THE SEROTONIN HYPOTHESIS OF AGGRESSION REVISITED

Many contemporary theorists believe serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmitter functioning plays a role in the regulation of human aggressive behavio r. We argue that the evidence supporting this 5-HT hypothesis of human aggression is less compelling than commonly assumed, due to (a) confl icting study results, and (b) significant methodological limitations o f existing studies. Recent models that integrate the role of psycholog ical and contextual variables in 5-HT-associated aggression are review ed. The need to incorporate psychometrically sound measures of aggress ion in 5-HT studies, to use experimental and longitudinal designs, and to test hypotheses draw from multifactorial models in future research is advocated. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.