Wrong Interpretation of Social Cues Causes Teen Violence

Teen psychologists and parents have tried to figure out for a long time some of the triggers that make their children engage in violence before they turn 20 years old. In a new scientific study, experts propose that some of the youngsters do not possess the ability to correctly interpret social cues, such as the facial expressions of others around them, and also to empathize with others' intentions. Details of the research appear in the latest issue of BioMed Central’s open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, AlphaGalileo reports.

A team of Japanese researchers, led by Kyoto University expert Wataru Sato and Naomi Matsuura from the Tokyo University of Social Welfare, ran a comparative analysis of 24 incarcerated male adolescents in the country's jails with a similar number of peers, but who had no history of violence. The end goal of the investigation was to recognize the emotional states that drove the delinquents to their deeds, the scientists said.

Each of the study participants was shown a series of 48 pictures, each of them depicting a facial expression. All of the images showed just six basic emotions, and the test subjects were asked to fit each of the photographs into its corresponding category. According to the results of the study, the teenagers in the delinquent group were far more likely to misinterpret social cues and facial expressions than their peers. Their most glaring error was seeing anger in the pictures showing disgust.

“The present study provides the first clear evidence that delinquents have a bias toward the misrecognition of others’ disgusted expressions as anger,” Sato argued, adding that, in a social setting, such a misinterpretation augmented feelings of anger in the person analyzing the facial expression. This can naturally lead to violent confrontations shortly afterwards. “This bias towards misrecognizing other emotions as anger is particularly significant because anger appears to play an important role in delinquency,” the expert added.

“Taken together, the data suggest that delinquents might be projecting their own heightened angry emotions onto others when they misperceive others’ negative, but not hostile, emotional states as anger,” Sato concluded.