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Processing of facial affect under social threat in socially anxious adults: mood matters
Author(s) -
Leber Simone,
Heidenreich Thomas,
Stangier Ulrich,
Hofmann Stefan G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.20525
Subject(s) - psychology , sadness , disgust , affect (linguistics) , social anxiety , facial expression , anger , social inhibition , happiness , surprise , mood , anxiety , resentment , social psychology , social cue , developmental psychology , psychiatry , political science , law , communication , politics
Background : An important function of the human face is to communicate approval or disapproval toward others. Because socially anxious individuals are overly concerned about disapproval by others, it has been hypothesized that those individuals are faster at processing negative, specifically angry facial expressions than nonanxious individuals, especially under conditions of social threat. Method : To test this hypothesis, 25 socially anxious individuals and 24 nonanxious controls were asked to classify facial expressions associated with anger, sadness, fear, disgust, happiness, and surprise. Half of the participants performed this task while being confronted with social threat. Results : High socially anxious participants were faster than controls at classifying angry, sad, and fearful faces when confronted with social threat. No group difference was observed under the no‐threat condition. Conclusions : The findings suggest that socially anxious individuals are more hypervigilant toward threat‐related social cues, and that the processing of facial affect is dependent on the person's emotional state. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.