Pop-Culture Psychopathy: How Media and Literature Exposure Relate to Lay Psychopathy Understanding Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences Drexel University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Michael E. Keesler, M.S., J.D. Department of Psychology May, 2013 Pop-Culture Psychopathy ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Background and Literature Summary ............................................................................................. 2 Psychopathy’s Evolution Over Time ........................................................................................ 2 Contemporary Psychopathy ................................................................................................ 4 The Public’s Evolving Relationship with Psychology.............................................................. 8 Increase in Psychopathy Professional Literature for Lay Consumer ...................................... 10 Increase in Psychopathy Popular Media Delivered to Lay Consumer ................................... 13 What Effect Do Mixed Messages About Psychopathy Have on the Consumer? ................... 16 Rationale for the Present Study............................................................................................... 17 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................ 18 Method .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Participants .............................................................................................................................. 18 Materials ................................................................................................................................. 20 Demographic Information and General Knowledge Questionnaire ................................. 20 Television and Movie-Watching Questionnaire ............................................................... 20 Professional Literature Questionnaire............................................................................... 22 Psychopath Identification Questionnaire .......................................................................... 22 Psychopathy Traits Questionnaire .................................................................................... 23 Procedure ................................................................................................................................ 24 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Demographic Statistics ........................................................................................................... 25 Pop-Culture Psychopathy iii Descriptive Statistics ............................................................................................................... 26 Correlational Analyses ............................................................................................................ 29 Exposure to Popular Media Psychopathy and Psychopathy Understanding .................... 29 Exposure to Professional Psychopathy Literature and Psychopathy Understanding........ 31 Exposure to Psychopathy and Self-Reported Expertise .................................................... 32 Exposure to Protagonist Psychopaths and Romanticized Psychopathy ............................ 33 Exposure to Antagonist Psychopaths and Demonized Psychopathy ................................ 34 Ad-Hoc Correlational Analyses ........................................................................................ 35 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 38 Summary of Findings .............................................................................................................. 38 Implications............................................................................................................................. 40 Limitations and Directions for Future Research ..................................................................... 44 References ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 56 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 57 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................... 58 Appendix D ................................................................................................................................... 59 Appendix E ................................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix F.................................................................................................................................... 62 Appendix G ................................................................................................................................... 64 Appendix H ................................................................................................................................... 65 Appendix I .................................................................................................................................... 66 Appendix J .................................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix K ................................................................................................................................... 68 Pop-Culture Psychopathy iv Appendix L ................................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix M .................................................................................................................................. 74 Appendix N ................................................................................................................................... 75 Appendix O ................................................................................................................................... 77 Appendix P.................................................................................................................................... 78 Appendix Q ................................................................................................................................... 79 Table Q1.................................................................................................................................. 79 Table Q2.................................................................................................................................. 81 Table Q3.................................................................................................................................. 82 Table Q4.................................................................................................................................. 83 Table Q5.................................................................................................................................. 84 Figure Q1 ................................................................................................................................ 85 Figure Q2 ................................................................................................................................ 86 Figure Q3 ................................................................................................................................ 87 Figure Q4 ................................................................................................................................ 88 Figure Q5 ................................................................................................................................ 89 Figure Q6 ................................................................................................................................ 89 Pop-Culture Psychopathy v Abstract Psychologists’ conceptualization of psychopathy has gradually evolved over time, with interest peaking in recent decades. Concurrently, the lay public’s relationship with psychology has changed from guarded skepticism to acceptance and even demand. The tie that binds psychology and the public has always been mass communication, both in news and popular media format. Reflecting changing trends, mass media has altered the way it objectively describes and popularly portrays psychopathy. Whereas psychopaths were consistently portrayed as villains in the mid-20th Century, today