PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nicholas Kavish
AU  - Q. John Fu
AU  - Michael G. Vaughn
AU  - Zhengmin Qian
AU  - Brian B. Boutwell
TI  - Resting heart rate and psychopathy: Findings from the Add Health Survey
AID  - 10.1101/205005
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 205005
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/13/205005.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/13/205005.full
AB  - Despite the prior linkages of low resting heart rate to antisocial behavior broadly defined, less work has been done examining possible associations between heart rate to psychopathic traits. The small body of research on the topic that has been conducted so far seems to suggest an inverse relationship between the two constructs. A smaller number of studies have found the opposite result, however, and some of the previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes and unrepresentative samples. The current study attempts to help clarify the relationship between resting heart rate and psychopathic traits in a large, nationally representative sample (analytical N ranged from 14,173-14,220) using an alternative measure of psychopathic traits that is less focused on antisocial processes, and rooted in personality traits. No significant relationship between heart rate and psychopathic traits, or heart rate and a measure of cold heartedness, was found after controlling for age, sex, and race. Implications of the findings, study limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.