Attention biases in perfectionism: Biased disengagement of attention from emotionally negative stimuli
Open accessAbstract
Background and objectives Perfectionism is associated with the development and maintenance of several psychological disorders. Consequently, efforts to better understand perfectionism have potential transdiagnostic impact. One mechanism proposed to underlie perfectionism is an attention bias towards information signalling threats to perfectionism whereby people with elevated perfectionism selectively attend to threatening stimuli.Method The present study assessed whether two core dimensions of perfectionism, perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, are characterised by a threat-related attention bias, and whether this bias was characterised by attention being more rapidly captured by the stimuli (engagement bias), or of greater difficulty to disengage attention (disengagement bias). Participants (N = 108) completed measures of perfectionistic strivings and concerns, and symptoms of psychological distress before completing a modified dot-probe task to measure attention biases. Attention bias index scores were calculated across three factors: engagement bias vs disengagement bias, perfectionism relevant vs irrelevant stimuli, and negative vs positive emotional stimuli.Results Overall, perfectionistic concerns were associated with a disengagement bias for negative stimuli, regardless of whether stimuli were perfectionism relevant or not. No other significant main or interaction effects were observed.Limitations The study was cross-sectional in design, and no temporal or causal inferences could be made. Additionally, participants were from a community sample and therefore replication is required in clinical populations.Conclusion These findings demonstrate that individuals higher in perfectionistic concerns experience difficulty withdrawing their attention from emotionally negative stimuli. These findings contribute new information to our theoretical understandings of perfectionism and provide support for the cognitive-behavioural model of perfectionism.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Other experimental studies using attention and interpretation bias paradigms have found support for the cognitive behavioural model of perfectionism.
“Other experimental studies using attention and interpretation bias paradigms have also found support for the cognitive behavioural model of perfectionism (Howell et al., 2016, 2019; Tonta et al., 2019).”
From Coming of age: A reflection of the first 21 years of cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism (2023) · cites this paper as Tonta et al., 2019
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
(1995) · Cited by 6,909 · see citing works
Henry, J. D., & Crawford, J. R. (2005) · British Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1348/014466505x29657 · Cited by 5,801 · see citing works
The dimensions of perfectionism
Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/bf01172967 · Cited by 4,279 · see citing works
Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study.
Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1 · Cited by 3,721 · see citing works
Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.456 · Cited by 3,378 · see citing works
Attentional bias in emotional disorders
MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., & Tata, P. (1986) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.95.1.15 · Cited by 3,152 · see citing works
Attentional bias in emotional disorders.
MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., & Tata, P. R. (1986) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037//0021-843x.95.1.15 · Cited by 2,553 · see citing works
Positive Conceptions of Perfectionism: Approaches, Evidence, Challenges
Stoeber, J., & Otto, K. (2006) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_2 · Cited by 1,779 · cited 2× · see citing works
“It is possible that perfectionistic strivings (which in some research has been associated with more positive outcomes; Stoeber & Otto, 2006) may be specifically associated with biased attentional engagement/disengagement with positive perfectionism relevant stimuli.”
BackgroundMechanisms of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders: An integrative review
Cisler, J. M., & Koster, E. H. W. (2010) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11.003 · Cited by 1,753 · see citing works
Clinical perfectionism: A cognitive behavioural analysis
Shafran, R., Cooper, Z., & Fairburn, C. G. (2002) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(01)00059-6 · Cited by 984 · see citing works
(2004) · Cited by 964 · see citing works
Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process: A clinical review
Egan, S. J., Wade, T. D., & Shafran, R. (2011) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.04.009 · Cited by 961 · see citing works
Hakamata, Y., Lissek, S., Bar-Haim, Y., Britton, J. C., Fox, N. A., Leibenluft, E., Ernst, M., & Pine, D. S. (2010) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.07.021 · Cited by 869 · see citing works
The Relationship between Perfectionism and Psychopathology: A Meta-analysis
Limburg, K., Watson, H. J., Hagger, M. S., & Egan, S. J. (2017) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.22435 · Cited by 602 · see citing works
Parsons, S. D., Kruijt, A., & Fox, E. (2019) · Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2515245919879695 · Cited by 424 · see citing works
Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Verschuere, B., Van Damme, S., & Wiersema, J. R. (2006) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.12.011 · Cited by 413 · see citing works
Amir, N., Weber, G., Beard, C., Bomyea, J., & Taylor, C. T. (2008) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0013445 · Cited by 356 · see citing works
Stoeber, J., & Stoeber, F. S. (2009) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.12.006 · Cited by 331 · see citing works
The attentional bias modification approach to anxiety intervention
MacLeod, C., & Clarke, P. J. F. (2015) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702614560749 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Can psychological interventions reduce perfectionism? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Lloyd, S., Schmidt, U., Khondoker, M., & Tchanturia, K. (2015) · Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy · doi:10.1017/s1352465814000162 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Clarke, P. J., Notebaert, L., & MacLeod, C. (2014) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-14-8 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Self-citationAnxiety-Linked Attentional Bias: Is It Reliable?
