Trait Social Anxiety Research Articles

The effect of social anxiety on social attention in naturalistic situations

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives This multimodal two-phase study investigated the impact of trait social anxiety on exploration, social attention, and autonomic responses in a naturalistic setting. We expected higher avoidance of potentially crowded spaces, reduced visual attention on other people, and heightened physiological arousal in social situations for participants with higher social anxiety levels. Design and Methods Eighty-seven participants, pre-screened for high variance in trait social anxiety, first completed a half-hour walk on a freely chosen route and subsequently had a staged social interaction with a confederate consisting of a non-interactive waiting phase and a short conversation. Results While social anxiety did not modulate the choice of route during the walk phase, socially anxious participants avoided gazing at other individuals in non-interactive situations, i.e., during the walk and the waiting phase. In contrast, during actual interaction, they showed increased visual attention towards the confederate’s face. Across all experimental phases, highly socially anxious individuals showed elevated heart rates, but this effect was independent of the social context. Conclusions This study showed that social anxiety affects social exploration behavior not in a way of general avoidance, but rather in nuanced adaptations depending on the concrete situation, likelihood of interaction and associated socio-evaluative threat.

A Comprehensive Investigation of Social Anxiety and Social Evaluative Stress in Autistic Children and Adolescents and Specific Learning Disorders.

The aim was to investigate trait social anxiety and social evaluative stress in autistic children and adolescents and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD). This was done by evaluating behavioral, subjective, and autonomic responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Study 1 included 280 children and adolescents: 60 autistic without intellectual disability (ID), 70 SLD, and 150 non-diagnosed (ND) peers. Study 2 involved 55 participants: 15 autistic without ID, 15 SLD, and 20 ND. The sample was predominantly male. In Study 1, behavioral (quality of public speech) and subjective (valence, arousal, perceived competence, and worries) aspects of social stress were examined. Study 2 expands upon the first study, as physiological responses to social stress were also measured. Trait social anxiety was investigated using both parents' and children's reports in the two studies. Parents of autistic participants and with SLD reported higher trait social anxiety in their children than the parents of ND. No differences emerged from the participants' self-reports, though those autistic and with SLD were assigned lower scores in the public speech quality than ND. Autistic children and adolescents reported lower arousal and higher perceived competence than ND, while those with SLD reported a lower perception of competence. Autistic participants had a decreased cardiac reactivity across the TSST when compared to SLD and ND. Our findings show unique patterns of responses within each group, confirming that the combined investigation of trait anxiety and social stress responses could be a valuable insight in research and clinical practice.

Stuttering severity and social anxiety among adults who stutter: A multilevel analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to further investigate the association between social anxiety and stuttering severity among adults who stutter (AWS) at both the between- and within-person levels of analysis. MethodSixty-two AWS (women = 27, men = 35; Mage = 39.5 years, SDage = 14.8) first completed a questionnaire (e.g., trait social anxiety and personality traits) and provided two speech samples (i.e., conversation, reading). Then, participants enrolled in up to 21 days of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to self-report their momentary stuttering severity, social anxiety, and avoidance behaviors during social interactions. Correlational analyses and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted on between-person level measures. Multilevel mediation analysis was conducted on EMA data to disaggregate between- and within-person processes. ResultsAt the between-person level, percent syllables stuttered (%SS) and person mean Self-Reported Stuttering Severity (iSRSS) were both significantly correlated with trait social anxiety, but not above and beyond the effects of neuroticism, extraversion, the overall impact of stuttering, and avoidance behaviors. At the within-person level, when AWS self-reported to stutter more than they usually do on average, they also tended to exhibit higher levels of social anxiety than they usually did, regardless of the amount of avoidance behaviors exhibited at those moments. The within-person effect between stuttering severity and social anxiety was also significantly mediated by avoidance behaviors. ConclusionThe associations between social anxiety and stuttering differed based on the analysis level (between vs within-person) and whether covariates are included.

Impact of Social Media Addiction Among Medical Students on Their Social Interaction, Well-Being, and Personality: A Comparative Study.

