Photo: Kelowna Women's Shelter

People with higher levels of psychopathic tendencies are more likely to become violent toward their romantic partners.

That's the finding of a new study conducted at UBC Okanagan.

The study also found those with psychopathic tendencies are more likely to drink alcohol.

The study used data and police reports involving 700 U.S. civil psychiatric patients in Pittsburgh and 870 students at UBCO.

“In this research, we noted that having higher levels of psychopathic personality traits is an important predictor of how likely someone is to engage in intimate partner violence,” says Zach Walsh, an associate professor of psychology and the study’s principal investigator.

“While we also found that people with psychopathic tendencies tended to drink more alcohol, the data tells us it is their personality traits more than substance use that is associated with violence.

“With further investigation, this research may be able to assist policy makers and service providers in their efforts to both predict and reduce violence among couples.”

The research also found that association between psychopathic personality traits and violence was consistent across both students and psychiatric patients.