Psychopathic Traits and Empathy for Pain in Community Dwelling Participants, 2020-2023

This project that created these data proposed a solution-focused approach to identify the psychological processes that could be targeted to ensure that potential high-risk groups, such as men who view online child sexual exploitation material, but who have not committed contact sexual offences, do not abuse and harm children. The objectives of the project were to use tests of social-affective functioning and response inhibition, and physiological measures, to create a psychological profile that could distinguish between online-only and contact sexual offenders and help to identify the psychological processes that protect against contact sexual offending. Using an online experiment, participants living in the community were asked to provide ratings of valence and arousal for images showing individuals in painful and non-painful situations. Participants also completed a questionnaire measure of psychopathic traits. Higher levels of psychopathic traits were associated with differences in ratings of painful and neutral stimuli.