Emotional concealment in social anxiety: associations with fake facial expressions and prosocial evaluations.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K14478
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 10040:Experimental psychology-related
• Research Institution: Senshu University
• Principal Investigator: Ishikawa Kenta 専修大学, 人間科学部, 助教 (20816334)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 社交不安 / 表情表出 / 注意

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In social interactions, people use facial expressions that deviate from their genuine emotions, such as fake smiles. Social anxiety is defined as an intense fear of being negatively evaluated by others (American Psychiatric Association, [APA], 2013). If people with social anxiety convey their genuine emotions such as fear or anxiety in social interactions, they would be negatively evaluated by others. The present study investigated the effect of facial expressions in social anxiety on evaluation from others.

Free Research Field

10040

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

感情の抑制は精神的健康の悪化につながる(Gross & John 2003)。臨床場面で観察された社交不安傾向者の表情による感情隠蔽には性差が観察され，期待される性役割に基づいた感情隠蔽が行われる可能性が示唆された。特に男性の場合，社交不安傾向が高いほど笑い顔や怒り顔の表情表出の強度が強く，また社交性が高く評価された。男性社交不安傾向者のこうした特性は，男性の社交不安傾向者の有病率の低さや援助希求行動が少ないといったこれまでの報告の一因となっている可能性が示唆された(Kessler et al., 1994; Merikangas et al., 2010)。