title: Laughter perception in social anxiety.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Laughter is a powerful signal of social acceptance or rejection while the fear of being embarrassed and humiliated is central in social anxiety (SA). This type of anxiety is associated with cognitive biases indicating increased sensitivity to social threat as well as with deficits in emotion regulation. Both are thought to be implicated in the maintenance of social anxiety.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using laughter as a novel stimulus, we investigated cognitive biases and their modulation through emotion regulation and cue ambiguity in individuals with varying degrees of SA (N = 60).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A combination of a negative laughter interpretation bias and an attention bias away from joyful/social inclusive laughter in SA was observed. Both biases were not attributable to effects of general anxiety and were closely correlated with the concept of gelotophobia, the fear of being laughed at.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, our study demonstrates altered laughter perception in SA. Furthermore, it highlights the usefulness of laughter as a highly prevalent social signal for future research on the interrelations of interpretation and attention biases in SA and their modulation through emotion regulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carolin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brück
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: dirk.wildgruber@med.uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wildgruber
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kreifelts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007845:Laughter / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Emotion; Laughter; Nonverbal; Prosody; Social anxiety; Vocalizations