Background Social media addiction has emerged as a growing concern, particularly among young adults, including medical students who face unique stressors and demands. The widespread usage of social media platforms can lead to addictive behaviors affecting mental health, academic performance, and interpersonal relationships. Understanding the relationship between social media addiction, personality traits, social interaction, and overall well-being is crucial for developing effective interventions to support this vulnerable group. Aim To study the relationship of social media addiction with social interaction, well-being, and personality in medical students. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 300 students from a medical institution, including both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Data were collected through an online survey, administered via Google Forms. Social Media Addiction Scale-Student Form (SMA-SF), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale, Medical Student Well-Being Index (MSWBI), Three-Item Loneliness Scale (T-ILS), and Short Big Five Inventory Scale (BFI-10) were applied to all the participants. Results A total of 292 medical students participated in the study, comprising 122 males and 170 females. The analysis revealed that both male and female students exhibit similar levels of susceptibility to social media addiction, as evidenced by comparable scores on measures of social media addiction, social interaction anxiety, social phobia, loneliness, well-being, and personality traits. Regression analysis identified time spent on social media and agreeableness as significant predictors of social media addiction, with no signs of multicollinearity. These findings indicate that male and female medical students share similar psychological profiles, highlighting critical factors that influence social media usage within this population. Conclusion This study highlights a significant prevalence of social media addiction among medical students, affecting 76.7% (n = 224) of participants, with slightly higher rates observed among females (n = 132, 78%) compared to males (n = 92, 72%). This addiction correlates with adverse psychological traits such as heightened social interaction anxiety, social phobia, and loneliness, along with personality traits like neuroticism. Both genders exhibit similar susceptibility to addiction, influenced by factors such as time spent socializing and agreeableness. Addressing these findings through targeted interventions could improve medical students' overall well-being and mental health outcomes, underscoring the need for further research and effective strategies in academic settings.

Daily-life reactivity and emotion regulation in children with social anxiety disorder

Prominent models of adult social anxiety disorder emphasize the role of hyperreactivity and emotion regulation (ER) difficulties. However, it is unclear whether these factors are relevant in childhood, a critical period for the development of this disorder. We used ecological momentary assessment with mobile phones to assess daily-life emotional reactivity and use and effectiveness of ER strategies in children aged 10–13 years. We compared three groups: Social anxiety disorder (n = 29), clinical controls with mixed anxiety disorders (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 31). We also investigated long-term effects of ER on trait social anxiety 12 months later. Hierarchical linear modelling revealed higher emotional reactivity and more use of suppression in children with social anxiety disorder compared to clinical and healthy controls. Contrary to our expectations, children with social anxiety disorder reported more use of avoidance and reappraisal compared to clinical, but not healthy, controls. The groups did not differ in subjective effectiveness of ER strategies. Use of suppression, avoidance, and rumination each predicted an increase in social anxiety 12 months later. Taken together, our results extend previous findings from lab and questionnaire studies and illustrate the role of maladaptive ER for child social anxiety disorder.

The experience of stuttering in everyday life among adults who stutter: The impact of trait social anxiety and the social situations

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the emotional and stuttering experience of adults who stutter (AWS) in everyday life, and how that experience may be shaped by personal (i.e., trait social anxiety) and situational factors (i.e., social partner reaction, communication channel type, social closeness, stuttering knowledge). MethodAWS completed ecological momentary assessments on their smartphones multiple times a day for up to three weeks. Data (n = 62) were analyzed with multilevel models to determine how situational factors and trait social anxiety influence the Negative Affect (NA), Positive Affect (PA), and self-reported stuttering severity of AWS. ResultsResults indicated that having high (vs. low) trait social anxiety was associated with a tendency to experience high NA, low PA, and high self-reported stuttering severity among AWS. A range of situational factors significantly influenced the within-person variation of NA, PA, and self-reported stuttering severity in everyday life. In addition, interacting with distant social partners relative to being alone heightened NA, and the effect was more prominent among AWS with high (vs. low) trait social anxiety. ConclusionsOverall, the findings suggest that the variation of affects and stuttering severity among AWS can be partly accounted for by factors from both the situational and personal levels. Clinicians should be aware of the low PA experienced by AWS who have high (vs low) trait social anxiety in everyday life.

