Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol 31(2), May 2025, 115-133; doi:10.1037/law0000435
Psychopathy assessments are widely used in the legal system to inform decisions about sentencing, rehabilitation, etc. Recently, these assessments have become controversial as long-held beliefs about psychopathy are contested. One common claim that has yet to be scrutinized is the assumption that psychopathic persons lack empathy. This hypothesis has been studied extensively in forensic samples, but there are few relevant systematic reviews to inform forensic practices. We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies testing empathy in persons assessed with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) scales. Included studies (n = 66) measured general, cognitive, and affective empathy across two different paradigms using (a) empathy assessment tools and (b) emotion recognition tests. These studies had great heterogeneity in their reporting of effects, precluding a meaningful meta-analysis. A structured overview of results showed a total of 1,672 effects were reported across 66 included studies (N = 5,711) of which 182 effects (10.89%) were statistically significant and 1,490 effects (89.11%) were nulls. Exploratory analyses revealed that high-powered studies had a significantly larger proportion of nulls (89.29%) compared to low-powered studies (81.45%), suggesting a potential problem with false-positive discoveries in the research literature. In conclusion, we found little evidence to suggest that PCL psychopathic persons have different empathic capacities, thus challenging the common assumption that psychopathy is associated with a lack of empathy. We discuss the implication of these results for the current and future use of PCL assessment in forensic settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)