title: Anxiety-related bias in the classification of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions.
abstract: High- and low-trait socially anxious individuals classified the emotional expressions of photographic quality continua of interpolated ("morphed") facial images that were derived from combining 6 basic prototype emotional expressions to various degrees, with the 2 adjacent emotions arranged in an emotion hexagon. When fear was 1 of the 2 component emotions, the high-trait group displayed enhanced sensitivity for fear. In a 2nd experiment where a mood manipulation was incorporated, again, the high-trait group exhibited enhanced sensitivity for fear. The low-trait group was sensitive for happiness in the control condition. The mood-manipulated group had increased sensitivity for anger expressions, and trait anxiety did not moderate these effects. Interpretations of the results related to the classification of fearful expressions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, Bloomsbury, England.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: French
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Calder
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions / Q000145:classification*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011930:Reaction Time; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception