Placer asociado con la conducta agresiva en una muestra de reclusos españoles en prisión preventiva

  1. Millana Cuevas, Luis
  2. Toldos Romero, María Paz
  3. Cabanac, Michel
  4. Bonniot-Cabanc, Marie Claude
  5. Martín Ramírez, Jesús
Journal:
Psicopatología Clínica Legal y Forense

ISSN: 1576-9941

Year of publication: 2006

Volume: 6

Issue: 1-3

Pages: 119-132

Type: Article

More publications in: Psicopatología Clínica Legal y Forense

Abstract

Maximization of pleasure (hedonicity) is a major mechanism in human decision-making, as previous research on both hoth sensory pleasure and purely mental pleasure. In addiction, it has also documented that pleasure is a major factor in decision-making in social situations related to interpersonal aggression, and that people tend to make aggressive behavioral decisions as a function of the resulting pleasure. The present study tried to verify whether this trend was also found in inmates. The results were similar to the ones previously observed in ‘normal’ subjects, even though the degree of hedonicity was higher in the prisoners. No sex nor age differences were found. We conclude that increasingly aggressive behavior is increasingly pleasurable to the aggressor, whith the exception of the highest levels of aggression. This trend is found in both ‘normal’ and inmate populations, even if it seems to be stronger in prisoners.