Evidence for environmental influences on impulsivity and aggression

Abstract

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the environmental and economic drivers of behavior, a holistic approach encompassing multiple scales of analysis is needed. The current work aims to understand the specific role of physical environmental factors in predicting impulsivity and aggression. Using a dataset collected in summer 2022 (N=382), participants' impulsivity and aggression were analyzed as a function of economic hardship and environmental exposures using both neighborhood-level factors aggregated from publicly accessible data and participant-reported exposures. Significant positive associations were found between impulsivity and exposure to heat stress at home and via urban heat island effects. Aggression was related to greater economic hardship and less tree canopy at the neighborhood level. Exploratory analyses demonstrated that while home heat stress was predictive of all three subtypes of impulsivity, financial hardship was only associated with lack of planning ahead, but not inattentiveness or the tendency to act without thinking.