The Effects of Personality Characteristics on Dot Estimation in a Social Context

Psychopathy has been an area of popular research for many years. Despite the fact that our basic

understanding of psychopathy involves nonconforming attitudes and behaviours, very little

research has examined the relationship between conformity and psychopathy in a laboratory-

based task. Using a modified version of the classic Asch and Crutchfield conformity paradigms,

this study examined how persons who exhibit personality traits that are consistent with

psychopathy are affected by the imagined influence of in-group members (i.e. persons of same

gender and around the same age). The results revealed that participants with high psychopathic

traits are less likely to conform, regardless of the social influence imposed onto them. This

suggests that those with non-clinical traits of psychopathy are less likely to be influenced by their

peers or other persons of social influence. As well, this study demonstrates that physical

confederates are not necessary in order to induce social influences.