An empirical test of a new trait-based measure for psychopathy in a community sample of adults

Abstract In the current study, we used latent profile analysis to investigate the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 capacity to discriminate psychopathy traits in a sample of adults. Participants were 628 adults from the general population recruited by convenience. Our latent profile analysis recovered two groups: Psychopathic Tendencies and Empathetic Tendencies. The psychopathic tendencies group scored higher in all the IDCP-2 factors comprising psychopathy features. Although our study has sample restrictions, we found evidence for using IDCP-2 factors to discriminate people with low and high levels of psychopathic traits. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.