---
title: Does psychopathic personality affect how women's cortisol responds to stress?
description: Women with psychopathic personality traits showed lower stress-induced cortisol at 20 minutes after a performance task compared to controls. However, this stu
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/psychopathic-personality-traits-and-cortisol-response-to-stress-the-role-of-sex-2010/
---

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- Does psychopathic personality affect how women's cortisol responds to stress?

Randomised trial, 2010

# Does psychopathic personality affect how women's cortisol responds to stress?

Women with psychopathic personality traits showed lower stress-induced cortisol at 20 minutes after a performance task compared to controls. However, this study is not specifically about PMS, so it's unclear how directly it applies to women with PMS.

 Moderate study design

145 adults (men and women) with high or low psychopathic personality traits

## What they did

145 adults (men and women) were divided into high and low psychopathic traits groups. They were randomly assigned to either a difficult performance task or a social rejection task, and their cortisol levels were measured before and after (at 0, 20, 40, 60 minutes).

## What they found

Both men and women with high psychopathic traits had lower cortisol at 20 minutes after the performance task compared to controls. The social rejection task only caused a cortisol response in male controls at 20 minutes. Results were stronger when women with low progesterone were removed from the analysis.

## What it means for you

Psychopathic traits might involve a biological difference in how the body produces stress hormones. When studying women's stress responses, measuring hormone levels to confirm menstrual phase gives more accurate results. This study is about personality and stress response, not PMS.

145

Total participants

20 minutes

Time post-stressor when cortisol differed

37

Women with high psychopathic traits

## About the study

Original title Psychopathic personality traits and cortisol response to stress: the role of sex, type of stressor, and menstrual phase Authors O'Leary MM, Taylor J, Eckel L Journal Hormones and behavior Year 2010 Study design Randomised trial Participants 145 What was tested Two types of stress tasks (performance-based and social rejection) Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.03.009](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.03.009)

## Topics

[Stress](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-stress/)[Borderline personality disorder](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-bpd/)

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