Impaired positive inferential bias in social phobia
Abstract
People with social phobia report anticipatory and retrospective judgments about social situations that appear consistent with a negative interpretative bias. However, it is not at all clear that biased interpretative inferences are made "on-line;" that is, at the time that ambiguous information is first encountered. In a previous study, volunteers who were anxious about interviews were found to lack the positive on-line inferential bias that was characteristic of nonanxious controls but also failed to show a bias favoring threatening inferences (C. R. Hirsch & A. Mathews, 1997). This finding was confirmed in the present study, in which social phobic patients showed no evidence of making on-line emotional inferences, in contrast with socially nonanxious controls who were again clearly biased in favor of positive inferences. The authors concluded that nonanxious individuals are characterized by a benign on-line inferential bias, but that this is impaired in people with social phobia.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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?
Positive information processing may be a more sensitive indicator of pre-clinical psychological disturbance than increased negative information processing.
“Thus, positive information processing may be a more sensitive indicator of pre-clinical psychological disturbance than increased negative information processing”
From Mindfulness Training Alters Emotional Memory Recall Compared to Active Controls: Support for an Emotional Information Processing Model of Mindfulness (2012) · cites this paper as Hirsch and Mathews, 2000
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hofmann, S. G. (2007) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506070701421313 · Cited by 1,064 · see citing works
Craske, M. G., Rauch, S. L., Ursano, R., Prenoveau, J., Pine, D. S., & Zinbarg, R. E. (2009) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.20633 · Cited by 529 · see citing works
Social anxiety spectrum and diminished positive experiences: Theoretical synthesis and meta-analysis
Kashdan, T. B. (2007) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2006.12.003 · Cited by 419 · see citing works
A cognitive model of pathological worry
Hirsch, C. R., & Mathews, A. (2012) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2012.06.007 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Self-citationCognitive Bias Modification: Past Perspectives, Current Findings, and Future Applications
Hertel, P. T., & Mathews, A. (2011) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691611421205 · Cited by 321 · see citing works
Self-citationBeard, C., & Amir, N. (2008) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.05.012 · Cited by 319 · see citing works
The causal role of interpretive bias in anxiety reactivity
Wilson, E. J., MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., & Rutherford, E. M. (2006) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.115.1.103 · Cited by 262 · see citing works
Self-citationKashdan, T. B., Weeks, J. W., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.012 · Cited by 258 · see citing works
Self-compassion and social anxiety disorder
Werner, K. H., Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., Ziv, M., Heimberg, R. G., & Gross, J. J. (2012) · Anxiety, Stress, & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2011.608842 · Cited by 249 · see citing works
Cognitive bias modification for anxiety: current evidence and future directions
Beard, C. (2011) · Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics · doi:10.1586/ern.10.194 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Social anxiety and the interpretation of positive social events
Alden, L. E., Taylor, C. T., Mellings, T. M. J. B., & Laposa, J. M. (2008) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.05.007 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
The effects of modifying interpretation bias on worry in generalized anxiety disorder
Hayes, S., Hirsch, C. R., Krebs, G., & Mathews, A. (2010) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.10.006 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Self-citationWhat does a transdiagnostic approach have to offer the treatment of anxiety disorders?
McManus, F., Shafran, R., & Cooper, Z. (2010) · British Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1348/014466509x476567 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Heartbeat perception in social anxiety before and during speech anticipation
Stevens, S., Gerlach, A. L., Cludius, B., Silkens, A., Craske, M. G., & Hermann, C. (2011) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.11.009 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Kashdan, T. B., & McKnight, P. E. (2013) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0033278 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“SAD is defined by a lack of approach motivation and excessive avoidance motivation and vigilance to threat (Amir et al., 2003; Hirsch & Mathews, 2000; Mogg & Bradley, 2002).”
BackgroundEmpathy for positive and negative emotions in social anxiety disorder
Morrison, A. S., Mateen, M. A., Brozovich, F. A., Zaki, J., Goldin, P. R., Heimberg, R. G., & Gross, J. J. (2016) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.10.005 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Roberts-Wolfe, D., Sacchet, M., Hastings, E., Roth, H., & Britton, W. (2012) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00015 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
“Thus, positive information processing may be a more sensitive indicator of pre-clinical psychological disturbance than increased negative information processing (Matt et al., 1992; Hirsch and Mathews, 2000).”
BackgroundLack of a benign interpretation bias in social anxiety disorder
Amir, N., Prouvost, C., & Kuckertz, J. M. (2012) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506073.2012.662655 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Negativity-bias in forming beliefs about own abilities
Müller-Pinzler, L., Czekalla, N., Mayer, A. V., Stolz, D. S., Gazzola, V., Keysers, C., Paulus, F. M., & Krach, S. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-50821-w · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Cognitive mechanisms underlying the emotional effects of bias modification
Hoppitt, L., Mathews, A., Yiend, J., & Mackintosh, B. (2010) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.1678 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Self-citationOut of sync: nonverbal synchrony in social anxiety disorder
Asher, M., Kauffmann, A., & Aderka, I. M. (2020) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702619894566 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
RU mad @ me? Social anxiety and interpretation of ambiguous text messages
Kingsbury, M., & Coplan, R. J. (2016) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.032 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Positive interpretation bias predicts well-being in medical interns
Kleim, B., Thörn, H. A., & Ehlert, U. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00640 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Interpretation Biases in Paranoia
Savulich, G., Freeman, D., Shergill, S., & Yiend, J. (2015) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2014.08.002 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Vancleef, L. M. G., Peters, M. L., & De Jong, P. J. (2009) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2008.03.004 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Changes in Decentering Across Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder
Hayes-Skelton, S. A., & Lee, C. S. (2018) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2018.01.005 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
On the malleability of emotional encoding
Mathews, A. (2004) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2004.04.003 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Hirsch, C. R., & Mathews, A.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- ORCID
- Hirsch, Colette R.
- Venue
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology
- Published
- 2000-11
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 705-712
- ISSN
- 0021-843X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1846
- OpenAlex
- W2083308858
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 6.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Keywords
- social anxiety disorder, interpretation bias, emotion inference, anxiety
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Arousal, Attention, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phobic Disorders, Self Concept, Social Perception
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
