Eye Tracking Evidence Shows that Social Anxiety Changes the Picture

This study determined that most people, regardless of whether they had social anxiety or not, look at angry faces first. However, the participants with social anxiety fixated on the angry faces more often and for longer. Consequently, those with social anxiety may have difficulty disengaging from angry faces, as it took them longer to shift their attention away from the angry facial expression. The results suggest that people without social anxiety engage with the perception of negative individuals less than those with social anxiety. By fixating less on the angry face, they may be able to see other possibilities and interpretations of a situation. They can balance their own mood by this form of self-regulating.  The relationship between social anxiety and attention to faces is far from clear, as other eye tracking research suggests that in certain conditions people with social anxiety direct their attention away from emotional facial expressions (Mansell, Clark, Ehlers & Chen, 1999). Taylor, Kraines, Grant, and Wells (2019) suggested that one factor that may affect this relationship is excessive reassurance-seeking. Excessive reassurance-seeking may cause individuals to orient attention to positive faces quickly after engaging with threatening ones. To test this hypothesis, they conducted another experimental study using eye-tracking technology with individuals who have social anxiety. However, their experiment focused on how individuals orient their attention back and ...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Anxiety and Panic Memory and Perception Research Cognitive Psychology eye movement Facial Expression Nonverbal communication Reassurance Social Anxiety Visual Perception Source Type: blogs