All eyes on me?! Social anxiety and self-directed perception of eye gaze

Abstract

To date, only little is known about the self-directed perception and processing of subtle gaze cues in social anxiety that might however contribute to excessive feelings of being looked at by others. Using a web-based approach, participants (n=174) were asked whether or not briefly (300 ms) presented facial expressions modulated in gaze direction (0°, 2°, 4°, 6°, 8°) and valence (angry, fearful, happy, neutral) were directed at them. The results demonstrate a positive, linear relationship between self-reported social anxiety and stronger self-directed perception of others' gaze directions, particularly for negative (angry, fearful) and neutral expressions. Furthermore, faster responding was found for gaze more clearly directed at socially anxious individuals (0°, 2°, and 4°) suggesting a tendency to avoid direct gaze. In sum, the results illustrate an altered self-directed perception of subtle gaze cues. The possibly amplifying effects of social stress on biased self-directed perception of eye gaze are discussed.

Keywords:

• Social anxiety
• Emotion
• Gaze
• Perception
• Avoidance

We deeply appreciate the help of Daniel Hahn in setting up the web-based study and thank Julian Bohländer and Julia Hitzig for their help with the recruitment of the participants.

We deeply appreciate the help of Daniel Hahn in setting up the web-based study and thank Julian Bohländer and Julia Hitzig for their help with the recruitment of the participants.

Notes

¹ This analysis showed a main effect of Gaze Direction, F(1.84, 317.87)=1241.19, p<.001, , and Valence, F(2.35, 317.87)=65.76, p<.001, , reflecting happy expressions were more likely interpreted as directed at the observer than neutral or negative expressions (all ps<.001; angry: 51.64±14.66, fearful: 54.51±14.44, happy: 61.04±14.39, neutral: 53.45±12.61). Effects of Valence and Gaze interacted, F(10.40, 1799.00)=6.47, p<.001, . Separate one-way ANOVAs illustrated stronger effects of Valence (i.e., happy stimuli) at ambiguous angles: 0°: F(3, 519)=11.082, p<.001, ; 2°: F(2.83, 489.96)=25.548, p<.001, ; 4°: F(3, 519)=36.002, p<.001, ; 6°: F(2.80, 483.75)=45.526, p<.001, ; 8°: F(2.75, 474.97)=30.184, p<.001, .

Additional information

Funding

JL was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number PP00P1_139072/1).