title: Gaze behaviour in social blushers.
abstract: Gaze aversion could be a central component of social phobia. Fear of blushing is a symptom of social anxiety disorder (SAD) but is not yet described as a specific diagnosis in psychiatric classifications. Our research consists of comparing gaze aversion in SAD participants with or without fear of blushing in front of pictures of different emotional faces using an eye tracker. Twenty-six participants with DSM-IV SAD and expressed fear of blushing (SAD+FB) were recruited in addition to twenty-five participants with social phobia and no fear of blushing (SAD-FB). Twenty-four healthy participants aged and sex matched constituted the control group. We studied the number of fixations and the dwell time in the eyes area on the pictures. The results showed gaze avoidance in the SAD-FB group when compared to controls and when compared to the SAD+FB group. However we found no significant difference between SAD+FB and controls. We also observed a correlation between the severity of the phobia and the degree of gaze avoidance across groups. These findings seem to support the claim that social phobia is a heterogeneous disorder. Further research is advised to decide whether fear of blushing can constitute a subtype with specific behavioral characteristics.
authors.affiliation: CNRS USR 3246, UPMC, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France. amoukheiber@gmail.com
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moukheiber
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rautureau
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Perez-Diaz
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jouvent
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pelissolo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001821:Blushing / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005133:Eye Movements; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*