Empathy and recognition of facial expressions of emotion in sex offenders, non-sex offenders and normal controls

Isabelle Gery, Raphaële Miljkovitch, Sylvie Berthoz, Robert Soussignan
Psychiatry Research. 2009-02-01; 165(3): 252-262
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2007.11.006

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1. Psychiatry Res. 2009 Feb 28;165(3):252-62. doi:
10.1016/j.psychres.2007.11.006. Epub 2009 Jan 22.

Empathy and recognition of facial expressions of emotion in sex offenders,
non-sex offenders and normal controls.

Gery I(1), Miljkovitch R, Berthoz S, Soussignan R.

Author information:
(1)Laboratoire de Développement Social et Emotionnel, Université Paris X
Nanterre, France.

Research conducted on empathy and emotional recognition in sex offenders is
contradictory. The present study was aimed to clarify this issue by controlling
for some affective and social variables (depression, anxiety, and social
desirability) that are presumed to influence emotional and empathic measures,
using a staged multicomponent model of empathy. Incarcerated sex offenders
(child molesters), incarcerated non-sex offenders, and non-offender controls
(matched for age, gender, and education level) performed a recognition task of
facial expressions of basic emotions that varied in intensity, and completed
various self-rating scales designed to assess distinct components of empathy
(perspective taking, affective empathy, empathy concern, and personal distress),
as well as depression, anxiety, and social desirability. Sex offenders were less
accurate than the other participants in recognizing facial expressions of anger,
disgust, surprise and fear, with problems in confusing fear with surprise, and
disgust with anger. Affective empathy was the only component that discriminated
sex offenders from non-sex offenders and was correlated with accuracy
recognition of emotional expressions. Although our findings must be replicated
with a larger number of participants, they support the view that sex offenders
might have impairments in the decoding of some emotional cues conveyed by the
conspecifics’ face, which could have an impact on affective empathy.

DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2007.11.006
PMID: 19167095 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus