Biomaterial Database

[Judgment of gaze direction related to social anxiety: facial expressions and interpretation biases]. 2012

Kenta Ishikawa, and Yoko Okamura, and Matia Okubo

Graduate School of the Humanities, Senshu University, Higashimita, Tama-Ku, Kawasaki 214-8580, Japan. cognition.psy.k@gmail.com

The present study investigated the effects of social anxiety on judgments about gaze direction. The participants (N = 123) were divided into two groups on the basis of social anxiety scores (social anxiety and control group). Participants who scored high on a social anxiety scale judged the direction of slightly averted gaze to be straight more often for angry faces than for neutral faces. This pattern was reversed for participants in control group. An angry face looking straight at a person may be seen as an overt threat. People suffering from social anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations as negative or threatening. This negativity bias may contribute to the increased judgments of straight-gaze responses for angry faces with slightly averted gazes.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007398	Interpersonal Relations	The reciprocal interaction of two or more persons.	Social Relationships,Husband-Wife Communication,Partner Communication,Communication, Husband-Wife,Communication, Partner,Husband Wife Communication,Husband-Wife Communications,Interpersonal Relation,Partner Communications,Relation, Interpersonal,Relationship, Social,Social Relationship
D008297	Male		Males
D005133	Eye Movements	Voluntary or reflex-controlled movements of the eye.	Eye Movement,Movement, Eye,Movements, Eye
D005149	Facial Expression	Observable changes of expression in the face in response to emotional stimuli.	Face Expression,Expression, Face,Expression, Facial,Face Expressions,Facial Expressions
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001007	Anxiety	Feelings or emotions of dread, apprehension, and impending disaster but not disabling as with ANXIETY DISORDERS.	Angst,Anxiousness,Hypervigilance,Nervousness,Social Anxiety,Anxieties, Social,Anxiety, Social,Social Anxieties
D015982	Bias	Any deviation of results or inferences from the truth, or processes leading to such deviation. Bias can result from several sources: one-sided or systematic variations in measurement from the true value (systematic error); flaws in study design; deviation of inferences, interpretations, or analyses based on flawed data or data collection; etc. There is no sense of prejudice or subjectivity implied in the assessment of bias under these conditions.	Aggregation Bias,Bias, Aggregation,Bias, Ecological,Bias, Statistical,Bias, Systematic,Ecological Bias,Outcome Measurement Errors,Statistical Bias,Systematic Bias,Bias, Epidemiologic,Biases,Biases, Ecological,Biases, Statistical,Ecological Biases,Ecological Fallacies,Ecological Fallacy,Epidemiologic Biases,Experimental Bias,Fallacies, Ecological,Fallacy, Ecological,Scientific Bias,Statistical Biases,Truncation Bias,Truncation Biases,Bias, Experimental,Bias, Scientific,Bias, Truncation,Biase, Epidemiologic,Biases, Epidemiologic,Biases, Truncation,Epidemiologic Biase,Error, Outcome Measurement,Errors, Outcome Measurement,Outcome Measurement Error