The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Facilitating a benign interpretation bias in a high socially anxious population
Abstract
Previous research has shown that high socially anxious individuals lack the benign interpretation bias present in people without social anxiety. The tendency of high socially anxious people to generate more negative interpretations may lead to anticipated anxiety about future social situations. If so, developing a more benign interpretation bias could lead to a reduction in this anxiety. The current study showed that a benign interpretation bias could be facilitated (or 'trained') in a high socially anxious population. Participants in the benign training groups had repeated practice in accessing benign (positive or non-negative) interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. Participants in the control condition were presented with the same social scenarios but without their outcomes being specified. In a later recognition task, participants who received benign interpretation training generated more benign, and less negative, interpretations of new ambiguous social situations compared to the control group. Participants who received benign training also predicted that they would be significantly less anxious in a future social situation than those in the control group. Possible implications of the findings for therapeutic interventions in social phobia are discussed.
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“People with anxiety, on the other hand, commonly exhibit an 'interpretation bias,' which is a tendency to automatically interpret ambiguous information in a negative manner (e.g., that a yawn from a conversation partner indicates boredom; Amir et al., 2005; Murphy et al., 2007).”
From Acceptability and Co-Development of an Online Cognitive Bias Modification Intervention for Emerging Adults With Hazardous Alcohol Use and Social Anxiety: A Mixed Methods Study (2020) · cites this paper as Murphy et al., 2007
In the citing paper
“which can lead to a subsequent shift in social anxiety levels (Bowler et al., 2012; Murphy et al., 2007; Salemink et al., 2009).”
From Acceptability and Co-Development of an Online Cognitive Bias Modification Intervention for Emerging Adults With Hazardous Alcohol Use and Social Anxiety: A Mixed Methods Study (2020) · cites this paper as Murphy et al., 2007
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Cites
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A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia
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“Alternatively, the development of a benign interpretative bias may have been due to a process similar to conditioning via informational acquisition (Rachman, 1977).”
BackgroundInduced emotional interpretation bias and anxiety.
Mathews, A., & Mackintosh, B. (2000) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.109.4.602 · Cited by 739 · cited 7×
“Mathews and Mackintosh (2000) were also able to train both positive and threatening interpretation biases in a community population.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citationClark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., Waddington, L., & Wild, J. (2006) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.74.3.568 · Cited by 603
Self-citationCognitive biases in generalized social phobia
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Positive Interpretation Training: Effects of Mental Imagery Versus Verbal Training on Positive Mood
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Negative interpretation bias in social phobia
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The causal role of interpretive bias in anxiety reactivity
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“Participants were given an unrelated set of filler tasks to complete for the duration of 10 minutes after the training task: the Wechsler Symbol Search subtest (Wechsler, 1997) and Wechsler Digit Symbol - Symbol Copy subtest (Wechsler, 1997), both subsets of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and a letter cancella…”
MethodInducing a benign interpretational bias reduces trait anxiety
Mathews, A., Ridgeway, V., Cook, E., & Yiend, J. (2007) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2006.10.011 · Cited by 171
Self-citationEnduring consequences of experimentally induced biases in interpretation
Yiend, J., Mackintosh, B., & Mathews, A. (2005) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2004.06.007 · Cited by 135
Self-citation
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Walusinski, O. (2018) · Georges Gilles de la Tourette · doi:10.1007/bf01535092 · Cited by 1,052
“Other studies have also found results concerning the effect of CBM-I on anxiety and other emotional outcomes to be more mixed than interpretation bias (Amir et al., 2010; Beard & Amir., 2008; MacDonald et al., 2013; Murphy et al., 2007; Steinman & Teachman, 2010).”
InfluentialA meta-analysis of the effect of cognitive bias modification on anxiety and depression
Hallion, L. S., & Ruscio, A. M. (2011) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0024355 · Cited by 891
Cognitive Bias Modification Approaches to Anxiety
MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (2012) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143052 · Cited by 664
“Murphy et al. (2007) selected participants with pre-existing high levels of social anxiety and exposed them to a single session of an auditory CBM-I procedure based on Mathews & Mackintosh’s (2000) task.”
MethodSelf-citationEfficacy of cognitive bias modification interventions in anxiety and depression: Meta-analysis
Cristea, I. A., Kok, R. N., & Cuijpers, P. (2015) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.114.146761 · Cited by 553
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A review of current evidence for the causal impact of attentional bias on fear and anxiety
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Metadata
- Authors
- Murphy, R., Hirsch, C. R., Mathews, A., Smith, K., & Clark, D. M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Murphy, Rebecca
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-07
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1517-1529
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2025777566
- Cited by
- 198
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 17.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (069777)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- social anxiety, interpretation training, social anxiety disorder, cognitive bias modification, ambiguous social situations, anxiety prediction, therapeutic interventions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Anxiety, Cognition, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Interview, Psychological, Learning, Male, Phobic Disorders, Self Concept, Social Behavior, Social Perception, Time Factors
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