Judgment of gaze direction related to social anxiety: Facial expressions and interpretation biases

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of social anxiety on judgments about gaze direction. The participants (N = 123) were divided into two groups on the basis of social anxiety scores (social anxiety and control group). Participants who scored high on a social anxiety scale judged the direction of slightly averted gaze to be straight more often for angry faces than for neutral faces. This pattern was reversed for participants in control group. An angry face looking straight at a person may be seen as an overt threat. People suffering from social anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations as negative or threatening. This negativity bias may contribute to the increased judgments of straight-gaze responses for angry faces with slightly averted gazes.