Reactive aggression is posited to occur as a result of hypersensitivity to threat, whereas fearlessness may drive proactive aggression. This study aimed to test if physiological fear reactivity differentially relates to self-report reactive and proactive aggression using immersive virtual reality fear (VR) induction. We collected subjective fear ratings and sympathetic (SNS; skin conductance) and parasympathetic (PNS; respiratory sinus arrhythmia) nervous system reactivity during an interactive VR horror video. Results showed that for men and women, reactive aggression was related to heightened SNS fear reactivity. For men, proactive aggression was related to hypoarousal of the PNS and SNS (coinhibition) during fear induction, whereas augmented PNS was related to proactive aggression in women. These results support the fearlessness hypothesis for proactive aggression in men, but this does not replicate in women. By contrast, hypersensitivity to fear is related to reactive aggression for both men and women.

反应性攻击被认为是对威胁过敏的结果，而无所畏惧可能会驱动主动攻击。本研究旨在测试生理恐惧反应是否与使用沉浸式虚拟现实恐惧 (VR) 感应的自我报告反应性和主动性攻击有不同的相关性。我们在交互式 VR 恐怖视频中收集了主观恐惧评级和交感神经（SNS；皮肤电导）和副交感神经（PNS；呼吸性窦性心律失常）神经系统反应性。结果表明，对于男性和女性，反应性攻击与 SNS 恐惧反应性增强有关。对于男性，主动攻击与恐惧诱导期间 PNS 和 SNS（共抑制）的低唤醒有关，而增强的 PNS 与女性的主动攻击有关。这些结果支持男性主动攻击的无所畏惧假设，但这并没有在女性身上复制。相比之下，对恐惧的超敏反应与男性和女性的反应性攻击有关。