Social anxiety disorder (SAD) often involves difficulty developing relationships. Facial expressions are important in relationship formation, but data are limited regarding facial display production among persons with SAD during social interaction. The current study compared facial displays of individuals diagnosed with SAD (n = 41) to control participants (n = 24) as they interacted with a confederate; confederates and observers then rated their desire for future interaction with participants. Automated software used the Facial Action Coding System to classify displays. During portions of the interaction that involved listening to partners, the SAD group smiled less frequently and less intensely than controls, and less smiling was associated with others’ lower desire for future interaction with participants. Diminished positive facial affect in response to interaction partners may disrupt relationship formation in SAD and may serve as an effective treatment target.
aan het RotM.EneaV.DafinoiuI.IancuS.TaftăS. A.BărbuşeluM. (2017). Behavioural responses to facial and postural expressions of emotion: An interpersonal circumplex approach. British Journal of Psychology, 108, 797–811. doi:10.1111/bjop.12247
2.
AldenL. E.BuhrK.RobichaudM.TrewJ. L.PlasenciaM. L. (2018). Treatment of social approach processes in adults with social anxiety disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86, 505–517. doi:/10.1037/ccp0000306
3.
AldenL. E.TaylorC. T. (2004). Interpersonal processes in social phobia. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 857–882. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2004.07.006
4.
AldenL. E.TaylorC. T. (2010). Interpersonal processes in social anxiety disorder. In BeckJ. (Ed.), Interpersonal processes in the anxiety disorders: Implications for understanding psychopathology and treatment (pp. 125–152). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
5.
AldenL. E.TaylorC. T. (2011). Relational treatment strategies increase social approach behaviors in patients with generalized social anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 309–318. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.10.003
6.
AldenL. E.TrewJ. L. (2013). If it makes you happy: Engaging in kind acts increases positive affect in socially anxious individuals. Emotion, 13, 64–75.
7.
AmbadarZ.CohnJ. F.ReedL. I. (2009). All smiles are not created equal: Morphology and timing of smiles perceived as amused, polite, and embarrassed/nervous. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 17–34. doi:10.1007/s10919-008-0059-5
8.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
9.
AronA.MelinatE.AronE. N.ValloneR. D.BatorR. J. (1997). The experimental generation of interpersonal closeness: A procedure and some preliminary findings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 363–377. doi:10.1177/0146167297234003
10.
AviezerH.TropeY.TodorovA. (2012). Body cues, not facial expressions, discriminate between intense positive and negative emotions. Science, 338, 1225–1229. doi:10.1126/science.1224313
11.
BakerS. R.EdelmannR. J. (2002). Is social phobia related to lack of social skills? Duration of skill-related behaviours and ratings of behavioural adequacy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 243–257. doi:10.1348/014466502760379118
12.
BarlowD. H. (Ed.). (2014). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual. New York, NY: Guilford.
13.
BartlettM. S.LittlewortG. C.FrankM. G.LeeK. (2014). Automatic decoding of facial movements reveals deceptive pain expressions. Current Biology, 24, 738–743. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.009
14.
BartlettM.LittlewortG.VuralE.WhitehillJ.WuT.LeeK.MovellanJ. (2010). Insights on spontaneous facial expressions from automatic expression measurement. In CurioC.BülthoffH. H.GieseM.A. (Eds.), Dynamic faces: Insights from experiments and computation (pp. 211–238). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262014533.003.0015
15.
BeckA. T.SteerR. A.BrownG. K. (1996). Manual for Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
16.
BlairR. J. R. (2003). Facial expressions, their communicatory functions and neuro–cognitive substrates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 358, 561–572. doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1220
17.
ClarkD. M.EhlersA.HackmannA.McManusF.FennellM.GreyN.. . . WildJ. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 568–578. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.74.3.568
18.
CoyneJ. C. (1976). Depression and the response of others. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 186–193. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.85.2.186
19.
CrivelliC.FridlundA. J. (2018). Facial displays are tools for social influence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22, 388–399. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.006
20.
DaviesH.WolzI.LeppanenJ.Fernandez-ArandaF.SchmidtU.TchanturiaK. (2016). Facial expression to emotional stimuli in non-psychotic disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 64, 252–271. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.02.015
21.
DavisD.PerkowitzW. T. (1979). Consequences of responsiveness in dyadic interaction: Effects of probability of response and proportion of content-related responses on interpersonal attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 534–550. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.4.534
22.
DozoisD. J.DobsonK. S.AhnbergJ. L. (1998). A psychometric evaluation of the Beck Depression Inventory–II. Psychological Assessment, 10, 83–89.
23.
EkmanP.DavidsonR. J.FriesenW. V. (1990). The Duchenne smile: Emotional expression and brain physiology: II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 342–353.
24.
EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1978). Manual for the facial action coding system. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
25.
EkmanP.FreisenW. V.AncoliS. (1980). Facial signs of emotional experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1125–1134. doi:10.1037/h0077722
26.
FairbairnC. E.SayetteM. A.AalenO. O.FrigessiA. (2015). Alcohol and emotional contagion: An examination of the spreading of smiles in male and female drinking groups. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 686–701. doi:10.1177/2167702614548892
27.
FehrB. (2008). Friendship formation. In SprecherS.WenzelA.HarveyJ. (Eds.), Handbook of relationship initiation (pp. 29–54). New York: Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
28.
FirstM. B.SpitzerR. L.GibbonM. W. J. B.WilliamsJ. B. (1995). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute.
29.
FrescoD. M.ColesM. E.HeimbergR. G.LiebowitzM. R.HamiS.SteinM. B.GoetzD. (2001). The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale: A comparison of the psychometric properties of self-report and clinician-administered formats. Psychological Medicine, 31, 1025–1035. doi:10.1017/S0033291701004056
30.
FurlN.GallagherS.AverbeckB. B. (2012). A selective emotional decision-making bias elicited by facial expressions. PLoS ONE, 7, Article e33461. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033461
31.
GableS. L. (2006). Approach and avoidance social motives and goals. Journal of Personality, 74, 175–222. doi:10.1111/j.1467–6494.2005.00373.x
32.
GendronM.LindquistK. A.BarsalouL.BarrettL. F. (2012). Emotion words shape emotion percepts. Emotion, 12, 314–325. doi:10.1037/a0026007
33.
GendronM.RobersonD.van der VyverJ. M.BarrettL. F. (2014). Perceptions of emotion from facial expressions are not culturally universal: Evidence from a remote culture. Emotion, 14, 251–262.
34.
Gilboa-SchechtmanE.ShacharI.SaharY. (2014). Positivity impairment as a broad-based feature of social anxiety. In WeeksJ. W. (Ed.), The Wiley Blackwell handbook of social anxiety disorder (pp. 409–432). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9781118653920.ch19/summary
35.
GirardJ. M.CohnJ. F.MahoorM. H.MavadatiS.RosenwaldD. P. (2013, April). Social risk and depression: Evidence from manual and automatic facial expression analysis. In 2013 10th IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG) (pp. 1–8). New York: IEEE. doi:10.1109/FG.2013.6553748
36.
GottmanJ.LevensonR.WoodinE. (2001). Facial expressions during marital conflict. Journal of Family Communication, 1, 37–57. doi:10.1207/S15327698JFC0101_06
37.
GurR. E.LougheadJ.KohlerC. G.ElliottM. A.LeskoK.RuparelK.. . . GurR. C. (2007). Limbic activation associated with misidentification of fearful faces and flat affect in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 1356–1366. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.64.12.1356
38.
HarriganJ. A.O’ConnellD. M. (1996). How do you look when feeling anxious? Facial displays of anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 205–212. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(96)00050-5
39.
HeereyE. A.KringA. M. (2007). Interpersonal consequences of social anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 125–134. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.116.1.125
40.
HofmannS. G. (2014). Interpersonal emotion regulation model of mood and anxiety disorders. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38, 483–492.
41.
KashdanT. B.RobertsJ. E. (2006). Affective outcomes in superficial and intimate interactions: Roles of social anxiety and curiosity. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(2), 140–167. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.10.005
42.
KashdanT. B.WeeksJ. W.SavostyanovaA. A. (2011). Whether, how, and when social anxiety shapes positive experiences and events: A self-regulatory framework and treatment implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 786–799. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.012
43.
KeltnerD.KringA. M. (1998). Emotion, social function, and psychopathology. Review of General Psychology, 2, 320–342.
44.
KimH. S.SasakiJ. Y. (2014). Cultural neuroscience: Biology of the mind in cultural contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 487–514. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115040
45.
KivityY.HuppertJ. D. (2018). Are individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder successful in regulating their emotions? A mixed-method investigation using self-report, subjective, and event-related potentials measures. Journal of Affective Disorders, 236, 298–305. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.029
46.
KitayamaS.UskulA. K. (2011). Culture, mind, and the brain: Current evidence and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 419–449. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120709-145357
47.
KnutsonB. (1996). Facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal trait inferences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20, 165–182. doi:10.1007/BF02281954
48.
LanteigneD. M.FlynnJ. J.EastabrookJ. M.HollensteinT. (2014). Discordant patterns among emotional experience, arousal, and expression in adolescence: Relations with emotion regulation and internalizing problems. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 46, 29–39. doi:10.1037/a0029968
49.
LayousK.ChancellorJ.LyubomirskyS. (2014). Positive activities as protective factors against mental health conditions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 3–12.
50.
LiebowitzM. R. (1987). Social phobia. Modern Problems in Pharmacopsychiatry, 22, 141–173.
51.
LittlewortG.WhitehillJ.WuT.FaselI.FrankM.MovellanJ.BartlettM. (2011). The Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT). Face and Gesture2011, 298–305. doi:10.1109/FG.2011.5771414
52.
LobbestaelJ.LeurgansM.ArntzA. (2011). Inter-rater reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID I) and Axis II disorders (SCID II). Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 18, 75–79. doi: 10.1002/cpp.693
53.
MageeW.EatonW.WittchenH. U.McGonagleK. A.KesslerR. C. (1996). Agoraphobia, simple phobia, and social phobia in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 159–168. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1996.01830020077009
54.
MaussI. B.LevensonR. W.McCarterL.WilhelmF. H.GrossJ. J. (2005). The tie that binds? Coherence among emotion experience, behavior, and physiology. Emotion, 5, 175–190. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.5.2.175
55.
MeleshkoK. G.AldenL. E. (1993). Anxiety and self-disclosure: Toward a motivational model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 1000–1009.
56.
OttaE.AbrosioF. F. E.HoshinoR. L. (1996). Reading a smiling face: Messages conveyed by various forms of smiling. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 1111–1121. doi:10.2466/pms.1996.82.3c.1111
57.
OlssonA.NearingK. I.PhelpsE. A. (2007). Learning fears by observing others: The neural systems of social fear transmission. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2, 3–11. doi:10.1093/scan/nsm005
58.
OlssonA.PhelpsE. A. (2004). Learned fear of “unseen” faces after Pavlovian, observational, and instructed fear. Psychological Science, 15, 822–828. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00762.x
59.
PalmerM. T.SimmonsK. B. (1995). Communicating intentions through nonverbal behaviors conscious and nonconscious encoding of liking. Human Communication Research, 22, 128–160. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1995.tb00364.x
60.
PowersT. A.ZuroffD. C. (1988). Interpersonal consequences of overt self-criticism: A comparison with neutral and self-enhancing presentations of self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1054–1062. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1054
61.
ReisH. T.ShaverP. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In DuckS.W. (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships, (pp. 367–389). New York, NY: Wiley.
62.
ReisH. T.WilsonI. M.MonestereC.BernsteinS.ClarkK.SeidlE.. . . RadoaneK. (1990). What is smiling is beautiful and good. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 259–267. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420200307
63.
RodebaughT. L. (2009). Social phobia and perceived friendship quality. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 872–878. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.05.001
64.
RodebaughT. L.HeimbergR. G.BrownP. J.FernandezK. C.BlancoC.SchneierF. R.LiebowitzM. R. (2011). More reasons to be straightforward: Findings and norms for two scales relevant to social anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 623–630. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.02.002
65.
RodebaughT. L.LimM. H.FernandezK. C.LangerJ. K.WeismanJ. S.TongeN.. . . ShumakerE. A. (2014). Self and friend’s differing views of social anxiety disorder’s effects on friendships. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 715–724. doi:10.1037/abn0000015
66.
RodebaughT. L.LimM. H.ShumakerE. A.LevinsonC. A.ThompsonT. (2015). Social anxiety and friendship quality over time. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 44, 502–511. doi:10.1080/16506073.2015.1062043
67.
SchneierF. R.HeckelmanL. R.GarfinkelR.CampeasR. A, B.GitowA.. . . LiebowitzM. R. (1994). Functional impairment in social phobia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55, 322–331.
68.
SchneierF. R.JohnsonJ.HornigC. D.LiebowitzM. R.WeissmanM. M. (1992). Social phobia: Comorbidity and morbidity in an epidemiologic sample. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 282–288. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1992.01820040034004
69.
SchrammelF.PannaschS.GraupnerS.-T.MojzischA.VelichkovskyB. M. (2009). Virtual friend or threat? The effects of facial expression and gaze interaction on psychophysiological responses and emotional experience. Psychophysiology, 46, 922–931. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00831.x
70.
SegrinC. (1993). Interpersonal reactions to dysphoria: The role of relationship with partner and perceptions of rejection. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 83–97. doi:10.1177/0265407593101006
71.
SegrinC. (2001). Interpersonal processes in psychological problems. New York, NY: Guilford.
72.
SheehanD. V.LecrubierY.Harnett-SheehanK.AmorimP.JanavsJ.WeillerE.. . . DunbarG. C. (1998). The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). A short diagnostic structured interview: Reliability and validity according to the CIDI. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59 (Suppl. 20), 22–33. Retrieved from http://www.psychiatrist.com/JCP/article/Pages/1998/v59s20/v59s2005.aspx
73.
SokalR. R.RohlfF. J. (1981). Biometry. San Francisco: WH Freeman and Company.
74.
SpokasM.LuterekJ. A.HeimbergR. G. (2009). Social anxiety and emotional suppression: The mediating role of beliefs. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 40, 283–291. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2008.12.004
75.
TaylorC. T.AmirN. (2012). Modifying automatic approach action tendencies in individuals with elevated social anxiety symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 50, 529–536. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2012.05.004
76.
TaylorC. T.LyubomirskyS.SteinM. B. (2017). Upregulating the positive affect system in anxiety and depression: Outcomes of a positive activity intervention. Depression and Anxiety, 34, 267–280. doi:10.1002/da.22593
77.
TaylorC. T.PearlsteinS. L.SteinM. B. (2017). The affective tie that binds: Examining the contribution of positive emotions and anxiety to relationship formation in social anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 49, 21–30. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.03.007
78.
VonckenM. J.AldenL. E.BögelsS. M.RoelofsJ. (2008). Social rejection in social anxiety disorder: The role of performance deficits, evoked negative emotions and dissimilarity. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 47, 439–450. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.11.005
79.
VonckenM. J.DijkK. F. L. (2013). Socially anxious individuals get a second chance after being disliked at first sight: The role of self-disclosure in the development of likeability in sequential social contact. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37, 7–17. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9449-4
80.
WilhelmF. H.RattelJ. A.WegererM.LiedlgruberM.SchweighoferS.KreibigS. D.. . . BlechertJ. (2017). Attend or defend? Sex differences in behavioral, autonomic, and respiratory response patterns to emotion–eliciting films. Biological Psychology, 130, 30–40. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.11.001
81.
WilliamsM. A.McGloneF.AbbottD. F.MattingleyJ. B. (2008). Stimulus-driven and strategic neural responses to fearful and happy facial expressions in humans. European Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 3074–3082. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06264.x
82.
WinkielmanP.BerridgeK. C.WilbargerJ. L. (2005). Unconscious affective reactions to masked happy versus angry faces influence consumption behavior and judgments of value. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 121–135. doi:10.1177/0146167204271309
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
