Fear of eyes: The influence of social anxiety on trypophobic eyes

1 Imagine you are being gazed at by multiple individuals simultaneously. Is the provoked anxiety a 2 learned social-specific response or related to a hole-specific pathological disorder known as 3 trypophobia? A previous study revealed that spectral properties of images induced aversive 4 reactions in observers with trypophobia. However, it is not clear whether individual differences 5 such as social anxiety traits are related to the discomfort associated with trypophobic images. To 6 investigate this issue, we conducted two experiments with social anxiety and trypophobia scales 7 and images of eyes and faces. In Experiment 1, participants completed a social anxiety scale and 8 trypophobia questionnaire before evaluation of the discomfort experienced upon exposure to 9 pictures of eye clusters. The results showed that social anxiety had a significant indirect effect on 10 the discomfort associated with the eye clusters, and that the effect was mediated by trypophobia. 11 Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using images of human face clusters. The results showed 12 that, as in Experiment 1, a significant mediation effect of trypophobia was obtained, although the 13 relationship between social anxiety and the discomfort rating was stronger than in Experiment 1. 14 Our findings suggest that both social anxiety and trypophobia contribute to the induction of 15 discomfort when one is gazed at by many people. 16 17