Cite this manuscript as: Patil, I. (2015). Trait psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgment: The mediating role of action aversion. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 27(3), 349-366. doi:10.1080/20445911.2015.1004334 Trait psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgment: The mediating role of action aversion Indrajeet Patil* Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Neuroscience Sector, Trieste, Italy. *Corresponding Author: Indrajeet Patil, Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA-ISAS, Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy Tel. +39 040 3878 603 Fax : 040 3787 615 Email:
[email protected] Word count (abstract): 118 Word count (main text): 8,236 (including the main body of the text and all citations within it, figure and table captions, and acknowledgments). Number of figures: 1 Number of tables: 4 1 Abstract Although past research has established that the utilitarian bias (increased willingness to agree to personally kill someone for the greater good) in psychopathy on moral dilemmas stems from weaker negative affect at the prospect of harming others due to reduced harm aversion, it remains to be seen if this is owing to reduced aversion to witnessing harmful outcomes (outcome aversion) or performing harmful actions (action aversion). In this study, we show that trait psychopathy is associated with both reduced outcome and action aversion and that only action aversion negatively mediates the influence of trait psychopathy on utilitarian moral judgment. Thus, the increased tendency in psychopathy to make utilitarian moral judgments is in part due to reduced aversion to carrying out harmful actions. Keywords: psychopathy, utilitarianism, empathy, harm aversion, action aversion 2 “Moments like this require someone who will act.