Impaired positive inferential bias in social phobia.
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.
Hirsch
C R
CR
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, London, England.
Mathews
A
A
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception