Neuroeconomics of psychopathy: risk taking in probability discounting of gain and loss predicts psychopathy.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the relationships between psychopathy and impulsive and risky decision making, by utilizing intertemporal and probabilistic choices for both gain and loss, in addition to the Iowa gambling task.

METHODS: The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised - a 154-item measure that assesses psychopathic traits by self-report - was used with a 4-point response scale to assess 113 undergraduate students from three Japanese universities. Participants' performance on the Iowa Gambling Task and four behavioral neuroeconomic tasks of discounting - delayed gain, delayed loss, uncertain gain, and uncertain loss - were estimated.

RESULTS: Risky decisions in probability discounting of gain and loss were associated with psychopathy. Psychopathic traits had no relationship with performance on the Iowa Gambling and were not significantly related to delay discounting.

CONCLUSIONS: Psychopathy is predicted by risky decision in probability discounting of gain and loss, but not strongly associated with future myopia. Implications of the present findings for neuroeconomics and neurolaw are discussed.