Trait Social Anxiety Moderates the Relationship Between Emotion-Regulation Strategy Switching and State Anxiety in Daily Life

Difficulty knowing when to switch emotion-regulation (ER) strategies is theorized to be a key pathway to emotion dysregulation, but relatively few studies have empirically examined this. We applied a new order-based metric to quantify how 109 socially anxious people switched between 19 different ER strategies (or chose not to regulate at all) throughout a 5-week ecological-momentary-assessment (EMA) study that yielded 12,616 observations. We tested whether state- and trait-anxiety reports and their interaction predicted differences in ER strategy switching. Results indicated that people with relatively higher social-anxiety symptoms switch more often between ER strategies during periods of high average state anxiety but less often during periods of high variability in state anxiety than less socially anxious people. Interventions focused on helping socially anxious people learn how ER strategies are connected to variations in state anxiety might hold promise to increase adaptive ER-switching decisions. More broadly, expanding ER-switching interventions to consider the role of changing situations is an important next step.

Quality of life, psychological states, and personality traits in patients with pectus excavatum

ObjectiveThe quality of life (QOL) and psychological states of patients with pectus excavatum (PE) have yet to be well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the health-related QOL (HRQOL), psychological states, and personality traits of patients with PE, alongside the associations of these factors with the severity of PE. MethodsA cross-sectional evaluation was prospectively performed in patients scheduled to undergo PE repair surgery between July 2019 and April 2021. The primary outcome was the patients’ HRQOL, and the secondary outcomes were depression, social anxiety, self-efficacy, and personality traits. ResultsIn total, 129 patients were subjected to analyses. Patients' HRQOL had a lower role component summary score (mean ± standard deviation: 41.8 ± 12.8, P < .001) than the general population controls. Patients' HRQOL had a significantly better physical component summary (54.0 ± 10.4, P < .001) and mental component summary (53.3 ± 8.8, P < .001) than that of the general population. Fourteen patients' (10.9%) and 56 patients' (43.4%) scores indicated the presence of depression and social anxiety disorder, respectively. Patients’ self-efficacy (46.1 ± 11.4, P, .001) and level of extraversion (46.5 ± 11.8, P < .001) were lower than those of the general population. No significant correlation was found between the severity of PE and these scores. ConclusionsOur study revealed that patients with PE had decreased social-role QOL, depressive tendencies, increased social anxiety, lower self-efficacy, and introversion. No correlation between the severity of PE and the patients’ psychological outcomes leads us to conclude that surgical implications of PE should not be decided solely by a physical index.

Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility: a daily diary approach

ABSTRACT Previous research suggests that social anxiety symptoms are maintained and intensified by inflexible emotion regulation (ER). Therefore, we examined whether trait-level social anxiety moderates ER flexibility operationalised at both between-person (covariation between variability in emotional intensity and variability in strategy use across occasions) and within-person (associations between emotional intensity and strategy use on a given day) levels. In a sample of healthy college-aged adults (N = 185, M age = 21.89), we examined overall and emotion-specific intensities (shame, guilt, anxiety, anger, sadness) and regulatory strategies (i.e. experiential avoidance, expressive suppression, and rumination) in response to each day’s most emotionally intense event over 6 days. During the study period, we found a positive association between variability in emotional intensity and variability of experiential avoidance in individuals with lower, rather than higher, levels of trait social anxiety after controlling for key covariates (i.e. gender, personality traits, and stress exposure). However, we did not find evidence for the moderating role of trait social anxiety in ER flexibility assessed at within-person levels. Our findings highlight the need to delineate dynamic ER flexibility across everyday events.

Implications of Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Is There a Predictive Role of Interpersonal Sensitivity and Substance Abuse?

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been frequently reported by subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, interestingly, the overlap between social anxiety and autistic traits may sometimes impede ASD diagnosis in subjects without intellectual or language impairment. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the presence and correlates of social phobic features among subjects with ASD, with a specific focus on evaluating which social anxiety symptoms may be statistically predictive of an ASD diagnosis. With this purpose, 48 subjects with ASD and 48 gender- and age- matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and assessed with the SHY-SV and the AdAS Spectrum questionnaires. Results highlighted higher scores in all SHY-SV Spectrum domains and total scores for the ASD group. Moreover, AdAS Spectrum scores were significantly correlated with all SHY-SV domain and total scores. A logistic regression analysis highlighted the SHY-SV Interpersonal sensitivity and Substance Abuse domains scores as significant positive predictors of an ASD diagnosis. These results confirm the link between ASD and SAD. Because of this association, particular attention should be paid to subjects with high interpersonal sensitivity traits and substance abuse problems.

