Paternal Behavior and Offspring Aggression

Marler, Catherine A.; Trainor, Brian C.; Davis, Ellen S.

doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00351.x

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In male prairie voles, high plasma corticosterone is associated with increased frequency of pup retrievals [29]. It has been proposed that retrievals reflect a restrictive, or even 'rough' or abusive parenting style because fathers retrieve pups in the absence of any threat perceptible to experimenters [30]. Likewise, some models of maternal abuse in rodents show that stressed mothers tend to drag, grab, or roughly handle pups more than non-stressed mothers, suggesting that the behaviour of a stressed parent may resemble that of an abusive one [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-genomic transmission of paternal behaviour between fathers and sons in the monogamous and biparental California mouse

Gleason

Marler

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Maternal behaviour has profound, long-lasting implications for the health and well-being of developing offspring. In the monogamous California mouse (Peromyscus californicus), care by both parents is critical for offspring survival. We tested the hypothesis that similar to maternal care in rodents, paternal huddling and grooming (HG) behaviour can be transmitted to future generations via behavioural mechanisms. In California mice, testosterone maintains paternal HG behaviour. In the present study, we randomly assigned a group of male California mice to castration or sham-operated conditions and allowed them to raise their offspring normally. Adult sons of these males were paired with a female, and they were observed interacting with their own offspring. We found that like their fathers, the sons of castrated males huddled and groomed their young at lower levels than the sons of sham-operated fathers. The sons of castrates also retrieved pups more frequently. When both parents were present, the sons of castrates also showed a trend towards engaging in less exploratory behaviour. These data support the hypothesis that paternal behaviour, like maternal behaviour, can be transferred to future generations via epigenetic mechanisms and suggest that in a biparental species both parents contribute to offspring behavioural development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-genomic transmission of paternal behaviour between fathers and sons in the monogamous and biparental California mouse

Gleason

Marler

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Such a result is consistent with a fundamental role of hedonicity in decision-making, showing that the trend to maximize pleasure or minimize displeasure when it comes to make an aggressive decision is indeed a deeply rooted mechanism of decision-making that largely transcends cultural biases or pathological borderlines. Thus the pleasure of mild aggressiveness is not characteristic or exclusive of pathologically violent people (Gray, MacCulloch, Smith, Morris, & Snowden, 2003), but rather a general trait present in everybody (Johnson, Cohen, Smailes, Kasen, & Brook, 2002;Marler et al, 2005). This trend, though, seems to be stronger in the inmate population, as inmates described higher level of aggression as agreeable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Inmates rated as pleasant behaviors with aggressiveness intensity 3 in Questionnaire 1, even when they did not select them in Questionnaire 2. This suggests that their eventual decisions might be influenced by different factors, such as a participant's own agreeableness (Meier et al, 2006), heredity (Marler, Trainor, & Davis, 2005), previous learning of the consequences of aggression (Carnagey & Anderson, 2006), or impulsiveness (Ramírez et al, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pleasure of Being Aggressive in Male Incarcerated Criminals

Ramírez¹,

Millana²,

Toldos-Romero³

et al. 2009

TOCRIJ

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Maximization of pleasure (hedonicity) is a major mechanism in human decision-making by optimizing behavior, as previous research has shown on both sensory pleasure and purely mental pleasure (such as playing videogames or solving mathematical problems). Our group also documented that pleasure is a major factor in decision-making in social situations related to interpersonal aggression: people tend to make aggressive behavioral decisions as a function of the resulting pleasure. The present study tried to verify whether this trend was also found in inmates. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation on the relationship between pleasure and aggression performed in a prison. Fifty three male inmates in a Spanish prison condemned for severe legal transgressions and serving long detention were compared with seventy five male university students who served as controls. They responded to self-reported questionnaires devised to examine how hedonicity influences decision-making in the case of aggressiveness. Socially conflictive situations were described, with four alternative options ranging from passive to highly aggressive response. A similar bell-shaped trend was present in both populations -aggressive behaviors of medium intensity were rated as significantly less unpleasant than the most passive and most aggressive behaviors-, even though the degree of hedonicity was significantly higher in the inmates, who rated mild and moderate aggressive responses as pleasurable. Inmates also voted for an unexpected lower of aggressiveness than controls, which may be explained by social desirability. Conclusion: the sametrend is found in both populations: mild aggressive behavior may be pleasurable to the aggressor, but only up to a certain level. But this seems to be stronger in inmates: they showed hedonicity when experiencing higher level of aggression. Such a result is consistent with a fundamental role of hedonicity in decision making.

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“…This suggests that their decisions might be influenced by different factors, such as their own agreeableness (Meier et al 2006), heredity (Marler, Trainor, & Davis, 2005), previous learning of the consequences of aggression (Carnagey & Anderson, 2006), or impulsiveness (Ramírez et al 2005). There was a significant correlation between aggressiveness (CAMA test) and selected response among long-term inmates (F-value 7.249, p<0.01), as in our previous studies (Millana, Cabanac, Toldos-Romero, Bonniot-Cabanac, & Ramírez, 2006;Ramírez, 1993), but no such correlation was observed among inmates in preventive detention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pleasure of Aggressiveness Among Inmates in Preventive and Long-Term Detention

Cabanac¹,

Ramírez²,

Millana³

et al. 2008

TOCRIJ

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Abstract:To a large degree, humans use pleasure (hedonicity) maximization to guide decision making, thereby optimizing their behaviour, as shown by research on either sensory or purely mental pleasure (e.g., pleasure from video-game playing or mathematical problem-solving). Our group has now found that pleasure determines decision making in situations of interpersonal aggression, i.e., people tend to behave aggressively in proportion to the resulting pleasure. In the present study, two groups of inmates in a Spanish prison were compared: those serving long sentences and those being held in preventive detention. All participants answered self-administered questionnaires that had been devised to examine how hedonicity influences decision making in the case of aggressive behaviour. The questionnaires described social conflict situations and offered four options ranging from a passive response to a highly aggressive response. Previous research showed similar results between inmates serving long terms and a non-delinquent population, even though the degree of hedonicity was higher in the inmates: increasingly aggressive behavior is increasingly pleasurable to the aggressor, but only up to a certain level.. In contrast, this paper shows that inmates in preventive detention did not rate any of the aggressive responses as pleasant. Such a difference was present in males only and may have been caused by a desire for social acceptance.

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Paternal Behavior and Offspring Aggression

Cited by 16 publications

References 20 publications

Non-genomic transmission of paternal behaviour between fathers and sons in the monogamous and biparental California mouse

Non-genomic transmission of paternal behaviour between fathers and sons in the monogamous and biparental California mouse

The Pleasure of Being Aggressive in Male Incarcerated Criminals

The Pleasure of Aggressiveness Among Inmates in Preventive and Long-Term Detention

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