Attentional bias away from positive social information mediates the link between social anxiety and anxiety vulnerability to a social stressor
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Accumulating evidence suggests that social anxiety is associated with biased processing of positive social information. However, it remains to be determined whether those biases are simply correlates of, or play a role in maintaining social anxiety. The current study examined whether diminished attentional allocation for positive social cues mediates the link between social anxiety and anxiety reactivity to a social-evaluative task. Forty-three undergraduate students ranging in severity of social anxiety symptoms completed a baseline measure of attentional bias for positive social cues (i.e., modified probe detection task) and subsequently delivered an impromptu videotaped speech. Mediation analyses revealed that the tendency to allocate attention away from positive social stimuli mediated the effect of social anxiety on change in state anxiety in response to the stressor. The current findings add to a nascent empirical literature suggesting that aberrant processing of positive social information may contribute to the persistence of excessive social anxiety.
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People with social anxiety divert attention away from positive cues.
“while also diverting attention away from positive cues (Taylor, Bomyea, & Amir, 2010)”
From Changes in Decentering Across Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder (2018) · cites this paper as Taylor, Bomyea, & Amir, 2010
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“Furthermore, bearing in mind that the contrast of interest in the present study also contained positive social stimuli, a recently demonstrated tendency in SA to allocate attention away from such stimuli [48] could offer an additional or alternative explanation of the observed behavioral and neuronal effects.”
BackgroundChanges in Decentering Across Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder
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- Authors
- Taylor, C. T., Bomyea, J., & Amir, N.
- Affiliations
- San Diego State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Amir, Nader
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-05
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 403-408
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4005423
- OpenAlex
- W2003932709
- Cited by
- 106
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 7.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH087623, R34MH077129, R34MH073004)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- social anxiety, attentional bias, state anxiety, social-evaluative stress, speaking anxiety, attention allocation
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Attention, Cues, Female, Humans, Male, Phobic Disorders, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Social Behavior, Video Recording, Feedback, Psychological, Young Adult
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