Angry and fearful compared to happy or neutral faces as conditional stimuli in human fear conditioning: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ney, Luke J.; O’Donohue, Matthew; Lowe, Benjamin G; Lipp, Ottmar V.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104756

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…The current results were not consistent with these findings and supported the concept that fear could take experiential and attentional primacy over anger and happiness, possibly because it confers evolutionary important survival value (see Öhman et al, 2007). As follows, it is also worth mentioning that it is an issue of polemical debate whether this purported effect could be due to evolutionary survival value, involving a direct subcortical neural pathway from the visual thalamus to limbic structures, such as the amygdala (see Liddell et al, 2005), or whether it is due to the high visual salience and high distinguishability of fearful elicitors (see Morris et al, 1997;Pessoa et al, 2005;Gray et al, 2013), or, furthermore, synergistically, an epiphenomenal effect of fear-related evolutionary survival value via highly perceptible visual-emotional characteristics (see particularly Ney et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Sentio Ergo Est”: Unmasking the Emotional Realities of Misperception

Tsikandilakis,

Bali,

Karlis

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Signal detection theory (SDT) is a multi-component ratio method for assessing perceptual performance. It can be applied in backward masking, such as the presentation of a brief target image followed by a noise image that can render a target imperceptible. Previously, we implemented a methodology for backward masking that included individualized thresholds to achieve unconscious presentations and involved dedicated SDT-component analyses. We showed that a specific SDT-component, namely, false positives, such as erroneously reporting that an arousing facial stimulus was presented, involved increases in physiological and emotional responses. In this manuscript, we explored this effect outside our individual-thresholds paradigm. For the first time in relevant research, we recruited participants using trial-contour power calculations for false positive responses. We presented emotional faces for 16.67 ms masked with noise images for 116.67 ms. We showed that false-positive responses for emotional faces were characterised by pre-trial arousal, and post-trial arousal increases, and high emotional and confidence ratings. These outcomes were most pronounced for the misperception of fearful faces. Based on these findings, we discussed the possibility of a mechanism for partial self-encapsulated emotional-experiential apperception. We emphasised the possibility of a fear primacy socio-emotional response module during combined visual ambiguity and high psychophysiological arousal.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Sentio Ergo Est”: Unmasking the Emotional Realities of Misperception

Tsikandilakis,

Bali,

Karlis

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…In cases where the conflict resolution effect was reported as not significant but no other information was included, the effect size was included as 0. This is an approach that we have used in previous meta-analyses that accounts for underreporting of nonsignificant effects and is recommended by Cochrane guidelines as a suitable approach for meta-analyses (Higgins et al, 2021; Ney, O’Donohue, et al, 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the reliability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects in the emotional conflict task via secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis.

Yin,

Wang,

Lipp

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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The emotional conflict task measures emotional conflict resolution and adaptation, but some studies are unable to find resolution or adaptation effects using this task. We examined boundary conditions and replicability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects through secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis of studies in the field. In our data, we were unable to fully replicate the emotional conflict resolution or adaptation effects and found that most studies using this task (n = 94) do not report analysis of emotional conflict resolution, with only 28% (n = 26) studies doing so. Our meta-analysis suggests that studies reporting emotional conflict resolution and adaptation analyses overall report significant but small effects, suggesting the effect is difficult to consistently replicate. Our meta-analysis revealed that controlling for contingency learning may impact the ability of studies to identify conflict resolution. These findings have implications for assessment and interpretation of the emotional conflict task. Public Significance StatementThis work tests whether commonly used experimental procedures (the emotional conflict task) can measure complex features of human emotion accurately. Since many treatments, diagnostic tools, and beliefs about human psychology are developed based on basic psychology research, knowing whether the paradigms that we use to measure human emotion are valid is critical to creating reliable knowledge about the human condition. This work extends our knowledge of the emotional conflict task to better understand the situations where it can be validly used within psychological research.

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“…It is predicted that evolutionarily prepared stimuli should be conditioned faster, and their extinction should be slower. Moreover, the psychophysiological response to them should be stronger compared to neutral stimuli ( Öhman and Dimberg, 1978 ; McNally, 1987 ; Ney et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human emotional evaluation of ancestral and modern threats: fear, disgust, and anger

Peléšková,

Polák,

Janovcová

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionAnimal and human ancestors developed complex physiological and behavioral response systems to cope with two types of threats: immediate physical harm from predators or conspecifics, triggering fear, and the risk of infections from parasites and pathogens leading to the evolution of the behavioral immune system with disgust as the key emotion. Integration of the evolutionary concepts of the fear module and behavioral immune systems has been infrequent, despite the significant survival advantages of disgust in various contexts. Studies comparing attention to ancestral and modern threats accompanied by fear have yielded ambiguous results and what qualifies as salient modern disgusting stimuli remains unclear. We do not know whether disgust or the behavioral immune system, as inherent aspects of human psychology, have adapted to safeguard us from pandemic risks or poisoning by modern toxic substances.MethodsTo test these effects, we have developed a survey comprised of 60 short vignettes describing threats evoking fear and disgust belonging to one of the three main categories of threats: (1) ancestral (phylogenetic), (2) modern (ontogenetic), and (3) pandemics of airborne disease. Each vignette was evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale based on fear, disgust, and anger. In total, 660 respondents completed the survey. The data were analysed using a factor analysis and general linear model with the respondent as a random factor.ResultsThe results show that the strongest fear is triggered by modern threats (electricity, car accidents), while the highest disgust is evoked by ancient threats (body waste products, worms, etc.). Interestingly, disgust does not respond to modern threat stimuli such as toxic substances or radioactivity as these evoke mainly fear and anger. Finally, a distinct response pattern was found for pandemic threats, in which both fear (e.g., of disease and death) and disgust (e.g., of used face masks) are employed.DiscussionOur study offers valuable insights into the emotional responses to ancestral and modern threats and their adaptation to pandemic challenges. Ancestral threats are not always more powerful stimuli than adequate threats of the modern type, but they function specifically. Thus, snakes and heights as fear-inducing ancestral threats form separate factors in a multivariate analysis, whereas all ancestral disgust stimuli group together. The threat of a pandemic forms a specific category and people process it emotionally and cognitively. These insights contribute to our understanding of human psychology and behavior in an ever-changing world.

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Angry and fearful compared to happy or neutral faces as conditional stimuli in human fear conditioning: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cited by 9 publications

References 97 publications

“Sentio Ergo Est”: Unmasking the Emotional Realities of Misperception

“Sentio Ergo Est”: Unmasking the Emotional Realities of Misperception

Examining the reliability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects in the emotional conflict task via secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis.

Human emotional evaluation of ancestral and modern threats: fear, disgust, and anger

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