Laughter perception in social anxiety
| Autor: | Dirk Wildgruber, Carolin Brück, Benjamin Kreifelts, Heike Jacob, Jan Ritter |
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| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male media_common.quotation_subject Anxiety Attentional bias Laughter Nonverbal communication Cognition Perception medicine Humans Biological Psychiatry media_common Psychological Tests Social anxiety Gelotophobia Fear medicine.disease Cognitive bias Psychiatry and Mental health Social Perception Case-Control Studies Female medicine.symptom Psychology Cognitive psychology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Psychiatric Research. 60:178-184 |
| ISSN: | 0022-3956 |
| Popis: | 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. Method 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. Discussion 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. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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