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. 2016 Dec;57(12):1400-1406.
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12588. Epub 2016 Jul 1.

Callous-unemotional traits affect adolescents' perception of collaboration

Christine Fawcett  1 , Victoria Wesevich  2 , Erik Truedsson  1 , Cecilia Wåhlstedt  1 , Gustaf Gredebäck  1
Affiliations

Callous-unemotional traits affect adolescents' perception of collaboration

Christine Fawcett et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Background: How is the perception of collaboration influenced by individual characteristics, in particular high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits? CU traits are associated with low empathy and endorsement of negative social goals such as dominance and forced respect. Thus, it is possible that they could relate to difficulties in interpreting that others are collaborating based on a shared goal.

Methods: In the current study, a community sample of 15- to 16-year olds participated in an eye tracking task measuring whether they expect that others engaged in an action sequence are collaborating, depending on the emotion they display toward each other. Positive emotion would indicate that they share a goal, while negative emotion would indicate that they hold individual goals.

Results: When the actors showed positive emotion toward each other, expectations of collaboration varied with CU traits. The higher adolescents were on CU traits, the less likely they were to expect collaboration. When the actors showed negative emotion toward each other, CU traits did not influence expectations of collaboration.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that CU traits are associated with difficulty in perceiving positive social interactions, which could further contribute to the behavioral and emotional problems common to those with high CU traits.

Keywords: Callous-unemotional traits; adolescence; eye movement; social cognition.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Context: actors first turned toward each other and expressed positive (left) or negative (right) emotion. (B) Familiarization: then they moved the block to the Center, and then Left location‐objects. (C) Test: finally, Actor 1 was in the other seat and held the final block, but an opaque screen appeared so that participants could not see where it was placed. Areas of interest for the Left (collaborative goal, solid line) and Center (individual goal, dashed line) are indicated
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relations between callous–unemotional traits and collaboration prediction scores for the Positive (filled circles, solid line) and Negative (open circles, dashed line) conditions. Only in the Positive condition was the relation significant
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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