Teenage yobs 'confuse disgust for anger'

New research claims to have discovered the reason behind the aggressive tendencies of some children – misinterpreting facial expressions.

In the report, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, researchers suggest the youngsters frequently misinterpret facial expressions of disgust as anger, providing a possible cause for their aggressive behaviour.

Researchers compared the ability of 24 male adolescent delinquents incarcerated in Japan with that of their peers without conduct problems to recognise emotional states.

The adolescents were shown 48 photographs of faces expressing six basic emotions and were asked to match each face with an emotion.

The study found delinquents were more likely than their peers to misinterpret facial expressions of disgust as anger.

Wataru Sato, from Kyoto University, said: 'The present study provides the first clear evidence that delinquents have a bias toward the misrecognition of others’ disgusted expressions as anger.

'This bias towards misrecognising other emotions as anger is particularly significant because anger appears to play an important role in delinquency.'

Previous studies have found that juvenile delinquents often have short tempers and experience more intense anger than other children.

The researchers conclude: 'Taken together the data suggest that delinquents might be projecting their own heightened angry emotions onto others when they misperceive others’ negative, but not hostile, emotional states as anger.'