title: Attentional Bias towards Positive Emotion Predicts Stress Resilience.
abstract: There is extensive evidence for an association between an attentional bias towards emotionally negative stimuli and vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Less is known about whether selective attention towards emotionally positive stimuli relates to mental health and stress resilience. The current study used a modified Dot Probe task to investigate if individual differences in attentional biases towards either happy or angry emotional stimuli, or an interaction between these biases, are related to self-reported trait stress resilience. In a nonclinical sample (N = 43), we indexed attentional biases as individual differences in reaction time for stimuli preceded by either happy or angry (compared to neutral) face stimuli. Participants with greater attentional bias towards happy faces (but not angry faces) reported higher trait resilience. However, an attentional bias towards angry stimuli moderated this effect: The attentional bias towards happy faces was only predictive for resilience in those individuals who also endorsed an attentional bias towards angry stimuli. An attentional bias towards positive emotional stimuli may thus be a protective factor contributing to stress resilience, specifically in those individuals who also endorse an attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli. Our findings therefore suggest a novel target for prevention and treatment interventions addressing stress-related psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hanna A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Thoern
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grueschow
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ehlert
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Ruff
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Experimental Psychopathology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kleim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015982:Bias; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*