Attentional Bias to Facial Expressions Based on Positive and Negative Evaluation from Others in Healthy University Students

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by fear of negative evaluation (FNE), fear of positive evaluation (FPE), and related attention bias. There are no previous studies on attention bias relating to FPE and positive stimuli. The purpose of the current study is to clarify whether the attention bias to facial expression stimuli differs according to FNE and FPE. Fifty-five undergraduate and graduate students were administered questionnaires and performed a dot-probe task using negative, neutral, and positive facial expression images, and attention bias scores were calculated for negative and positive facial expressions. Results revealed that higher FNE was associated with significant attention bias to negative facial expressions, while FPE that was more closely related to social anxiety did not correlate with attention bias. It is suggested that future studies be conducted using real evaluative situations to further investigate the role of FPE on attention bias.