The association between multilingualism and psychopathic personality traits

Abstract

Purpose Although there is a significant quantity of research linking psychopathy with deficits in language skills, no research has explored if there is an association between psychopathy and multilingualism. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the association between speaking multiple languages and psychopathic personality traits in a large nationally representative sample. Methods This study employed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The relationship between multilingualism and psychopathic personality traits was first analyzed in the full sample and then tested separately in respondents born in the United States and respondents born outside the United States. Results The results indicate that speaking multiple languages is negatively associated with psychopathic personality traits in the full sample and the sample born in the United States. Speaking multiple languages was not found to be significantly associated with psychopathic personality traits in the sample born outside of the United States. Conclusions We discuss the implications of these findings in terms of the development of psychopathic personality traits.