Sex differences are not attenuated by a sex-invariant measure of fear: The situated fear questionnaire

Threat sensitivity in emotion dynamics: Negativity effects and sex differences

Evolutionary theorizing has given rise to the idea that responding to any particular threat may be more mandatory than responding to any particular reward. The present three experiments (total N = 375) sought to provide support for this perspective in an emotion dynamics task in which participants continuously rated their affective state in response to appetitive (reward-related) versus aversive (threat-related) images. Even when equating images for arousal and extremity, several negativity effects (e.g., steeper reactivity slopes in response to aversive images) were found. These negativity effects can serve as an experimental model of threat sensitivity, which should predispose some individuals, more than others, to symptoms related to fear and anxiety. This point was made with respect to sex differences, given that women (relative to men) are diagnosed with anxiety disorders at higher rates. Sex differences were pronounced and extensions of this work, both basic and applied, are proposed.

Functional sophistication in human escape

Animals including humans must cope with immediate threat and make rapid decisions to survive. Without much leeway for cognitive or motor errors, this poses a formidable computational problem. Utilizing fully immersive virtual reality with 13 natural threats, we examined escape decisions in N = 59 humans. We show that escape goals are dynamically updated according to environmental changes. The decision whether and when to escape depends on time-to-impact, threat identity and predicted trajectory, and stable personal characteristics. Its implementation appears to integrate secondary goals such as behavioral affordances. Perturbance experiments show that the underlying decision algorithm exhibits planning properties and can integrate novel actions. In contrast, rapid information-seeking and foraging-suppression are only partly devaluation-sensitive. Instead of being instinctive or hardwired stimulus-response patterns, human escape decisions integrate multiple variables in a flexible computational architecture. Taken together, we provide steps toward a computational model of how the human brain rapidly solves survival challenges.

Fear of Zika: Information Seeking as Cause and Consequence

This study examined the relationship between information seeking and fear during the Zika-induced global health crisis. A longitudinal survey of women in the Southern U.S. (N = 306) was conducted in 2016, beginning just days after the World Health Organization declared Zika a global crisis. The data showed that time 1 fear stimulated information seeking at time 2 and that time 2 information seeking caused fear at time 3. This pattern held regardless of whether participants were pregnant or planning to become pregnant (high personal relevance) versus neither (low personal relevance). The findings are at odds with most theories of fear appeals and only partially supportive of contemporary models of information seeking. From an applied standpoint, the results suggest (a) that information seeking should not be assumed to produce uniformly attractive outcomes and (b) that, during a disease crisis, health agencies should anticipate proactive behaviors by members of the public and plan accordingly.

Callous-unemotional traits and fearlessness: A cardiovascular psychophysiological perspective in two adolescent samples using virtual reality

There has been a longstanding debate about the link between callous-unemotional traits and fearlessness. However, biological evidence for a relationship in adolescents is lacking. Using two adolescent samples, we measured emotional reactivity and cardiac measures of sympathetic (pre-ejection period) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) reactivity during 3D TV and virtual reality fear induction. Study 1 included 62 community adolescents from a stratified sample. Study 2 included 60 adolescents from Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties schools. Results were consistent across both studies. Adolescents with high callous-unemotional traits showed coactivation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Consistent with these results, youths with callous-unemotional traits self-reported that they felt more in control after the fear induction. Thus, in both samples, youth with callous-unemotional traits displayed a physiological and emotional profile suggesting they maintained control during fear induction. Therefore, it is proposed here that a shift in thinking of youth with callous-unemotional traits as fearless to youth with callous-unemotional traits are better able to manage fearful situations, may be more appropriate.

Self-regulation of emotional responses to Zika: Spiral of fear

Fear of infectious disease can create a variety of problems not the least of which is fear itself. An important question is how individuals attempt to manage their fear. The appearance of Zika in the U.S. presented an opportunity to examine this issue in a consequential natural context. Beginning nine days after the W.H.O. declared Zika a world health crisis, two-waves of survey data were collected from women ages 18–35 who were living in the Southern U.S. (N = 561). Most respondents (71%) used one or more emotion regulation strategies and a plurality (41%) utilized multiple strategies. Fear of Zika showed no demonstrable effect on avoidance, reappraisal, or contesting and none of these three strategies were effective at down-regulating fear. Fear and suppression, however, showed a self-reinforcing cycle in which fear increased use of suppression and suppression increased intensity of the fear response. Although the observed associations were small, even modest effects can be consequential when cumulated over time or across large numbers of individuals.

Short versions of two specific phobia measures: The snake and the spider questionnaires

Zoophobias are the most prevalent form of specific phobia worldwide. Two of the most widely used measures, the Snake Questionnaire (SNAQ) and Spider Questionnaire (SPQ) are good indicators of specific fears, but researchers have recognised that shorter, yet nevertheless reliable measures are needed. Hence the aims of this research were to develop short forms of the SNAQ and SPQ using item response theory and to use receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to determine cut-offs for use in future research. Twelve-item versions of both scales (SNAQ-12 and SPQ-12) demonstrated excellent discrimination along the latent continuum in a sample of 1354 people. The SNAQ-12 and SPQ-12 showed excellent reliability and were highly correlated with the corresponding full-length scale. The scales discriminated between participants who reported snake (3.25%) or spider (8.05%) phobia and those who did not. Further analyses revealed that non-phobic women report higher fear of both snakes and spiders than do men, but this difference was not present in phobics. These findings suggest that the SNAQ-12 and SPQ-12 have considerable strengths, including shorter assessment and scoring times, whilst retaining high reliability and potential utility as a clinical screening tool.

Father absence and gendered traits in sons and daughters

Research has previously found a number of apparently contradictory patterns in the relationship between ‘father absence’ (having a non-resident father during childhood) and the expression of gender roles, as well as other sexually dimorphic traits such as aggression. In the current study we measured a battery of sexually differentiated traits in relation to family background. 133 men and 558 women from the United States and Australia completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Barrett Impulsivity Scale, the Fear Survey Schedule and the Buss & Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Principal components analysis found two main axes of variation in these traits. Firstly, a general ‘reactivity’ factor, on which aggression, impulsivity, and fear all loaded positively, was weakly associated with father absence in women. Secondly, ‘masculinity’ (consisting of high scores on masculine traits, low fear, and physical and verbal aggression) was not associated with father absence. Participants (except American males) reporting a poor childhood relationship with their parents also had high ‘reactivity’ but not higher ‘masculinity’. We found some evidence of a link between father absence and earlier age of first coitus in American females (although not in Australia), but there was no link with age of menarche in either country. Overall, the current results suggest that previous findings linking gender development with father absence in girls may have arisen from a tendency towards greater externalising and reactive behaviour rather than a change in gender development per se.