Specific associations of passively sensed smartphone data with future symptoms of avoidance, fear, and physiological distress in social anxiety

BackgroundPrior literature links passively sensed information about a person's location, movement, and communication with social anxiety. These findings hold promise for identifying novel treatment targets, informing clinical care, and personalizing digital mental health interventions. However, social anxiety symptoms are heterogeneous; to identify more precise targets and tailor treatments, there is a need for personal sensing studies aimed at understanding differential predictors of the distinct subdomains of social anxiety. Our objective was to conduct a large-scale smartphone-based sensing study of fear, avoidance, and physiological symptoms in the context of trait social anxiety over time. MethodsParticipants (n = 1013; 74.6 % female; M age = 40.9) downloaded the LifeSense app, which collected continuous passive data (e.g., GPS, communication, app and device use) over 16 weeks. We tested a series of multilevel linear regression models to understand within- and between-person associations of 2-week windows of passively sensed smartphone data with fear, avoidance, and physiological distress on the self-reported Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). A shifting sensor lag was applied to examine how smartphone features related to SPIN subdomains 2 weeks in the future (distal prediction), 1 week in the future (medial prediction), and 0 weeks in the future (proximal prediction). ResultsA decrease in time visiting novel places was a strong between-person predictor of social avoidance over time (distal β = −0.886, p = .002; medial β = −0.647, p = .029; proximal β = −0.818, p = .007). Reductions in call- and text-based communications were associated with social avoidance at both the between- (distal β = −0.882, p = .002; medial β = −0.932, p = .001; proximal β = −0.918, p = .001) and within- (distal β = −0.191, p = .046; medial β = −0.213, p = .028) person levels, as well as between-person fear of social situations (distal β = −0.860, p < .001; medial β = −0.892, p < .001; proximal β = −0.886, p < .001) over time. There were fewer significant associations of sensed data with physiological distress. Across the three subscales, smartphone data explained 9–12 % of the variance in social anxiety. ConclusionFindings have implications for understanding how social anxiety manifests in daily life, and for personalizing treatments. For example, a signal that someone is likely to begin avoiding social situations may suggest a need for alternative types of exposure-based interventions compared to a signal that someone is likely to begin experiencing increased physiological distress. Our results suggest that as a prophylactic means of targeting social avoidance, it may be helpful to deploy interventions involving social exposures in response to decreases in time spent visiting novel places.

Social anxiety is more likely to influence reputation management decisions than autistic traits.

People manage their social reputation by selectively sharing achievements, thereby shaping the way others think about them. Autistic traits and social anxiety may have opposing impacts on reputation management. This study aimed to identify the influence of autistic traits and social anxiety on reputation management behavior, independently and in co-occurrence with one another. Seventy-seven adults with varying levels of autistic and social anxiety traits completed a novel self-disclosure task that required them to complete a computerized game and decide whether to disclose their scores to another participant. This design provided a safe social environment for sharing performance outcomes and allowed us to manipulate performance outcomes for participants and set a perceived 'norm' of high self-disclosure. Results showed that participants were more likely to disclose their high than low scores to the other player. Social anxiety reliably predicted the likelihood of disclosing their scores while high autistic traits predicted the likelihood of disclosure only in combination with high social anxiety. Additionally, establishing the norm of high disclosure facilitated self-disclosure in all the participants. This study shows that social anxiety may influence reputation management via selective self-disclosure more when co-occurring with high autistic traits. People with varying levels of autistic traits may not behave differently to maintain a social reputation.

Shame on Me? Love Me Tender! Inducing and Reducing Shame and Fear in Social Anxiety in an Analogous Sample.

