An Investigation of the Attentional Processes Underlying the Relationship between Social Anxiety Vulnerability and Negatively Biased Anticipatory Thinking

Social anxiety vulnerability is characterized by a bias favouring negative thinking prior to upcoming social events. Despite the clinical significance of this maladaptive thinking, its exact nature and mechanisms that link it to social anxiety vulnerability remain unclear. The current research examined attentional bias to negative social information and impaired attentional control as the potential mechanisms linking social anxiety vulnerability to negatively biased anticipatory thinking. The findings indicated that negatively biased thinking is of a reflective nature, and highlighted that factors other than the examined attentional processes may explain how social anxiety vulnerability leads to negatively biased anticipatory thinking