Differences in processing of emotional faces by avoidance behavior: In the case of university students with acne

• Published in: Journal of psychosomatic research Vol. 109; p. 108
• Main Authors: Himachi, M., Hashiro, M., Miyake, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier Inc 01.06.2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Acne; Anxiety; Avoidance behavior; Behavior; College students; Disgust; Emotion recognition; Emotional behavior; Emotions; Eye movements; Eye tracking; Face; Facial expressions; Fixation; Social anxiety; Tracking; University students
• ISSN: 0022-3999; 1879-1360
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2018.03.070

Aims: People with acne often experience social anxiety (SA). Staugaard et al. (2011) found that SA patients avoided the eyes of sad, disgusted, and neutral faces for longer times than control patients. Himachi and Hashiro (2018) suggested that people with acne and high avoidance (HA) behaviour process emotional faces similarly as those with SA This study examined the processing of emotional faces in individuals with acne using eye tracking. Methods: Participants were 16 university students with acne (age=20.50, SD=.52). Avoidance behaviors were evaluated using LSAS-J (Asakura & Koyama, 2008). In the task, a single enlarged faces (with either a happy, neutral, sad disgusted, or amgry expression) from the Japanese female facial expression database (JAFFE; Lyon et al., 1997) was shown on a screen for 10 seconds. Eye movement (EM) was recorded using a Tobii X2-60 Eye Tracker. Participants sat 70 cm away from the PC monitor. The eye-tracking device was positioned below the monitor and calibrated. Each of the 20 presentations was preceded by a fixation cross, which participants were instructed to attend to and look at the pictures in any way they chose. Results: We first classified participants by avoidance behavior scores. Time for first fixation showed a group effect (U=12.00, p=.039). Time for first fixation of HA on the disgust faces (M=.710) was significantly lower than that of the low avoidance behavior group (LA: M=.162). Total fixation duration also showed group effect (U=10.00, p=.023). The mean time of HA for sad faces (M=.670) was significantly shorter than that of LA (M= 1.056). To examine the HA valence effect, we used a paired-sample test (Wilcoxon) to compare results for negative faces with happy and neutral faces. The mean for sad faces (M=.398) significantly differed from for neutral faces (M=.506) (p=.028). Conclusion: Staugaard et al. (2011) found that the main group effect was due to patients having shorter fixation durations on sad faces. In the present study, the acne participants with HA behavior showed a similar tendency. Thus, it is necessary to compare the processing of emotional faces of the people with and without acne.