Conclusions
While blunted autonomic functioning is a well-established correlate of psychopathy, few studies have attempted to identify the processes underlying this relationship. Here we show, for the first time, that blunted autonomic functioning is associated with reduced EI, which in turn is associated with psychopathy, establishing low EI as a candidate mediator of this relationship. By identifying putative mechanisms of action, the future promise lies in the potential to upregulate EI in at-risk adolescents and prevent psychopathy, a condition that produces enormous costs to society. While EI interventions have shown promising results for non-antisocial populations, it remains to be seen whether they can reduce psychopathic traits and provide more substantive experimental support for the initial model that we propose here.
