Social anxiety symptoms, heart rate variability, and vocal emotion recognition in women: evidence for parasympathetically-mediated positivity bias

Figures & data

Table 1 Hypotheses and findings

Outcomes	Predictor: Higher social anxiety	Predictor: Higher Social Anxiety
Neutral Vocal Stimuli	More likely to interpret as negative, less likely to interpret as positive	Null
Negative Vocal Stimuli	Greater intensity ratings, Higher recognition accuracy	Null
Positive Vocal Stimuli	Lower intensity ratings, Lower recognition accuracy	Lower intensity ratings
Task HRV	Lower task HRV	Lower task HRV
Resting HRV	Lower resting HRV	Null
	Predictor: Lower Task/Resting HRV	Predictor: Lower Task/Resting HRV
Neutral Vocal Stimuli	More likely to interpret as negative, less likely to interpret as positive	Less likely to interpret as positive
Negative Vocal Stimuli	Greater intensity ratings, Higher recognition accuracy	Null
Positive Vocal Stimuli	Lower intensity ratings, Poorer recognition accuracy	Poorer recognition accuracy

Table 2. Demographic information for the sample (N =  124).

Measure	M (SD)	N (%)	Range
Age	18.6(1.2)		18.0–29.0
Body mass index (kg/m^2)	23.1(3.9)		17.2–38.3
Race (% Caucasian)		96(77%)
Ethnicity (% Non-Hispanic)		118(95%)
Social Anxiety (SAD-D)	15.7(6.7)		0.0–33.0
Percent correct, all vocal stimuli	69%(6%)		42%–84%
Percent correct, negative vocal stimuli	79%(9%)		42%–96%
Percent correct, positive vocal stimuli	54%(12%)		21%–79%
Percent of neutral stimuli labeled negatively	6%(5%)		0%–25%
Percent of neutral stimuli labeled positively	25%(12%)		4%–63%
Average intensity rating, all vocal stimuli	5.8(1.0)		3.0–8.5
Average intensity rating, negative vocal stimuli	6.3(0.9)		3.8–8.4
Average intensity rating, positive vocal stimuli	4.8(1.3)		1.1–7.5
Heart rate variability (RMSSD) during task	48.0(27.3)		9.0–176.0
Heart rate variability (RMSSD) during rest	40.1(25.0)		7.0–149.0
Caffeine intake day of study (% yes)		30(24%)

Note. SAD-D  =  Social Anxiety Disorder Dimensional Scale.

Table 3. Zero-order correlations between study variables.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Social Anxiety
2. Task HRV (RMSSD)	−.16^+
3. Resting HRV (RMSSD)	−.07	.86*
4. Proportion correct, negative vocal stimuli	.09	−.12	−.09
5. Proportion correct, positive vocal stimuli	.03	−.14	−.08	.01
6. Proportion of neutral stimuli labeled negatively	.08	−.07	−.04	−.01	−.22*
7. Proportion of neutral stimuli labeled positively	−.09	.09	.14	−.01	.16^+	−.11
8. Average intensity rating, negative vocal stimuli	.06	−.13	−.12	.12	.05	.12	−.07
9. Average intensity rating, positive vocal stimuli	−.06	−.06	−.06	.06	.11	.03	.02	.76*
10 Body mass index	.14	−.01	.02	.03	−.06	.02	−.03	−.12	−.03
11. Caffeine intake	.06	−.01	−.05	−.21*	−.10	.02	.01	.08	.00	−.19*

+p < 0.10, *p < 0.05; HRV = heart rate variability. RMSSD  =  root-mean squares of successive differences.

Figure 1. Through their lower HRV during the emotion recognition task, women with more social anxiety symptoms had lower positivity bias (A) and greater emotion recognition accuracy (B) than their peers. Effects are unstandardized.