Psychopathic traits and experimentally induced deception in self-report assessment

This research examined whether psychopathic traits enabled experimentally induced faking on a self-report inventory. After completing Levenson’s Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) under standard instructions, 201 undergraduates were randomly assigned to fake good or fake bad on the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI; Holden, 1996). Given the manipulative nature of psychopathy, it was predicted, and found, that respondents who successfully faked good on the HPSI would have significantly higher psychopathy scores than individuals who were caught faking. Also as predicted, individuals who avoided detection while faking bad did not have significantly higher psychopathy scores.