Social anxiety biases the evaluation of facial displays: Evidence from single face and multi-facial stimuli

Céline Douilliez, Vincent Yzerbyt, Eva Gilboa-Schechtman, Pierre Philippot

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study examined the contribution of social anxiety to the evaluation of emotional facial stimuli, while controlling for the gender of participants and stimuli. Participants (n=63) completed two tasks: a single face evaluation task in which they had to evaluate angry versus neutral faces and, a facial crowd evaluation task in which they had to evaluate displays with a varying number of neutral and angry faces. In each task, participants had to evaluate the stimuli with respect to (a) the degree of disapproval expressed by the single face/crowd, and (b) the perceived difficulty of interacting with the face/crowd (emotional cost). Consistent with earlier studies, results showed that social anxiety modulated the evaluation of single faces for emotional cost, but not for disapproval ratings. In contrast, the evaluation of facial crowds was modulated by social anxiety on both ratings.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1107-1115
Number of pages9
JournalCognition and Emotion
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2012

Keywords

  • Emotional facial expression
  • Evaluation bias
  • Interpretation bias
  • Social anxiety

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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