Data from: Perceiving the evil eye: investigating hostile interpretation of ambiguous facial emotional expression in violent and non-violent offenders

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.

关于影响攻击行为的因果性与维持性因素的研究，已有部分工作聚焦于攻击倾向个体的共性特征：即便身处模糊情境中，这类个体仍倾向于对他人意图做出敌意性推断。该现象被定义为“敌意解释偏差（hostile interpretation bias）”。目前尚未明确此种敌意解释偏差是否同样存在于基础信息加工过程中，例如面部情绪感知，尤其是针对模糊面部表情的感知环节。此外，学界对该面部情绪感知中的潜在偏差与攻击行为的具体特征之间的关联机制，仍缺乏足够认知。本研究于监狱环境中开展，研究对象为成年在押男性；我们设置了暴力犯组（n=71）、非暴力犯组（n=14）与健康志愿者对照组（n=32），旨在对比三组人群在计算机任务中对模糊面部表情的解读倾向，探究暴力犯是否更易将此类表情判定为愤怒而非愉悦。同时，我们还探究了面部表情敌意感知与攻击行为的具体特征（如主动性攻击（proactive aggression）、反应性攻击（reactive aggression））之间的关联。研究未获得明确统计学证据，表明暴力犯较非暴力犯或健康志愿者更易将面部情绪表情感知为愤怒。针对暴力犯组的回归分析显示，仅年龄与敌意自评得分可预测该情绪感知任务的结果。其余特质，如精神病态特质（psychopathic traits）、智力水平、注意力水平及仓促下结论倾向，均与面部情绪表情的愤怒解读无显著关联。本研究最后探讨了研究设计与研究人群对实验结果的潜在影响，以及本研究对未来相关研究的启示。