Testing Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis with psychopathic individuals:Risk takers or risk averse?

Damasio and colleagues (A. R. Damasio, 1994; A. R. Damasio, D. Tranel, & H. Damasio, 1990) have theorized about a possible relationship between somati c markers and the behavior of psychopathic individuals (Ps), but, to date, there are no published data regarding the proposed relationship. The author s assessed 86 Caucasian and 71 African American male offenders using R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and used a modified version of Bechara and colleagues' (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. And erson, 1994: A. Bechara, H. Damasio, D. Tranel, & A. R. Damasio, 1997) gamb ling task to test the hypothesis that Ps would, consistent with the somatic marker hypothesis, fail to become risk averse. Results indicated that leve l of anxiety, but not psychopathy, was predictive of response choices. Seve ral limitations and implications of the study are noted.