Attentional bias to threatening faces in body dysmorphic disorder
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Attentional bias to threatening faces in body dysmorphic disorder.
IRAS ID
223927
Contact name
Angeliki Schiza
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 13 days
Research summary
This research will explore if people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) have an attentional bias towards socially threatening and rejecting faces. BDD involves the individual being overly preoccupied with perceived flaws in their appearance. \n\nSeveral studies have shown that people who suffer from anxiety disorders have a bias to attend more to threat (Beck, 1976). This bias is proposed to maintain anxiety by leading to an increased perception of danger, accompanied by more frequent anxiety. While this bias has been studied among different anxiety disorders, it has not been investigated in BDD. \n\nAs there is limited research in BDD, this project can help us understand what factors maintain it and inform theoretical models. One proposed mechanism, is that if people with BDD have an unhelpful bias to notice rejecting faces, this can lead them to overestimate the number of people who look at them negatively and exacerbate the perception that others are judging them. In consequence, these biases can magnify their perception of personal ugliness and maintain their condition. It could also inform therapeutic interventions by helping people understand their distress as a bias rather than fact. It can provide an evidence base for the development of interventions like attentional training which have a strong evidence base in other anxiety disorders (Hakamata et al., 2010) but have not been investigated in BDD. \n\nThe study will conduct an experiment to compare individuals with BDD with healthy controls in a face in the crowd task (Hansen & Hansen, 1988). It will invite participants to search a group of photographs of emotional or neutral faces for the ’odd one out’. For example, in an array of happy faces, an angry face is the odd one out. Faster detection of a face with a threatening emotion would indicate vigilance for threat.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0206
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion