Social-evaluative threat influences reaction tendencies and neural processing of social stimuli

Facial expressions contain social-evaluative cues that can help restore a threatened need to belong by either confrontation (i.e. faster approach of angry faces) or seeking social connection (i.e. faster approach of happy faces). The aims of the present study are, first, to investigate whether the neural processing of facial expressions increases after a social evaluative threat; second, to explore whether reaction times towards facial expressions increase after such a threat. For these purposes, social-evaluative threat (SET) was induced in eighty participants, via an impromptu public speaking task. Before and after SET, they completed an approach avoidance task (AAT) with happy, angry and neutral faces, during which event-related potential (ERP) components N1, P150, N2, and P3 were measured. Furthermore, stress indicators i.e., cortisol levels and self-report anxiety were measured. Preliminary analysis shows a main effect of time in the N1 (F (1, 50) = 5.31, p = .025) and the N2 event-related potential components elicited by these faces (F (1, 50) = 8.33, p = .006). Moreover, participants became faster to approach both happy and angry faces. Further analysis is needed to investigate whether changes in the ERP components are related to changes in stress indicators. However, based on these preliminary findings, it is likely that SET influences the neural processing of faces.