Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 Aug 20;7:481. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00481. eCollection 2013.
PREVIOUS RESEARCH REVEALED AN AUTOMATIC BEHAVIORAL BIAS IN HIGH SOCIALLY ANXIOUS INDIVIDUALS (HSAS): although their explicit evaluations of smiling faces are positive, they show automatic avoidance of these faces. This is reflected by faster pushing than pulling of smiling faces in an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT; Heuer et al., 2007). The current study addressed the causal role of this avoidance bias for social anxiety. To this end, we used the AAT to train HSAs, either to approach smiling faces or to avoid them. We examined whether such an AAT training could change HSAs' automatic avoidance tendencies, and if yes, whether AAT effects would generalize to a new approach task with new facial stimuli, and to mood and anxiety in a social threat situation (a video-recorded self-presentation). We found that HSAs trained to approach smiling faces did indeed approach female faces faster after the training than HSAs trained to avoid smiling faces. Moreover, approach-faces training reduced emotional vulnerability: it led to more positive mood and lower anxiety after the self-presentation than avoid-faces training. These results suggest that automatic approach-avoidance tendencies have a causal role in social anxiety, and that they can be modified by a simple computerized training. This may open new avenues in the therapy of social phobia.
先前的研究揭示了高社交焦虑个体（HSAs）存在一种自动的行为偏见：尽管他们对笑脸的明确评价是积极的，但他们会自动回避这些面孔。这反映在趋近回避任务（AAT；Heuer 等人，2007）中，HSAs 会更快地推开而不是拉动笑脸。本研究旨在探讨这种回避偏见对社交焦虑的因果作用。为此，我们使用 AAT 对 HSAs 进行训练，要么趋近笑脸，要么回避笑脸。我们检验了这种 AAT 训练是否能改变 HSAs 的自动回避倾向，如果可以，AAT 效应是否会推广到新的带有新面部刺激的趋近任务，以及在社交威胁情境（视频记录的自我呈现）中的情绪和焦虑。我们发现，与回避笑脸的训练相比，接受趋近笑脸训练的 HSAs 在训练后确实更快地趋近女性面孔。此外，趋近面孔训练减少了情绪脆弱性：与回避面孔训练相比，它在自我呈现后导致了更积极的情绪和更低的焦虑。这些结果表明，自动趋近-回避倾向在社交焦虑中起着因果作用，并且可以通过简单的计算机化训练来改变。这可能为社交恐惧症的治疗开辟新途径。
