Psychopathy Traits and Attitudes toward Infidelity: The Mediating Role of Sensation Seeking

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of sensation seeking in relation to psychopathy traits and attitudes toward infidelity in married people. path analysis was used to examine the model. The statistical population of married people was 20 to 50 years old in Isfahan in 2021; the statistical sample was 554 married people (288 females and 266 males) who were selected through available sampling. The research instruments include Whately’s Attitudes toward Infidelity Scale (2008), Levenson Self Report Psychopathy Scale (1995), and Hoyle’s brief Sensation-Seeking Scale (2002). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and path analysis. The results showed that disinhibition as one of the dimensions of sensation seeking in the relationship between primary psychopathy traits with attitudes toward infidelity relationships (β= 0.08, p<0.05) plays mediating role, also in the relationship between secondary psychopathic traits and attitudes toward infidelity relationships (β= -0.08, p<0.05) plays a complete mediating role in women. In men, the sensation-seeking variable does not play a mediating role, and only its secondary psychopathy traits directly affect attitudes toward infidelity relationships (β= -0.13, p<0.05). In general, psychopathy traits due to sensation seeking predict 19% in women and 20.3% in men with attitudes toward Infidelity variance.