Attention bias modification effects on interpretive bias for fear of positive and negative evaluation in social anxiety

Cognitive theories of social anxiety include the well-evidenced Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), the newer Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) and Combined Cognitive Biases hypothesis. Cognitive bias modifications (CBM) have been shown to reduce social anxiety, although research linking CBM to FPE and Combined Cognitive Biases is sparse. A single session of online CBM for attention (CBM-A) to manipulate interpretive bias was utilised, for convenience samples high (n = 42) and low (n = 47) in social anxiety. A visual search face-in-the-crowd paradigm was used, whereby participants saw angry (n = 45) or happy (n = 44) crowd faces, both with neutral target faces. The results show that CBM-A significantly reduces interpretive bias and FNE for participants irrespective of social anxiety level or the emotion of faces shown. The results also show that when happy faces are seen, FPE decreases following CBM-A, but when angry faces are seen, FPE increases following CBM-A. The study provides evidence for home-based self-help therapies for individuals overwhelmed by traditional therapies.