Seeing enemies? A systematic review of anger bias in the perception of facial expressions among anger-prone and aggressive populations

Mellentin, Angelina Isabella; Dervisevic, Ajla; Stenager, Elsebeth; Pilegaard, Morten; Kirk, Ulrich

doi:10.1016/j.avb.2015.09.001

Cited by 44 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Antisocial and aggressive individuals are not only impaired in recognising negative emotional facial expressions but they have also been found to interpret benign or neutral information as hostile (Crick & Dodge, 1994;Dodge, Pettit, Bates, & Valente, 1995). They are more likely to interpret an expression of disgust as angry (Sato, Uono, Matsuura, & Toichi, 2009) and ambiguous expressions as angry (Mellentin, Dervisevic, Stenager, Pilegaard, & Kirk, 2015;Schönenberg & Jusyte, 2014). This hostile attri utio ias a lead the to e more likely to be involved in aggressive situations, thereby contributing to ASB.…”

Section: Theories Linking Emotion Recognition and Asbmentioning

confidence: 99%

How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

Hunnikin

Goozen

2019

Journal of Criminal Justice

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Children with antisocial behaviour show consistent emotion recognition difficulties that are thought to contribute to their aggressive and negative behaviours. Current treatments for antisocial youths are limited in effectiveness but research is beginning to show that emotion recognition training is a viable treatment option. This article considers the role of emotion recognition in antisocial behaviour, the neurobiological factors thought to contribute to emotion recognition impairments and current research showing that training these individuals to recognise emotions in others represents a feasible and potentially successful treatment option. We have outlined a program of research that once implemented will improve our understanding of the causal role of emotion recognition in the development of serious and persistent antisocial behaviour in youth.

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Section: Theories Linking Emotion Recognition and Asbmentioning

confidence: 99%

How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

Hunnikin

Goozen

2019

Journal of Criminal Justice

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“…Therefore, facial expressions are an important basis of hostile attributions. Ambiguous facial expressions are interpreted more negatively by aggressive individuals than by others (Fairchild et al 2009;Mellentin et al 2015;Schönenberg and Justyte 2014), which may contribute to the development and maintenance of aggression (Crick and Dodge 1994;Dodge 2006). This phenomenon provides an entry point for intervention: To the extent that we may be able to help aggressive children perceive ambiguous facial expressions in less hostile ways, we may reduce their hostile attribution bias and associated behavior problems.…”

Section: Hostile Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing Aggressive Children’s Hostile Attributions: A Cognitive Bias Modification Procedure

2018

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Children with aggression problems tend to interpret other's intentions as hostile in ambiguous social situations. Among clinically referred children with aggressive behavior problems, this hostile attribution style may be relatively rigid and difficult to change, due to prevalent histories of aversive social experience and/or personal vulnerability. The present study examined the effectiveness of a cognitive bias modification (CBM) training to reduce hostile interpretations of facial expressions in clinically referred aggressive boys. We conducted two experiments: Both Study 1 (N = 59, Mage = 11.8) and Study 2 (N = 75, Mage = 11.5) showed that the training effectively reduced hostile interpretation of facial expressions. However, we found no generalization to relevant other outcomes, including state anger and aggression (assessed using a multi-method approach), and hostile attribution assessed in a game context. Taken together, this research illustrates the potential of employing the CBM procedure to reduce aggressive boys' hostile attributions: The procedure is time and cost-efficient, and relatively easily implemented. Despite this potential, the context-dependency and generalization of effects should be better understood before the procedure can be taken to scale in clinical populations.

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“…In line with previous research (Bowen et al, 2014;Dawel et al, 2012;Marsh & Blair, 2008), we predicted that high-risk children would have impaired facial affect and prosody recognition, and show specific impairments in fear and sadness recognition. We also predicted a hostile attribution bias in response to neutral faces compared to typical control children (Mellentin et al, 2015). all participants in the high-risk group scored in the borderline or clinical range on the aggression and/or Van Zonneveld -Emotion recognition in at-risk children 6 rule breaking behaviour scales (t-score≥65); and their average internalizing problem behaviour score was in the normal range.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of Facial Emotion and Affective Prosody in Children at High Risk of Criminal Behavior

Zonneveld

Sonneville

Goozen

et al. 2018

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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Objective: Emotion recognition is an important aspect of emotion processing, which is needed for appropriate social behavior and normal socialization. Previous studies in adults with antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy, in those convicted of criminal behavior, or in children with conduct disorder show impairments in negative emotion recognition. The present study investigated affective facial and prosody recognition in a sample of children at high risk of developing future criminal behavior. Methods: Participants were 8- to 12-year-old children at high risk of developing criminal behavior (N=219, 83.1% boys) and typically developing controls (N=43, 72.1% boys). The high-risk children were recruited through an ongoing early intervention project of the city of Amsterdam, that focuses on the underage siblings or children of delinquents, and those failing to attend school. Facial and vocal recognition of happy, sad, angry, and fear was measured with the Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) test and the prosody test of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT), respectively. Results: The high-risk group was significantly worse in facial affect recognition and had particular problems with fear and sadness recognition. No hostile attribution bias was found. The high-risk group did not differ from controls in affective prosody recognition but needed significantly more time to recognize emotions. Conclusions: The emotion-specific deficits found in forensic and clinical populations are already present in a sample of children at high risk of developing future criminal behavior. These findings help us understand a possible underlying mechanism of antisocial behavior that could provide directions for tailored interventions. (JINS, 2019, 25, 57–64)

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Seeing enemies? A systematic review of anger bias in the perception of facial expressions among anger-prone and aggressive populations

Cited by 44 publications

References 37 publications

How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

Reducing Aggressive Children’s Hostile Attributions: A Cognitive Bias Modification Procedure

Recognition of Facial Emotion and Affective Prosody in Children at High Risk of Criminal Behavior

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