Winters Drew E, Sakai Joseph T
Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
Personal Ment Health. 2025 Nov;19(4):e70037. doi: 10.1002/pmh.70037.
Although callous-unemotional (CU) traits are linked with antisocial behavior, affected youth still engage in some prosocial behaviors. The factors contributing to prosocial behavior in these youth are relatively unknown. Relevant factors (known to inversely associate with CU traits and positively associated with prosocial behavior) are complex affective theory of mind (aToM) and cognitive control. In line with recent work demonstrating that cognitive control influences complex aToM in youth with CU traits, we investigated whether its impact moderates the association between CU traits and both a behavioral measure of prosocial behavior and a self-reported measure of prosocial motivation (prosocial rewards). Participants (n = 81, 52% female) completed self-reports and a behavioral paradigm to assess prosocial motivations and behavior alongside CU traits. Results revealed that CU traits were negatively associated with prosocial rewards and goals. And, of primary interest, cognitive control's impact on aToM moderated the association between CU traits and both prosocial rewards and prosocial behavior. Findings suggest that vulnerability to cognitive load-reflected by decrements in aToM-predicts lower prosocial behavior, whereas those that are more resilient to cognitive demands are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. This demonstrates that the level of resilience to cognitive demands on complex aToM accuracy is an important contextual factor for understanding prosocial behavior in youth with CU traits.
尽管冷酷无情（CU）特质与反社会行为有关，但受其影响的青少年仍会参与一些亲社会行为。导致这些青少年亲社会行为的因素相对尚不明确。相关因素（已知与CU特质呈负相关且与亲社会行为呈正相关）包括复杂的心理理论（aToM）和认知控制。与最近表明认知控制会影响具有CU特质青少年的复杂aToM的研究一致，我们调查了其影响是否会调节CU特质与亲社会行为的行为测量以及亲社会动机（亲社会奖励）的自我报告测量之间的关联。参与者（n = 81，52%为女性）完成了自我报告和一个行为范式，以评估亲社会动机和行为以及CU特质。结果显示，CU特质与亲社会奖励和目标呈负相关。而且，最主要的是，认知控制对aToM的影响调节了CU特质与亲社会奖励和亲社会行为之间的关联。研究结果表明，aToM的下降所反映的对认知负荷的易感性预示着较低的亲社会行为，而那些对认知需求更具弹性的人更有可能参与亲社会行为。这表明，对复杂aToM准确性的认知需求的弹性水平是理解具有CU特质青少年亲社会行为的一个重要背景因素。
