Sex Differences in the Effects of Anxiety and Anxiety Sensitivity on Visual Perception

Objective: Most previous studies investigating the relationship between visual perception and anxiety have found that anxiety-provoking stimuli are perceived as relatively larger in size. Thus, the present study used neutral stimuli to investigate the relationships among anxiety, anxiety sensitivity (AS), and visual perception in a group of male and female university students. Methods: The Visual Size Perception Assessment Test (V-SPAT), which requires subjects to define a neutral figure in a dichotomous manner (i.e., tall/short, large/small, wide/ narrow, crowded/deserted) was administered to all participants (n:76). Additionally, the anxiety level and AS of each participant was determined using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3), respectively. Results: The BAI and ASI-3 total and cognitive scores of female participants were correlated with perceptions of “deserted”, whereas their ASI-3 social scores were correlated with perceptions of “short”. The ASI-3 cognitive scores of male participants were correlated with perceptions of “crowded”, and their ASI-3 physical scores were correlated with perceptions of “tall”. The present findings indicate that the visual perception of neutral objects is correlated with anxiety and AS. Conclusion: Furthermore, these data revealed sex differences in the relationship between AS and visual perception in that males perceived the objects as larger and females perceived them as smaller.