This study aimed at investigating hostile attributional biases for ambiguous facial expressions and answers generated to impasse situations related to aggressive behavior in adolescence. In a cross-sectional design, four pictures suggesting ambiguity in relation to emotions and a narrative based on a hypothetic impasse situation were applied to a non-randomized sample of 29 incarcerated, male adolescents with history of aggressive behavior, and in a control group of 21 male adolescents, both groups aged 14 to 16 years. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview - Brazilian Version 5.0.0 was used to exclude psychosis. There were statistical differences between the scores of hostile attributional biases (t = 6.140, p < 0.001). There was correlation between the scores of hostile attributional biases and the number of answers to the hypothetic situation in the total sample (r = -0.306, p = 0.031).
Social cognition; information processing; aggressive behavior