Exploring the Relationship between Callous-Unemotional Traits, Empathy Processing and Affective Valence in a General Population

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are personality attributes, which are associated with a deficit of affective valence and reduced empathetic responding in high CU trait clinical populations (Guay, Ruscio, Knight, & Hare, 2007). The aim of the research was to explore whether a similar pattern of empathy and emotional responding correlated with CU trait manifestation in the general population. A total of 124 participants completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (Frick, 2004), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983), the Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004), an expression recognition task, and a measure of affective response. Negative correlations with CU trait score were observed for both cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Accuracy in the identification of fearful expressions presented a negative association with CU trait score. Self-rating of affective valence, when viewing both positive and negative images, indicates a universal reduction in emotional response associated with increased CU trait manifestation.