What is it about?
What is this study about? Research has long shown that people who engage in serious violence often have weaker critical thinking and moral reasoning. What has been less clear is how these deficits translate into violent behaviour. This study examines whether cognitive distortions—specifically emotional suppression and abundant (grievance-focused) thoughts—help explain this link. What did we do? We compared three groups of men in Kuwait: individuals convicted of homicide, individuals convicted of non-fatal violent offences, and non-criminal community participants. All participants completed validated measures of critical thinking, moral reasoning, cognitive distortions, and violence risk. We then used mediation analyses to test whether distorted thinking explains the relationship between reasoning deficits and violence. What did we find? Non-criminal participants showed the strongest critical thinking and moral reasoning, while homicide offenders showed the weakest. The opposite pattern emerged for cognitive distortions, which were highest among homicide offenders. Lower critical thinking and moral reasoning were linked to higher violence risk, and this relationship was partly explained by emotional suppression and abundant thoughts. What does this mean? The findings show that violent behaviour is not only associated with weak reasoning skills, but also with specific distorted thinking patterns that block guilt, fear, and reflective judgement, helping convert poor reasoning into violent action.
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Why is it important?
It clarifies how deficits in thinking and morality become translated into violent behaviour, rather than merely showing that they coexist. It provides direct evidence from homicide offenders, a group rarely examined in mediation models of violence. It identifies emotional suppression and grievance-focused rumination as key psychological mechanisms driving violence risk. It supports targeted rehabilitation approaches that combine reasoning-skills training with cognitive-distortion reduction. It informs forensic assessment by highlighting what to measure, not only who is high risk.
Perspectives
As researchers working in forensic and applied psychology, we have repeatedly observed that violent behaviour cannot be fully understood by focusing only on background risk factors or personality traits. In clinical and correctional settings, what often stands out is how individuals think—how they interpret events, regulate emotions, and justify harm. This study emerged from a long-standing interest in understanding why deficits in reasoning and moral judgement do not always lead to violence, yet sometimes escalate into extreme acts such as homicide. Our findings suggest that cognitive distortions play a crucial bridging role. Emotional suppression appears to silence the internal moral signals that usually inhibit harm, while persistent grievance-focused thoughts keep individuals locked in hostile interpretations of the world. Personally, I see this work as contributing to a more mechanism-based understanding of violence, one that moves beyond labels and focuses on changeable psychological processes. By identifying how distorted thinking converts weak reasoning into violent action, this research supports more precise, humane, and effective intervention strategies.
Prof. Othman H Alkhadher
Kuwait University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Do Cognitive Distortions Mediate the Relationships Between Critical Thinking, Moral Reasoning and the Risk of Violence?, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, December 2025, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/cbm.70019.
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