Recognition of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths: Valence-specific hypothesis q Miloš Stankovic ´ a,b,⇑ , Milkica Nešic ´ c , Joviša Obrenovic ´ b , Dunja Stojanovic ´ b , Vuk Miloševic ´ d a Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany b Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia c Medical Faculty, University of Niš, Serbia d Clinic of Neurology, Clinical Center Niš, Serbia article info Article history: Received 9 October 2014 Received in revised form 28 February 2015 Accepted 2 March 2015 Keywords: Psychopathy Criminality Hemisphere Recognition of facial expression Valence-specific model abstract Introduction: Psychopaths with the dominant reduced interpersonal and affective ability are character- ized by the hypofunction of the right hemisphere, while psychopaths with the dominant impulsivity and antisocial behavior are characterized by the hyperfunction of the left hemisphere. The assumption is that this interhemispheric imbalance in a psychopath will also be reflected in the recognition of facial emotional expressions. Objective: The objective is to examine the lateralization of facial expressions of positive and negative emotions as well as processing of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths. Participants: 48 male participants age 24–40 were voluntarily recruited from the psychiatric hospital in Nis, Serbia. Stimuli: 48 black-and-white photographs in two separate tasks were used for the stimulation with central and lateral exposition. Results: Criminality is related to the reduced recognition of facial expression of surprise and not necessarily to psychopathy, whereas reduced recognition of facial expression of fear is related to psychopathy, but not criminality. Valence-specific hypothesis has not been confirmed for positive and negative emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths and non-psychopaths, but it was shown that positive emotions are equally well processed in both hemispheres, whereas negative emotions are more successfully processed in the left hemisphere. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Psychopathy is a complex disorder that includes affective and interpersonal characteristics such as lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, superficial affect and irresponsibility, as well as behav- ioral characteristics such as impulsivity, poor behavioral control and promiscuity (Kiehl, 2006). In the last half century, the dominant perspective is that psychopaths are characterized by anti-social behavior and that they have unstable relationships with others because of the blunted capacity for experiencing and understanding emotions (Kosson, Suchy, Mayer, & Libby, 2002). Experiencing and understanding emotions is related to the recog- nition of facial expressions of emotions that is abnormal in psychopathy. Psychopathy is related to deficits in recognizing emotions through nonverbal signs, including facial expressions (Blair, Colledge, & Mitchell, 2001; Blair et al., 2004). Certain types of psychopathy are characterized by criminality and manipulativeness, while other types are characterized by impulsivity, a tendency towards excitement, etc. The importance of monitoring the type of psychopathy in studies of emotion recog- nition is reported (Dolan & Fullam, 2006) stating that the criminal/ antisocial personality may be related to the deficit in the recogni- tion of aversive signs in others and that this deficit is more promi- nent in psychopathic offenders. On the other hand, not all studies have found the deficit of recognition of the expressions of fear in psychopathy (Kosson et al., 2002), while other studies report that, along with impaired recognition of the expression of fear, other primary emotions are also poorly recognized (Dawel, O’Kearney, McKone, & Palermo, 2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.002 0191-8869/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. q Research was conducted in Special hospital for psychiatric illness ‘‘Gornja Toponica’’ http://www.spbtoponica.rs/. Tel.: +381 018/4601 670. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +381 649938300. E-mail addresses: milos.uroboros@gmail.com (M. Stankovic ´), milkica@medfak. ni.ac.rs (M. Nešic ´), jovisa.obrenovic@filfak.ni.ac.rs (J. Obrenovic ´), dunja.stojanovic@ yahoo.com (D. Stojanovic ´), vuk.milosevic@gmail.com (V. Miloševic ´). Personality and Individual Differences 82 (2015) 242–247 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid