Testosterone, cortisol, and psychopathy: Further evidence with the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale and the inventory of callous unemotional traits

Todd A. Armstrong, Danielle L. Boisvert, Jessica Wells, Richard H. Lewis, Eric M. Cooke, Matthias Woeckener, Nicholas Kavish, James M. Harper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The current study explored associations between testosterone, cortisol, and both the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRPS) and the Inventory of Callous Unemotional (ICU) traits. Data were gathered from a relatively large sample of university students (n = 522) and analyses considered direct and interactive associations between hormones and psychopathic traits, as well as interactions between these associations and the time of day at which samples were gathered and the sex of participants. Baseline cortisol had a negative association with LSRPS primary psychopathy scores. In addition, baseline cortisol interacted with the time of day in association with LSRPS total scores. Simple slopes analyses indicated cortisol had a negative association with LSRPS total scores in the morning but not the afternoon. Interactions among hormone measures were not statistically significant. There was also no evidence for the moderation of associations between hormones and psychopathic traits by sex.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)168-180
Number of pages13
JournalSocial Neuroscience
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Keywords

  • Testosterone
  • callous unemotional traits
  • cortisol
  • psychopathy

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