Judging Others' Anxiety1

Abstract

Detecting anxiety is essential both in help‐giving settings such as psychotherapy and in everyday social relationships. This two‐study experiment involved groups of observers who viewed and rated selected scenes from previously videotaped subjects’(expressers) descriptions of past emotional experiences. One group rated combined visual and auditory stimuli for low and high state anxiety scenes, and the other group judged visual‐only stimuli for low and high state anxiety scenes. Each scene was 30 seconds in length. Both groups were significantly accurate in differentiating expressers' high and low state anxiety. There were significant effects for expresser trait level, but in both studies these effects were opposite to those predicted: High trait anxious were viewed as less anxious than moderate trait anxious who were judged as less anxious than low trait anxious expressers. This unusual finding was discussed with respect to differences in frequency of feeling and coping with anxiety by high and low trait anxious individuals. High trait anxiety subjects were rated as more unlikable on high state anxiety scenes, while low trait anxious individuals were judged as more unlikable on low state anxiety scenes. Differences were observed for trait anxiety groups with regard to state anxiety depending on whether subjects received auditory‐visual or visual‐only stimuli. Discussion is focused on implications of recognizing subtle affect cues and distinctions among people differing in trait anxiety.