Attentional Bias for Threat and Anxiety: The Role of Loneliness

Abstract

Objective: There is literature to suggest that anxious individuals may be lonely. Attentional bias for threat (ABT), a mechanism implicated in the core symptoms of anxiety, has been linked to loneliness in a separate line of work. The primary aim of this study was to examine the role of loneliness in the association between ABT and anxiety.

Method: An unselected sample of 260 individuals (196 Female; Mean Age = 22.43) completed measures of loneliness, ABT (a dot probe task), and anxiety. Two possible models of the role of loneliness in the ABT-anxiety link were tested using hierarchical regression analysis: (1) A moderation model (the ABT-anxiety link is moderated by loneliness), and (2) A proxy model (the ABT-anxiety link is better explained by loneliness).

Results: In support of the latter model, ABT no longer predicted anxiety after the effects of loneliness had been accounted for. Additionally, ABT was associated with anxiety only when indexed using sadness-related scenes (but not fear-related scenes).

Conclusions: Loneliness may be one important source of exaggerated threat appraisals which underpin the association between ABT and anxiety. Different classes of negative stimuli may be differentially sensitive to anxiety and should be a point of consideration in future research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Data Availability

Research data for this manuscript can be accessed at: https://osf.io/u8hmf

Notes

1. These images were paired with neutral images matched for social content. Four of these images were drawn from the IAPS and have the following identifier codes: 7550, 2440, 2575, 2745.1. Two neutral images were sourced from free online stock photo databases and are available upon request. All pictures used were assigned a common emotional label by > 75% of viewers (N = 103).

2. Mean-centered Sad bias and Loneliness scores were entered in the analysis and used to calculate the interaction term. For hierarchical regression analyses with 4 predictors, the minimum sample size is 39 based on anticipated f² of 0.35 and desired power of 0.8 (p =.05). The current sample size met this criterion.

3. Of note, the relationships between the Sad bias score and both DASS-21 Anxiety and UCLA Loneliness were inverse in nature. When stimuli are presented at durations which allow for conscious perception (> 200 ms) such as in the current dot probe task, this allows sufficient time for gaze aversion following initial attentional capture by the emotional stimulus (Barry et al., 2015; Booth, 2014). While this manifests in overall faster motor responses to probes replacing neutral scenes (i.e. decreasing bias scores), such a pattern of behavioral responding also entails that the initial orientation of attention toward the negative stimulus was speeded (Barry et al., 2015; Booth, 2014). Thus, current results do not necessarily contradict the notion that higher levels of anxiety and loneliness are associated with the tendency to orient more quickly to negative compared to neutral cues.

4. In supplementary analyses using available data from nonsocial trials, presently reported findings on the association between loneliness, ABT, and anxiety were not replicated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Wollongong [Maryann Wei is kindly supported in her PhD candidature by scholarships awarded by the University of Wollongong.].