and the prefrontal cortex, which regulates decision-making and impulse control.

But reduced is not the same as absent.

Research shows that people with psychopathic traits do experience emotions. They simply experience them differently and less intensely than most people. A landmark 2013 study by neuroscientist Jean Decety found that individuals with psychopathy showed reduced automatic empathic responses but retained the capacity for what researchers call cognitive empathy, the ability to understand what another person is feeling even without feeling it themselves. [1]

In other words, a person with psychopathy may not feel your pain. But they can understand it. And they can use that understanding strategically.

James Fallon, a neuroscientist who discovered that his own brain scan matched the pattern associated with psychopathy, has written extensively about this distinction. He describes himself as capable of love, connection, and genuine relationships, while also acknowledging a reduced emotional resonance that he has had to consciously manage throughout his life. [2]

Why it matters in court

The myth that psychopaths feel nothing has serious legal consequences.

If a jury believes a defendant is a psychopath and psychopaths are incapable of emotion, they may conclude that the defendant is permanently dangerous, unreachable by treatment, and deserving of the harshest possible sentence. This reasoning has influenced capital cases across the United States.

But the science does not support that conclusion. Research on psychopathy and treatment is more complicated than the myth suggests. Studies show that certain interventions, particularly those targeting cognitive rather than emotional processing, can produce measurable results in individuals who show psychopathic traits. [3] The assumption that psychopathy equals permanent dangerousness is not supported by the evidence.

A 2008 review by neuroscientist R.J.R. Blair found that psychopathy involves specific impairments in emotional learning and moral reasoning, not a wholesale absence of inner life. [4] The legal system should be making decisions based on what the science actually says, not on what decades of film and television have told us.

The bottom line

Psychopathy is not the absence of a human interior. It is a different configuration of one. That distinction does not excuse harmful behavior. What it means is that the myth of the emotionless psychopath is bad science. And bad science in a courtroom causes real harm to real people.

If you want to go deeper: James Fallon's TED Talk "Exploring the Mind of a Killer" is a strong starting point. Robert Hare's research on the Psychopathy Checklist is available through the Multi-Health Systems website at mhs.com.

Sources

[1] Decety, J., Skelly, L., and Kiehl, K. A. (2013). Brain Response to Empathy-Eliciting Scenarios Involving Pain in Incarcerated Individuals with Psychopathy. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(6), 638–645. jamanetwork.com

[2] Fallon, J. (2013). The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain. Current Biology. sciencedirect.com

[3] Salekin, R. T. (2002). Psychopathy and Therapeutic Pessimism: Clinical Lore or Clinical Reality? Clinical Psychology Review, 22(1), 79–112. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[4] Blair, R. J. R. (2008). The Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Morality and Psychopathy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(7), 296–300. cell.com