Attentional bias towards angry faces in trait-reappraisal

0191-8869/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.08.030 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Department o Calgary, 2500 University Dr., N.W. Calgary, AB, Canad 4667; fax: +1 403 282 8249. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.E. Arndt). Emotion regulation (ER) strategies differ in when and how they influence emotion experience, expression, and concomitant cognition. However, no study to date has directly compared cognition in individuals who have a clear disposition for either cognitive or behavioural ER strategies. The present study compared selective attention to angry faces in groups of high trait-suppressors (people who are hiding emotional reactions in response to emotional challenge) and high trait-reappraisers (people who cognitively reinterpret emotional events). Since reappraisers are also low trait-anxious and suppressors are high trait-anxious, high and low anxious control groups, both being low in trait-ER, were also included. Attention to angry faces was assessed using an emotional dot-probe task. Trait-reappraisers and highanxious individuals both showed attentional biases towards angry faces. Trait-reappraisers’ vigilance for angry faces was significantly more pronounced compared to both trait-suppressors and low anxious controls. We suggest that threat prioritization in high trait-reappraisal may allow deeper cognitive processing of threat information without being associated with psychological maladjustment. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.