title: Anxiety impairs spontaneous perspective calculation: Evidence from a level-1 visual perspective-taking task.
abstract: Reasoning about other people's mental states is central to social life. Yet, even neuro-typical adults sometimes have perspective-taking difficulties, particularly when another's perspective conflicts with their own. In two experiments, we examined the cognitive mechanisms underlying an affective factor known to hinder perspective taking in adults: anxiety. Using a level-1 visual perspective-taking task, we found that incidentally experiencing anxiety, relative to neutral feelings and anger, impaired the spontaneous calculation of what another social agent can see. Feeling anxious did not, however, impede perspective calculation with a non-social entity, suggesting that anxiety's disruptive effects may be particularly pronounced for social aspects of cognition. These findings help elucidate the mechanisms underlying the effects of incidental emotions on perspective taking and inform debates about "implicit" forms of mentalizing.
authors: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. Electronic address: andrew-todd@uiowa.edu.
authors: Andrew R
authors: AR
authors: Todd
authors: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors: Austin J
authors: AJ
authors: Simpson
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind; D013850:Thinking; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: Anxiety; Emotion; Implicit mentalizing; Theory of mind; Visual perspective taking