Shame is considered an important factor in the development and maintenance of many psychological disorders, e.g., social anxiety disorder, and an interesting target point for therapeutic intervention. In the present experimental study, we used an online-adopted Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (AEMT) to induce shame and tested different micro-interventions (self-compassion, cognitive reappraisal, and a control intervention) with respect to their potential to reduce shame intensity. One-hundred-and-fifteen healthy subjects participated in the study and completed a series of self-report questionnaires on self-compassion, shame, and social anxiety. The experimental shame induction was well accepted and successful (with significantly heightened feelings of shame); there were no study drop-outs. There was a significant time*condition interaction, which was due the self-compassion-based intervention resulting in a significantly larger reduction of shame than the control condition (counting fishes). In addition, the main effect of the factor experimental condition was further moderated (enhanced) by trait social anxiety and trait self-compassion. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of online-adopted AEMT for the experimental induction of shame. They suggest that especially self-compassion interventions can be beneficial in alleviating intense shame experiences, which is in accordance with self-compassion theory. Overall, the results are promising in the context of experimental shame research and its potential clinical impacts call for further replication.

Effects of emotional content on social inhibition of gaze in live social and non-social situations

In real-life interactions, it is crucial that humans adequately respond to others’ emotional expressions. Emotion perception so far has mainly been studied in highly controlled laboratory tasks. However, recent research suggests that attention and gaze behaviour significantly differ between watching a person on a controlled laboratory screen compared to in real world interactions. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate effects of emotional expression on participants’ gaze in social and non-social situations. We compared looking behaviour towards a confederate showing positive, neutral or negative facial expressions between live social and non-social waiting room situations. Participants looked more often and longer to the confederate on the screen, than when physically present in the room. Expressions displayed by the confederate and individual traits (social anxiety and autistic traits) of participants did not reliably relate to gaze behaviour. Indications of covert attention also occurred more often and longer during the non-social, than during the social condition. Findings indicate that social norm is a strong factor modulating gaze behaviour in social contexts.Protocol registrationThe stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on September 13, 2021. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16628290.

Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits

Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others’ emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of others’ emotions in individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder and individuals on the autism spectrum. Using a non-clinical sample (N = 57), we examined the role of social anxiety and autistic traits in the link between facial mimicry, or confidence in one’s performance, and emotion recognition. While participants were presented with videos of spontaneous emotional facial expressions, we measured their facial muscle activity, asked them to label the expressions and indicate their confidence in accurately labelling the expressions. Our results showed that confidence in emotion recognition was lower with higher social anxiety traits even though actual recognition was not related to social anxiety traits. Higher autistic traits, in contrast, were associated with worse recognition, and a weakened link between facial mimicry and performance. Consequently, high social anxiety traits might not affect emotion recognition itself, but the top-down evaluation of own abilities in emotion recognition contexts. High autistic traits, in contrast, may be related to lower integration of sensorimotor simulations, which promote emotion recognition.

The Contribution of Attentional Bias to Negative Information to Social Anxiety-Linked Heightened State Anxiety During a Social Event

BackgroundIt has been proposed that people with high compared to low trait social anxiety pay greater attention to negative information concerning upcoming social events, and that such attentional bias drives the disproportionately elevated levels of state anxiety they exhibit in response to these events. These two hypotheses have not yet been adequately tested.MethodWe recruited participants who were high or low in trait social anxiety. Participants completed a mock job interview, and reported their state anxiety during this experience. Prior attentional bias to negative, relative to benign, information concerning this event was assessed using a variant of the dual probe approach, in which participants were exposed to dual videos, each comprising two video clips of people who had completed the mock job interview, discussing either negative or benign aspects of this experience.ResultsHigh compared to low trait social anxiety participants displayed higher attentional bias to negative social information, and this bias mediated the association between elevated trait social anxiety and heightened state anxiety experienced during the mock job interview.ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate that elevated trait social anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias to negative, relative to benign, information concerning an upcoming social event, and that this attentional bias statistically predicts the disproportionately elevated state anxiety that people with high trait social anxiety experience during such an event.

Effects of peer vicarious experience and low effortful control on children's anxiety in social performance situations.

