Associations Between Resting Heart Rate and Antisocial Behavior

Studies testing the relationship between autonomic nervous system function as indexed by low resting heart rate and antisocial behavior have found that low resting heart rate is positively correlated with a wide range of antisocial behavior measures. The aim of this review was to assess the influence of heart rate (HR) level and HR variability (HRV) on the relationship between behavioral variables such as community violence (CV) exposure with proactive and reactive aggression. The explanations can be organized around two main causal mechanisms. In the first, low autonomic arousal (low resting heart rate) is a marker for psychological states that lead to increased antisocial behavior. In the second, physiological characteristics cause both low autonomic arousal (low resting heart rate) and increased antisocial behavior. In respect of hypotheses, we discuss these results in the context of the ‘fearlessness’ and ‘sensation seeking’ hypotheses. Our results offer an initial suggestion that biological characteristics are related to constructs that play central roles in behavioral actions. The results supported the suggestion that there is an association between cognitive function and HR/HRV.