title: Terror mismanagement: evidence that mortality salience exacerbates attentional bias in social anxiety.
abstract: Death anxiety is a basic fear underlying a range of psychological conditions, and has been found to increase avoidance in social anxiety. Given that attentional bias is a core feature of social anxiety, the aim of the present study was to examine the impact of mortality salience (MS) on attentional bias in social anxiety. Participants were 36 socially anxious and 37 non-socially anxious individuals, randomly allocated to a MS or control condition. An eye-tracking procedure assessed initial bias towards, and late-stage avoidance of, socially threatening facial expressions. As predicted, socially anxious participants in the MS condition demonstrated significantly more initial bias to social threat than non-socially anxious participants in the MS condition and socially anxious participants in the control condition. However, this effect was not found for late-stage avoidance of social threat. These findings suggest that reminders of death may heighten initial vigilance towards social threat.
authors.affiliation: a Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , North Ryde , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Emma C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.affiliation: a Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , North Ryde , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Iverach
authors.affiliation: b Discipline of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences , The University of Sydney , Lidcombe , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Ross G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Menzies
authors.affiliation: c School of Population Health , University of Queensland , Herston , QLD , Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D000070379:Attentional Bias; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005133:Eye Movements; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mortality salience; attentional bias; death anxiety; social anxiety; terror management theory