Two experiments investigated perceived and physiological changes in anxiety in children (7-11 years; N = 222; 98 female) in a performance situation after they observed another child in a similar situation with a negative or neutral outcome. The sample's London, United Kingdom, school catchment areas ranged from low to high socioeconomic statuses with 31% to 49% of children from ethnic minority backgrounds. In Study 1, participants watched one of two films of a child playing a simple musical instrument (a kazoo). In one film, an audience of peers responds negatively to the performance. In the other film, the audience response was neutral. Participants were then filmed playing the instrument themselves and measures of perceived and actual heart rate were taken along with individual differences in trait social anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and effortful control. To better understand findings from Study 1, Study 2 replicated Study 1 but added a manipulation check and measures of effortful control and self-reported anxiety. Multiple regression analyses found watching a negative performance film, compared with a neutral one, was associated with a blunted heart rate response for children with low effortful control (Study 1 and 2). These findings suggest that children who are low in effortful control may disengage during performance tasks if the situation's social threat is elevated. Hierarchical regression analyses found that, compared to the neutral film, the negative performance film elevated children's self-report anxiety (Study 2). Overall, the findings indicated that anxiety in performance situations can be elevated after observing peers' negative experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Social interaction anxiety, social phobia, and cognitive control: controlled reactions to facial affect during an emotional face flanker task

Trait social anxiety may predict differences in the cognitive control of emotional distraction when emotional face discrimination is required. This effect can be investigated using an emotional face flanker task. This study addresses an important research gap, as previous studies did not separate the effects of trait social interaction anxiety from the effects of trait social phobia upon emotional face flanker task performance. In this laboratory based behavioural experiment, the 87 participants (mean age 24.3) were university students or staff recruited via departmental adverts. We used an emotional (happy versus fearful) face flanker task, and assessed sub-clinical social anxiety with the SIAS/SPS. Elevated trait social phobia was related to an increased reaction time (RT) congruency effect, whereas trait social interaction anxiety was not. Elevated trait social interaction anxiety was related to a decreased happy face RT advantage for central target faces, but the effect of trait social phobia was very weak. Trait social interaction anxiety and trait social phobia may predict subtle differences when the cognitive control of reactions to emotional facial expressions is required.

Specific interpretation biases as a function of social anxiety and callous-unemotional traits in a community and a clinical adolescent sample

BackgroundThreatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mechanisms of childhood anxiety and aggression, respectively. However, it is unclear whether these interpretation biases are specific to distinct problems or whether they are general psychopathological phenomena. The specificity versus pervasiveness of interpretation biases could also differ depending on mental health status. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether social anxiety and callous-unemotional (CU) traits were uniquely related to threatening and hostile interpretation biases, respectively, in both a community and a clinical sample of adolescents.MethodsA total of 161 adolescents between 10 to 15 years of age participated. The community sample consisted of 88 participants and the clinical sample consisted of 73 inpatients with a variety of psychological disorders. Social anxiety and CU-traits were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Ambiguous Social Scenario Task was used to measure both threatening and hostile interpretations in response to written vignettes.ResultsResults showed that social anxiety was uniquely related to more threatening interpretations, while CU-traits were uniquely related to more hostile interpretations. These relationships were replicated for the community sample. For the clinical sample, only the link between social anxiety and threatening interpretations was significant. Explorative analyses showed that adolescents with externalizing disorders scored higher on hostile interpretations than adolescents with internalizing disorders.ConclusionsOverall, these results support the content-specificity of threatening interpretation biases in social anxiety and of hostile interpretation biases in CU-traits. Better understanding the roles of interpretation biases in different psychopathologies might open avenues for tailored prevention and intervention paradigms.

Who gets caught by the emotion? Attentional biases toward emotional facial expressions and their link to social anxiety and autistic traits

The emotional facial expressions of other individuals are a valuable information source in adapting behaviour to situational demands, and have been found to receive prioritized attention. Yet, enhanced attentional biases, such as a bias to social threat in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), or blunted attention to emotional information, as assumed in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), can easily become maladaptive in daily life. In order to investigate individual differences in attentional biases toward different emotional expressions (angry, happy, sad, and fearful versus neutral) and their links to social anxiety and autistic traits, we tested 104 healthy participants with an emotional dot-probe paradigm on a touch screen, and measured clinical trait levels associated with ASD and SAD. While confirming the presence of attentional biases toward all emotional expressions, we did not find robust evidence for systematic links between these biases and either clinical trait dimension. Only an exploratory Bayesian analysis pointed to a less pronounced bias towards happy facial expressions with higher autistic trait levels. Moreover, a closer examination of the attentional bias towards angry facial expressions suggested that alterations in this bias might depend on a complex interplay between both trait dimensions. Novel approaches in the assessment of attentional biases might yield the potential to describe disorder-specific biases in attention to emotions more validly.