Kuin Niki C, Masthoff Erik D M, Munafò Marcus R, Penton-Voak Ian S
Penitentiary Institution Vught, Vught, the Netherlands.
School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2017 Nov 30;12(11):e0187080. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187080. eCollection 2017.
Research into the causal and perpetuating factors influencing aggression has partly focused on the general tendency of aggression-prone individuals to infer hostile intent in others, even in ambiguous circumstances. This is referred to as the 'hostile interpretation bias'. Whether this hostile interpretation bias also exists in basal information processing, such as perception of facial emotion, is not yet known, especially with respect to the perception of ambiguous expressions. In addition, little is known about how this potential bias in facial emotion perception is related to specific characteristics of aggression. In the present study, conducted in a penitentiary setting with detained male adults, we investigated if violent offenders (n = 71) show a stronger tendency to interpret ambiguous facial expressions on a computer task as angry rather than happy, compared to non-violent offenders (n = 14) and to a control group of healthy volunteers (n = 32). We also investigated if hostile perception of facial expressions is related to specific characteristics of aggression, such as proactive and reactive aggression. No clear statistical evidence was found that violent offenders perceived facial emotional expressions as more angry than non-violent offenders or healthy volunteers. A regression analysis in the violent offender group showed that only age and a self-report measure of hostility predicted outcome on the emotion perception task. Other traits, such as psychopathic traits, intelligence, attention and a tendency to jump to conclusions were not associated with interpretation of anger in facial emotional expressions. We discuss the possible impact of the study design and population studied on our results, as well as implications for future studies.
对影响攻击性的因果及持续因素的研究，部分聚焦于易产生攻击行为的个体在他人身上推断出敌意意图的一般倾向，即便在模糊不清的情境中亦是如此。这被称为“敌意解释偏差”。这种敌意解释偏差在基础信息处理过程中是否也存在，比如对面部情绪的感知，目前尚不清楚，尤其是对于模糊表情的感知。此外，对于面部情绪感知中的这种潜在偏差如何与攻击性的特定特征相关联，人们知之甚少。在本研究中，我们在一所关押成年男性的监狱环境中开展调查，探究暴力罪犯（n = 71）相较于非暴力罪犯（n = 14）以及健康志愿者对照组（n = 32），在电脑任务中是否更倾向于将模糊的面部表情解读为愤怒而非开心。我们还研究了对面部表情的敌意感知是否与攻击性的特定特征相关，比如主动性攻击和反应性攻击。未发现明确的统计证据表明暴力罪犯比非暴力罪犯或健康志愿者将面部情绪表情感知为更愤怒。对暴力罪犯组的回归分析显示，只有年龄和一项敌意的自我报告测量指标能够预测情绪感知任务的结果。其他特质，如精神病态特质、智力、注意力以及急于下结论的倾向，均与对面部情绪表情中愤怒的解读无关。我们讨论了研究设计和所研究人群对我们结果可能产生的影响，以及对未来研究的启示。
