Nonverbal Behavioral Patterns Predict Social Rejection Elicited Aggression

Peer-based aggression following social rejection is a costly and prevalent problem for which existing treatments have had little success. This may be because aggression is a complex process influenced by current states of attention and arousal, which are difficult to measure on a moment to moment basis via self report. It is therefore crucial to identify nonverbal behavioral indices of attention and arousal that predict subsequent aggression. We used Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and eye gaze duration and pupillary response features, measured during positive and negative peer-based social interactions, to predict subsequent aggressive behavior towards those same peers. We found that eye gaze and pupillary reactivity not only predicted aggressive behavior, but performed better than models that included information about the participant’s exposure to harsh parenting or trait aggression. Eye gaze and pupillary reactivity models also performed equally as well as those that included information about peer reputation (e.g. whether the peer was rejecting or accepting). This is the first study to decode nonverbal eye behavior during social interaction to predict social rejection-elicited aggression.