Torres-Marín Jorge, Carretero-Dios Hugo, Acosta Alberto, Lupiáñez Juan
Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2017 Nov 8;8:1954. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01954. eCollection 2017.
Current approaches conceptualize gelotophobia as a personality trait characterized by a disproportionate fear of being laughed at by others. Consistently with this perspective, gelotophobes are also described as neurotic and introverted and as having a paranoid tendency to anticipate derision and mockery situations. Although research on gelotophobia has significantly progressed over the past two decades, no evidence exists concerning the potential effects of gelotophobia in reaction to eye contact. Previous research has pointed to difficulties in discriminating gaze direction as the basis of possible misinterpretations of others' intentions or mental states. The aim of the present research was to examine whether gelotophobia predisposition modulates the effects of eye contact (i.e., gaze discrimination) when processing faces portraying several emotional expressions. In two different experiments, participants performed an experimental gaze discrimination task in which they responded, as quickly and accurately as possible, to the eyes' directions on faces displaying either a happy, angry, fear, neutral, or sad emotional expression. In particular, we expected trait-gelotophobia to modulate the eye contact effect, showing specific group differences in the happiness condition. The results of Study 1 ( = 40) indicated that gelotophobes made more errors than non-gelotophobes did in the gaze discrimination task. In contrast to our initial hypothesis, the happiness expression did not have any special role in the observed differences between individuals with high vs. low trait-gelotophobia. In Study 2 ( = 40), we replicated the pattern of data concerning gaze discrimination ability, even after controlling for individuals' scores on social anxiety. Furthermore, in our second experiment, we found that gelotophobes did not exhibit any problem with identifying others' emotions, or a general incorrect attribution of affective features, such as valence, intensity, or arousal. Therefore, this bias in processing gaze might be related to the global processes of social cognition. Further research is needed to explore how eye contact relates to the fear of being laughed at.
当前的研究方法将恐笑症概念化为一种人格特质，其特征是对被他人嘲笑有着过度的恐惧。与这一观点一致，恐笑症患者也被描述为神经质、内向，且有偏执倾向，容易预见到被嘲笑的情境。尽管在过去二十年里，对恐笑症的研究取得了显著进展，但尚无证据表明恐笑症对眼神接触的潜在影响。先前的研究指出，辨别注视方向存在困难，这可能是对他人意图或心理状态产生误解的基础。本研究的目的是检验恐笑症倾向在处理呈现多种情绪表情的面孔时，是否会调节眼神接触（即注视辨别）的效果。在两个不同的实验中，参与者执行了一项实验性注视辨别任务，他们要尽可能快速准确地对显示快乐、愤怒、恐惧、中性或悲伤情绪表情的面孔上眼睛的方向做出反应。具体而言，我们预期特质性恐笑症会调节眼神接触效应，在快乐表情条件下呈现出特定的组间差异。研究1（ = 40）的结果表明，在注视辨别任务中，恐笑症患者比非恐笑症患者犯的错误更多。与我们最初的假设相反，快乐表情在高特质性恐笑症与低特质性恐笑症个体之间观察到的差异中并没有起到任何特殊作用。在研究2（ = 40）中，即使在控制了个体的社交焦虑得分之后，我们仍复制了关于注视辨别能力的数据模式。此外，在我们的第二个实验中，我们发现恐笑症患者在识别他人情绪或对情感特征（如效价、强度或唤醒）进行一般错误归因方面没有任何问题。因此，这种在处理注视方面的偏差可能与社会认知的整体过程有关。需要进一步的研究来探索眼神接触与被嘲笑恐惧之间的关系。
