Exploring Anxiety Sensitivity and Attention Bias in Social Anxiety

Abstract

Social anxiety (SA) symptoms are common, often chronic, and associated with significant functional impairment. Cognitive behavioral models of SA and empirical evidence suggests that cognitive biases such as attention bias (AB) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) are central mechanisms of the social anxiety cycle. More research is needed to confirm and clarify the specificity of AB in SA and the interactive effects of facets of AB (social/physical threat) and AS (social/cognitive/physical concerns) in predicting SA (cognitive/behavioral/emotional symptoms). This study recruited 191 college students who completed a dot-probe task with social threat, physical threat, and neutral word stimuli. Participants also completed self-report questionnaires assessing symptoms of SA and associated functional impairment, AS, and covariates of SA. Multiple regression analyses were used to explore relationships among study variables. Results showed: a) social (not cognitive or physical) AS concerns predicted SA, b) AB to social threat specifically predicted SA emotion symptoms, and c) AS and AB did not interact in predicting SA. Clinical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.