Poster #70 - Does Gaze Toward Social Interaction Predict Antisocial Traits in Middle Childhood?

• In Event: Poster Session 19

Abstract

Objective: Preverbal infants who exhibit a visually-guided reaching preference toward prosocial over antisocial agents in an animated “Hill” paradigm (Hamlin et al., 2013) are less likely to display callous-unemotional traits in early childhood (Woo et al., 2022). Other work has observed visual preference for prosocial over antisocial agents in younger infants (Hamlin et al., 2010), although trait measures were not assessed, and the extent to which these observed associations hold in middle childhood, a period marked by a host of social transitions, remains unknown (Hinten et al., 2018). Most studies implementing the Hill paradigm have focused on the association between preference for prosocial agents in infancy and concurrent or prospective prosocial behavioral outcomes in early childhood. Here, we extend this work and ask whether a visual preference for antisocial agents predicts higher antisocial traits and lower empathy in middle childhood. Adult psychopathic offenders show gaze aversion toward the eyes of social stimuli (Gehrer et al., 2019), whereas connections between attention and affective empathy impairment in antisocial children are mixed (van Zonneveld et al., 2017). We test the hypothesis that children exhibiting proportionately greater looking time toward antisocial rather than prosocial actors will have greater levels of callous-unemotional and psychopathic traits and lower levels of trait empathy than children exhibiting greater looking time toward prosocial than antisocial actors.
Methods: Participants will be 50 Latina youth (aged 8–12) currently enrolled in a longitudinal study, who have consented to be contacted for follow-up. We adapted a well-validated computer-based animated cartoon sequence, the “Hill paradigm” (Hamlin et al., 2007) for use with a Tobii X3-120 eye tracker (Tobii Pro, 2019). The paradigm tracks attention to two cartoon shape agents that display either helpful or hindering actions toward a third recipient, counterbalanced for perpetrator action and presentation order. Participants will be seated in front of a desktop computer fitted with the eye tracker and asked to observe the animated sequences while looking time toward each of the three cartoon characters (helper, hinderer, and recipient) is recorded. Eye gaze data will be collected, cleaned, and analyzed using linear dynamic areas of interest in Tobii Pro Lab (Tobii Pro AB, 2014). At the same visit, children will complete the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (Frick, 2004), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), and the modified Child Psychopathy Scale (Lynam, 1997). We use hierarchical regression analyses to test whether individual differences in the allocation of attention to the antisocial agent are associated with trait measures, controlling for age and overall looking time.
Implications: Current work argues that a core moral foundation underlies the development of prosocial and antisocial behavior in infancy. If our hypothesis is supported and we observe an association between attention allocation to antisocial agents and antisocial traits in middle childhood, this may elucidate whether attentional mechanisms continue to influence unemotionality throughout development as children transition to peer social contexts.

Authors

• Matthew Shane Kersting, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Kalina J Michalska, University of California - Riverside