MacLeod, C., Grafton, B., & Notebaert, L. (2019) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095505 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Heeren, A., De Raedt, R., Koster, E. H. W., & Philippot, P. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00119 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Clarke, P., MacLeod, C., & Guastella, A. J. (2011) · Anxiety Stress & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2011.638054 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Price, R. B., Wallace, M., Kuckertz, J. M., Amir, N., Graur, S., Cummings, L., Popa, P., Carlbring, P., & Bar-Haim, Y. (2016) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.09.009 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Grafton, B., & MacLeod, C. (2014) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2014.881326 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Development and Validation of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale–Brief
Burgess, A. M., Frost, R. O., & DiBartolo, P. M. (2016) · Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment · doi:10.1177/0734282916651359 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
A Randomised Controlled Trial of Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Perfectionism
Handley, A. K., Egan, S. J., Kane, R. T., & Rees, C. S. (2015) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2015.02.006 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Heeren, A., Lievens, L., & Philippot, P. (2011) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.08.001 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Rudaizky, D., Basanovic, J., & MacLeod, C. (2013) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2013.815154 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Guided self-help versus pure self-help for perfectionism: A randomised controlled trial
Pleva, J., & Wade, T. D. (2006) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2006.08.009 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Heeren, A., Baeken, C., Vanderhasselt, M., Philippot, P., & Raedt, R. D. (2015) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0124182 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Stuck in a sad place: Biased attentional disengagement in rumination.
Grafton, B., Southworth, F., Watkins, E. R., & MacLeod, C. (2015) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0000103 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Hirsch, C. R., MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., Sandher, O., Siyani, A., & Hayes, S. (2011) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.09.013 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional vulnerability
Chen, N. T. M., Basanovic, J., Notebaert, L., MacLeod, C., & Clarke, P. (2017) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.05.008 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Parsons, S. D., Kruijt, A., & Fox, E. (2018) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/6ka9z · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Grafton, B., Watkins, E. R., & MacLeod, C. (2012) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2011.578066 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Selective attention in perfectionism: Dissociating valence from perfectionism-relevance
Howell, J. A., McEvoy, P. M., Grafton, B., Macleod, C., Kane, R. T., Anderson, R. A., & Egan, S. J. (2016) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.01.004 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Kobori, O., & Tanno, Y. (2012) · Japanese Psychological Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5884.2012.00514.x · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Coming of age: A reflection of the first 21 years of cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism
Shafran, R., Egan, S. J., & Wade, T. D. (2023) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2023.104258 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
A Systematic Review on the Psychological Effects of Perfectionism and Accompanying Treatment
Patterson, H., Firebaugh, C. M., Zolnikov, T. R., Wardlow, R., Morgan, S. M., & Gordon, B. R. (2021) · Psychology · doi:10.4236/psych.2021.121001 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Tonta, K. E., Boyes, M. E., Howell, J. A., McEvoy, P. M., Johnson, A. R., & Hasking, P. A. (2022) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.23315 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Perfectionism, Prolonged Stress Reactivity, and Depression: A Two-Wave Cross-Lagged Analysis
Suh, H., Liou, P.-Y., Jeong, J., & Kim, S. Y. (2024) · Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1007/s10942-022-00483-x · Cited by 16 · see citing works
CEO's self-oriented perfectionism, strategic decision comprehensiveness and firm resilience
Wang, Q., Wu, Q., Xie, L., & Zhang, X. (2023) · Management Decision · doi:10.1108/md-12-2022-1656 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Chen, Y., Yu, H., & Gao, X. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph192316264 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Tonta, K. E., Howell, J. A., Boyes, M. E., McEvoy, P. M., & Hasking, P. A. (2023) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101856 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Attentional Bias for Imperfect Pictures in Perfectionism: An Eye-Movement Study
Li, J., Liu, X., Yu, B., Tang, W., & Liu, X. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566482 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Sun, P., Li, J., Chen, X., Cui, M., & Yan, L. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106294 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Jia, Y., Wu, Y., Jin, T.-L., & Zhang, L. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970073 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Do Autistic Traits Predict Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms? A Community-Based Study
Tümkaya, S., Yücens, B., Yaşaran, A. Ö., Akmehmetoglu, V., & Karadağ, F. (2025) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.1177/00332941251363887 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Wang, B., Peng, X., Gao, F., Zhang, K., Zhang, J., & Wu, L. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.913805 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
مسعد, ص. ا. ك. (2023) · التربية (الأزهر) مجلة علمية محکمة للبحوث التربوية والنفسية والاجتماعية) · doi:10.21608/jsrep.2023.312359
Du, L., Zong, X., He, J., Feng, M., Li, H., Tan, Y., Dong, L., Sun, X., Zhang, Y., Yin, S., et al. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1748315
- Authors
- Tonta, K. E., Howell, J. A., Hasking, P. A., Boyes, M. E., & Clarke, P. J. F.
- Affiliations
- Curtin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Howell, Joel A.
- Venue
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-09
- Volume
- 64
- Pages
- 72-79
- ISSN
- 0005-7916 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2918398910
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Keywords
- perfectionism, attentional bias, perfectionistic concerns, perfectionistic strivings, threat-related attention, dot-probe task, psychological distress
- MeSH terms
- Attentional Bias, Perfectionism, Adolescent, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
