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I think it's easy to draw a flawed conclusion from research like this. While it can be shown that a majority of psychopathic serial killers have the prefrontal

by gnode 7y ago

I think it's easy to draw a flawed conclusion from research like this. While it can be shown that a majority of psychopathic serial killers have the prefrontal cortex brain anomaly, it's also the case that almost all such criminals are male. Yet we have an abundance of plainly apparent counterexamples to dismiss the idea that being male implies criminality. Interestingly, there are similarities here, as one of the largest brain differences between genders is in the development of the amygdala. The brain anomaly here concerns the connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. > So the first thing I thought was that maybe my hypothesis was wrong, and that these brain areas are not reflective of psychopathy or murderous behavior. > Eventually, based on further neurological and behavioral research into psychopathy, he decided he was indeed a psychopath—just a relatively good kind ... It sounds to me as though he simply combined his finding with more research possessing the same systematic error, in order to support his conclusion, in spite of a counterexample. He then bends an established definition to suit his theory. When sampling the extremes of a population (e.g. the most prolific murderers), combinations of compounding additive factors will naturally be common. To draw a causal link about any of them would be flawed, without a thorough and unbiased analysis of the rest of the population.

tempguy9999 7y ago
> While it can be shown that a majority of psychopathic serial killers have the prefrontal cortex brain anomaly, it's also the case that almost all such criminals are male. Yet we have an abundance of plainly apparent counterexamples to dismiss the idea that being male implies criminality That's a bloody weird argument, and AFAICS wrong: (psychopath -> male) /-> (male -> psychopath), where -> is logical implication and /-> is is 'does not imply'. You are confusing implication with equality. > with more research possessing the same systematic error ... in spite of a counterexample What systematic error? What counterexample? > without a thorough and unbiased analysis of the rest of the population Sampling not good enough? Serious question, do you have any background in either classical logic or statistics? And what is your area of research?
- soreine 7y ago
  It seems there's a misunderstanding. According to me you are actually pointing to the same logical fallacy. The systematic error is indeed to think that correlation does imply causality. There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does.
  - gnode 7y ago
    Indeed. Thanks for putting this more succinctly than I did. I'd add that it's easier to observe the logical fallacy in the case of being male, because half of people are male, and being male is obvious. The occurrence of the PFC abnormality is much smaller, and we don't tend to see people's brains, so it's much harder to point to the counterexamples.
  - tempguy9999 7y ago
    > think that correlation does imply causality You know, despite the trope sometimes it does. Does it here? From wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy>: Blair, a researcher who pioneered research into psychopathic tendencies stated, “With regard to psychopathy, we have clear indications regarding why the pathology gives rise to the emotional and behavioral disturbance and important insights into the neural systems implicated in this pathology”. From the same wiki article Researchers have linked head injuries with psychopathy and violence. Since the 1980s, scientists have associated traumatic brain injury, such as damage to the prefrontal cortex, including the orbitofrontal cortex, with psychopathic behavior and a deficient ability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions, a condition that has been termed "acquired sociopathy", or "pseudopsychopathy".[72] Individuals with damage to the area of the prefrontal cortex known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show remarkable similarities to diagnosed psychopathic individuals, displaying reduced autonomic response to emotional stimuli, deficits in aversive conditioning, similar preferences in moral and economic decision making, and diminished empathy and social emotions like guilt or shame > There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does. It seems experts think otherwise.
- gnode 7y ago

by gnode 7y ago

tempguy9999 7y ago

> While it can be shown that a majority of psychopathic serial killers have the prefrontal cortex brain anomaly, it's also the case that almost all such criminals are male. Yet we have an abundance of plainly apparent counterexamples to dismiss the idea that being male implies criminality That's a bloody weird argument, and AFAICS wrong: (psychopath -> male) /-> (male -> psychopath), where -> is logical implication and /-> is is 'does not imply'. You are confusing implication with equality. > with more research possessing the same systematic error ... in spite of a counterexample What systematic error? What counterexample? > without a thorough and unbiased analysis of the rest of the population Sampling not good enough? Serious question, do you have any background in either classical logic or statistics? And what is your area of research?

soreine 7y ago
It seems there's a misunderstanding. According to me you are actually pointing to the same logical fallacy. The systematic error is indeed to think that correlation does imply causality. There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does.
- gnode 7y ago
  Indeed. Thanks for putting this more succinctly than I did. I'd add that it's easier to observe the logical fallacy in the case of being male, because half of people are male, and being male is obvious. The occurrence of the PFC abnormality is much smaller, and we don't tend to see people's brains, so it's much harder to point to the counterexamples.
- tempguy9999 7y ago
  > think that correlation does imply causality You know, despite the trope sometimes it does. Does it here? From wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy>: Blair, a researcher who pioneered research into psychopathic tendencies stated, “With regard to psychopathy, we have clear indications regarding why the pathology gives rise to the emotional and behavioral disturbance and important insights into the neural systems implicated in this pathology”. From the same wiki article Researchers have linked head injuries with psychopathy and violence. Since the 1980s, scientists have associated traumatic brain injury, such as damage to the prefrontal cortex, including the orbitofrontal cortex, with psychopathic behavior and a deficient ability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions, a condition that has been termed "acquired sociopathy", or "pseudopsychopathy".[72] Individuals with damage to the area of the prefrontal cortex known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show remarkable similarities to diagnosed psychopathic individuals, displaying reduced autonomic response to emotional stimuli, deficits in aversive conditioning, similar preferences in moral and economic decision making, and diminished empathy and social emotions like guilt or shame > There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does. It seems experts think otherwise.
gnode 7y ago