SynthesisFrontiers in psychology2021
Prevalence of Psychopathy in the General Adult Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship between psychopathy and autism: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Psychopathy and Sadism: A Systematic Review of Their Association, Core Dimensions, and Nosological Implications.Cureus · 2026Review
- Cortical Structure in Relation to Empathy and Psychopathy in 800 Incarcerated Men.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Psychopathic Traits and Sensation Seeking in Young General Population.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Callous-Unemotional Traits and Their Association with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Insights from Gaze Behaviour During Emotion Recognition.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Applying a Network Approach To Characterize Gender Differences in Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits among Children from Two Countries.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Short Dark Tetrad - Polish version (SD4-PL): adaptation and extended psychometric evaluation of a measure of subclinical psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Validation of the Psychopathic Processing and Personality Assessment in the Czech Republic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Light Triad traits of personality as moderators between the dark core of personality, psychopathy, and antisociality/criminality.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2026Article
- Psychopathic Traits Associate With Later Schizophrenia.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Adults with more severe psychopathy in the community show increased social discounting.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Heroes, villains, and everything in between: Children's assessment of morally ambiguous characters.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2025Article
- Cortical structure in relation to empathy and psychopathy in 800 incarcerated men.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- How psychopathic traits affect individuals' trust decisions and outcome evaluations: preliminary ERP evidence.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Social processing distorts physical distance perception.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring when to exploit: the cognitive underpinnings of foraging-type decisions in relation to psychopathy.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Psychopathy is a neglected public health problem.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Differential associations between mentalizing dimensions and psychopathy subtypes: the moderating role of borderline personality traits.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Reliability and Validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Self-Report-German Version (CAPP-SR-GV) in a German Non-Criminal Sample.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Diminished pain sensitivity mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and reduced learning from pain.Communications psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to systematically and meta-analytically review the scientific literature on the prevalence of psychopathy in the general adult population. A search in PsycInfo, MEDLINE, and PSICODOC identified 15 studies published as of June 2021. Altogether, 16 samples of adults totaling 11,497 people were evaluated. Joint prevalence rates were calculated using reverse variance heterogeneity models. Meta-regression analyses were conducted to examine whether the type of instrument, sex, type of sample, and country influenced prevalence. The meta-analytical results obtained allow us to estimate the prevalence rate of psychopathy in the general adult population at 4.5%. That being said, this rate varies depending on the participants' sex (higher in males), the type of sample from the general population (higher in samples from organizations than in community samples or university students), and the type of instrument used to define psychopathy. In fact, using the PCL-R, which is currently considered the "gold standard" for the assessment and definition of psychopathy, the prevalence is only 1.2%. These results are discussed in the context of the different theoretical perspectives and the existing problems when it comes to defining the construct of psychopathy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.