Predicting Aggression: Fearless Temperament and Callous Unemotional Traits as pathways to aggressive behavior. Elise M Cardinale & Abigail A Marsh Georgetown University RESULTS MANIPULATION CHECK INTRODUCTION Emotional Experience at Markoff’s Haunted Forest & Callous Unemotional Traits Emotion Experience at Markoff’s Haunted Forest Validity of Fear Experience Score Validity of Aggression Score Fear Individuals with psychopathic traits are disproportionately likely to engage in aggressive behavior, adding urgency to the understanding the roots of psychopathy-linked aggression. Core temperamental traits of psychopathy include callous and unemotional (CU) traits and fearlessness. However, the relationship amongst CU traits, fearlessness and aggression has not been explored. The following study examined the relationship between CU traits, fearlessness and aggression through the following questions: Are callous unemotional people less fearful? Which factors are form the strongest predictor of aggression? Mean SD Amusement 75.6 19.1 Anger 9.1 15.8 Disgust 11.3 15.9 Fear 54.3 27.6 Sadness 8.0 15.7 Participants reported feeling significantly more Fear and Amusement while walking through the haunted trail than any of the other emotions. Beta t Sig Amusement -.109 -1.814 .071 Anger .167 2.287 .023* Disgust -.037 -.477 .633 Fear -.141 -2.309 .022* Sadness .030 .449 .653 Linear Regression predicting CU traits. F(5, 261)= 5.570, p< .001, R2 = .096, * p < .05 Fear at Markoff’s How easy to remember fear in the past? .111+ How often do you feel afraid? .365** How strongly do you feel afraid? .331** Sympathetic activity .588** My body feels tense .485** My breathing is different .520** My heart is beating faster .543** Fear experience is highly correlated with other aspects of fear experience including general life experience of fear and self-reported sympathetic activity while in the forest. METHODS Fear Experience is significantly associated with CU traits F(1, 290)= 4.122, p= .043. Anger Experience F(1, 283)= 5.582, p= .019. Fearlessness, Callous Unemotional Traits & Aggression Markoff’s Haunted Forest Data was collected at Markoff’s Haunted Forest in Poolesville Maryland. Participants completed the following measures immediately after exiting a 30 minute haunted trail. Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits (ICU) 24 self-report questions that are aimed to assess CU Traits including three subscales: Callous, Unemotional & Uncaring. Subjective Emotion Experience Questionnaire Self-reported emotional experience while in Markoff’s Haunted Forest. Self-Reported Aggression Number of times engaged in a physical fight and number of arrests. Reactive Aggression Proactive Aggression Total Aggression Physical Fights .194 .246* .256* Arrests .087 .265** .197 Aggression Score .198 .325** .298** Our calculated regression score was highly correlated with validated measures of aggression especially instrumental aggression. CONCLUSIONS Fear Experience is significantly associated with Aggression F(1, 276)= 18.512, p< .001. *Anger is not a significant predictor of Aggression Callous Unemotional Traits is significantly associated with Aggression F(1, 283)= 8.509, p= .004. Individuals with Callous Unemotional Traits feel less fear and more anger while in a situation designed to elicit fear. Fearfulness and Callous Unemotional Traits are both significant predictors of aggressive behavior such that higher levels of Callous Unemotional Traits and lower levels of Fear are associated with increases in aggression. While Callous Unemotional Traits are a significant predictor of aggression, Callousness is driving the relationship with Uncaring and Unemotional traits not significantly predicting aggression. Callousness and Fearfulness together provide the best model for predicting aggression. Beta t Sig CU Traits .140 2.409 .017* Fear -.238 -4.086 .000** Linear Regression predicting Aggression. F(2, 274)= 12.567, p< .001, R2 = .084, * p < .05, **p< .01 PARTICIPANTS (N=306) Age M= 30.93, SD=8.89 Gender 163 Male, 135 Female, 8 did not report CU Traits M= 17.41, SD= 8.71 Physical Fights M= 2.804, SD= 13.52 Arrests M= 0.287, SD=0.942 Predictors of Aggression Examination of strength of the model when using the three subscales of the ICU & Fear Experience to predict Aggression. Beta t Sig Unemotional .026 .425 .671 Callous .175 2.677 .008** Uncaring .022 .340 .734 Linear Regression predicting Aggression. F(3, 280)= 3.669, p= .013, R2 = .038, ** p < .01 Beta t Sig Unemotional -.025 -.405 .686 Callous .160 2.498 .013* Uncaring .047 .731 .465 Fear -.247 -4.222 .000** Linear Regression predicting Aggression. F(4, 271)= 7.215, p< .001, R2 = .096, * p < .05, **p< .01 Beta t Sig Callous .170 2.951 .003** Fear -.243 -4.216 .000** Linear Regression predicting Aggression. F(2, 273)= 14.201, p< .001, R2 = .094, **p< .01 REFERENCES Blair, R. J. (2001). Neurocognitive models of aggression, the antisocial personality disorders, and psychopathy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry. Dawel, A., O'Kearney, R., McKone, E., & Palermo, R. (2012). Not just fear and sadness: Meta-analytic evidence of pervasive emotion recognition deficits for facial and vocal expressions in psychopathy. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Kahn, R. E., Byrd, A. L., & Pardini, D. A. (2012). Callous-unemotional traits robustly predict future criminal offending in young men. Marsh, A. A., & Blair, R. J. (2008). 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