title: All eyes on me?! Social anxiety and self-directed perception of eye gaze.
abstract: To date, only little is known about the self-directed perception and processing of subtle gaze cues in social anxiety that might however contribute to excessive feelings of being looked at by others. Using a web-based approach, participants (n=174) were asked whether or not briefly (300 ms) presented facial expressions modulated in gaze direction (0°, 2°, 4°, 6°, 8°) and valence (angry, fearful, happy, neutral) were directed at them. The results demonstrate a positive, linear relationship between self-reported social anxiety and stronger self-directed perception of others' gaze directions, particularly for negative (angry, fearful) and neutral expressions. Furthermore, faster responding was found for gaze more clearly directed at socially anxious individuals (0°, 2°, and 4°) suggesting a tendency to avoid direct gaze. In sum, the results illustrate an altered self-directed perception of subtle gaze cues. The possibly amplifying effects of social stress on biased self-directed perception of eye gaze are discussed.
authors: a Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Schulze
authors: Janek S
authors: JS
authors: Lobmaier
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Arnold
authors: Babette
authors: B
authors: Renneberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception