Biais dans l'évaluation volontaire de stimuli verbaux et non-verbaux : Effet de l'anxiété sociale.

International audienceThe present study aims at determining the presence of a voluntary evaluative bias within a non-clinical population divided in two groups according to the level of social anxiety as evaluated by the Fear of Negative Evaluation (Watson & Friend, 1969). The sample comprises 39 participants, 18 low socially anxious participants and 21 high socially anxious participants. Participants assessed the threat value of 150 stimuli (words, pictures, faces) on a scale varying from 0 to 4. Stimuli were negative, positive or neutral and socially relevant or not. Two alternative hypotheses resulting from two different models- the Mogg et Bradley'’s cognitive-motivational model (1998) and the Philippot’s dual memory model (2001)- were proposed: according to the first model, anxious people present evaluative biases towards threatening information and overestimate the threat value of socially threatening stimuli, that account for the presence of attentional biases; according to the second model, anxious and non anxious individuals assess the information in the same way, whatever its valence is and its relevance for the anxious topic of the individual is