Negative attitudes towards psychopaths: The role of one's own psychopathic traits

•One's expression of psychopathic traits affects one's stigma towards psychopaths.•Boldness negatively correlates with stigmatization of psychopaths.•Fearlessness might be responsible for reduced stigma towards psychopaths.•Identification with psychopaths might also decrease their stigmatization.

Personality disorders, such as psychopathy, have a long history of stigmatization. Psychopaths are continually presented as criminals and feared due to their supposed aggressive tendencies, stemming from the excessive labelling of murderers as psychopaths by the media and popular culture. While previous research demonstrates the extent to which individuals stigmatize psychopaths, it is not yet known if psychopaths stigmatize other psychopaths. We hypothesized that individuals who displayed a high level of psychopathic traits, especially in adaptive components, would exhibit less stigma-related behaviors towards psychopaths. One hundred and sixteen participants (N = 116) from the community completed three questionnaires assessing their expression of psychopathic personality traits and stigma towards psychopaths. The presence of psychopathic traits, particularly those related to boldness, was negatively correlated with the degree of stigmatizing behaviors towards psychopaths. Findings are explained in terms of identification with psychopaths and the fearlessness component of psychopathy.