Action over feeling: the revised animal preference test and callous-unemotional functioning

Projective tests, which were thought to provide key insights concerning motivation, have largely disappeared from personality psychology. Participants in the present studies (total N = 924) were presented with a Revised Animal Preference Test (RAPT) that quantifies desires to be predator animals in a reliable manner. Drawing from several literatures, including the psychopathy literature, it was hypothesized that higher levels of predator self-identification would be linked to higher levels of fearlessness as well as lower levels of negative emotionality. Consistent with this analysis, participants wishing to be predator (relative to prey) animals scored lower in neuroticism (Study 1), responded to physical threat scenarios in a fearless manner (Study 2), and exhibited lower levels of emotionality in their daily lives (Study 3). The RAPT appears to assess motivations that are linked with callous-unemotional functioning. The findings can be extended, however, and future directions are highlighted.