Common, nonsexual masochistic preferences are positively associated with antisocial personality traits.
OBJECTIVE
Based on prior research linking masochism and antisocial behavior to sensation seeking, we hypothesized that masochistic and antisocial preferences are positively correlated. Besides sensation seeking, we tested whether disgust sensitivity (due to its inhibitory function) and shared social values (e.g., stimulation) accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link. We additionally examined the link in relation to broad personality factors.


METHOD
Six online and laboratory studies (N = 2,999) with US-American and European samples.


RESULTS
We consistently found positive correlations between masochistic enjoyment (e.g., enjoying the burn of spicy food, disgusting jokes, pounding heart, painful massage) and antisocial traits such as subclinical psychopathy, everyday sadism, and low Honesty-Humility. We observed behavioral correlations in that experienced pleasure of a painful event was positively related to causing another person to feel pain. Shared sensation seeking, low disgust sensitivity, and endorsement of social values such as social power, hedonism, and a stimulating life partially accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link.


CONCLUSION
The extent to which a person enjoys threatening stimuli on the self is reliably related to how much a person enjoys and evokes others' suffering. Future research could explore the common core that underlies common masochistic and antisocial preferences beyond the mediators tested here.
['Sagioglou|Christina|C|0000-0002-7085-789X', 'Greitemeyer|Tobias|T|']
D000328:Adult D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder D002755:Choice Behavior D000078382:Disgust D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008398:Masochism D010551:Personality D012448:Sadism
antisocial personality traits sensation seeking disgust sensitivity social values benign masochism