When less intelligence helps, another scary thing about psychopaths, and more

(Wesley Bedrosian for the Boston Globe)

PSYCHOPATHS ARE EVEN scarier than you might think. Researchers showed slides of different faces to a sample of young men. The faces were either happy or sad, male or female, and described as being in either a high- or low-paying job. Men who scored high on a psychopathic personality questionnaire had an unusual ability to recall sad females in low-paying jobs. Meanwhile, they had an unusual inability to recall females who were happy or in high-paying jobs, nor were they good at putting names to faces. The authors conclude that psychopaths are deeply attuned to vulnerability.

Wilson, K. et al., "A Pawn by Any Other Name? Social Information Processing as a Function of Psychopathic Traits," Journal of Research in Personality (forthcoming)

HOW DO THE police react after a controversial incident? An economist examined the effect of the riots, media coverage, and investigations that followed the 2001 shooting in Cincinnati of an unarmed black male by a white police officer. Officers reacted to the increased scrutiny by being much more conservative in their policing. The arrest rate for crimes that require police to go out on a limb (e.g., misdemeanors that are not reported by victims but require proactive policing) fell sharply after the incident. The arrest rate for alcohol, drug, and disorderly conduct violations dropped by 69, 44, and 38 percent, respectively. Newer recruits reduced their policing more than veterans. The arrest rate also fell more in black neighborhoods, despite the fact that violent crime, especially black-on-black shootings, surged. The author found that the pattern in Cincinnati was very similar to the aftermath of the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles.

Shi, L., "The Limit of Oversight in Policing: Evidence from the 2001 Cincinnati Riot," Journal of Public Economics (forthcoming).

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THE NEXT TIME you go on a road trip, you might want to drive a little slower. A study of traffic stops in Massachusetts finds that the punishment for speeding tends to increase the farther one is from home. Local drivers, especially in smaller towns, have an advantage - a 30 percent chance of getting a ticket vs. a 66 percent chance for an out-of-state driver - indicating that officers take into account the likelihood of a future contact or appeal. Officers also appear to be agents of the local political scene: Tickets from local officers are more likely when property tax revenue is low or when a referendum to raise taxes has been rejected. The one piece of good news for your road trip is that tickets are actually less likely for out-of-state drivers if tourism is important to the local economy.

Makowsky, M. and Stratmann, T., "Political Economy at Any Speed: What Determines Traffic Citations?" American Economic Review (forthcoming).

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WHAT IF THERE were no God? That is the title of a new study by psychologists at Northwestern University in Chicago who studied 128 observant Christians with diverse political orientations living around Chicago. In interviews, subjects were asked what their lives would be like without God or religion. The transcribed responses were categorized according to concern for impulse control, societal breakdown, or life fulfillment. Conservative Christians of all backgrounds were more concerned with containing their baser instincts and societal decay, while liberal Christians were more concerned that life would lose some of its deep richness and meaning.

McAdams, D. and Albaugh, M., "What If There Were No God? Politically Conservative and Liberal Christians Imagine Their Lives without Faith," Journal of Research in Personality (forthcoming).

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INTELLIGENCE IS NOT necessarily a good thing, at least when it comes to salespeople. Researchers assessed the intelligence, social competence (i.e., ability to understand and influence social situations), and sales performance of a group of Dutch salespeople. The top performers, no surprise, were those with high social competence and intelligence. But among the less socially sophisticated, they found, being less intelligent led to more sales. The authors speculate that being smart but awkward is more likely to threaten the "social comfort zone that allows customers to express their needs, ideas, and objections without fear of embarrassment."Verbeke, W. et al., "When Intelligence Is (Dys)Functional for Achieving Sales Performance," Journal of Marketing (July 2008).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@gmail.com.