Psychopaths account for only about 1% of the general population but represent a disproportionate share of violent crime. Distinct from sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy involves traits such as absence of remorse or guilt, lack of empathy, and a charming, manipulative interpersonal style. Research shows that people with psychopathy typically have difficulty responding to others’ suffering and recognizing facial expressions of fear and sadness. When exposed to pictures of others’ emotional facial expressions, those with more psychopathic traits showed blunted physiological arousal—a 2019 study found their pupils did not change much in size when viewing pictures of afraid people, suggesting they may struggle to learn how their actions cause distress in others.
Early psychological treatments were largely unsuccessful, and historical programs generated pessimism. One program offered from 1965 to 1978 at the Oak Ridge Division of the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene, Ontario, involved a “total encounter capsule”—a tiny self-contained chamber where sustenance came through wall tubes and participants were nude and did not volunteer. Use of force and humiliation was permitted. Such conditions likely contributed to the program’s failure.
Recent Progress and Promising Approaches
Recent research is challenging the assumption that psychopaths are incapable of empathy. A 2013 brain scanning study at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands showed that criminal psychopaths did not automatically feel empathy for others’ pain in videos, but their brains did generate an empathic response similar to non-psychopaths when instructed to feel what people in videos were experiencing. This suggests they may instead lack motivation for empathy rather than capacity for it.
The most promising work has been conducted with young people. Although children under 18 cannot be diagnosed as psychopathic, callous unemotional traits can be reliably assessed in children as young as two years of age. A 2018 study adapted parenting interventions for children aged three to six, coaching parents to show warmth, sensitivity, and responsiveness while using reward-based rather than punishment-based strategies to encourage responsiveness to others’ distress. The children showed significant reductions in behavioral problems, callous unemotional traits, and aggression. A 2022 study reported similar improvements in adolescents after strength-based parenting interventions. Recent research suggests a more optimistic future for reducing aggressive and antisocial behavior associated with psychopathy.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2026/02/23/can-psychopaths-change/