RESUMO
Few studies have addressed attitudes toward violence in offender populations using implicit measures. The aim of this study is to test whether implicit attitudes toward two types of violence (physical and relational) differ between two groups of adolescent offenders: one group with conduct disorder (CD; n = 36) and the other group without this condition (No-CD; n = 26). We found that adolescent offenders with CD evidenced less negative implicit attitudes toward physical violence than the No-CD group. No differences between groups were observed in the case of relational violence. Our results suggest that CD modulates implicit attitudes toward violence in adolescent offenders and that the influence of CD is stronger in the case of physical rather than relational acts of violence.
Assuntos
Transtorno da Conduta , Criminosos , Adolescente , Atitude , Humanos , ViolênciaRESUMO
Previous research has identified a set of core factors that influence moral judgments. The present study addresses the interplay between moral judgments and four factors: (a) incidental affects, (b) sociocultural context, (c) type of dilemma, and (d) participant's sex. We asked participants in two different countries (Colombia and Spain) to judge the acceptability of actions in response to personal and impersonal moral dilemmas. Before each dilemma an affective prime (erotic, pleasant or neutral pictures) was presented suboptimally. Our results show that: a) relative to neutral priming, erotic primes increase the acceptance of harm for a greater good (i.e., more utilitarian judgments), b) relative to Colombians, Spanish participants rated causing harm as less acceptable, c) relative to impersonal dilemmas, personal dilemmas reduced the acceptance of harm, and d) relative to men, women were less likely to consider harm acceptable. Our results are congruent with findings showing that sex is a crucial factor in moral cognition, and they extend previous research by showing the interaction between culture and incidental factors in the making of moral judgments.