Much of the research on information processing in social anxiety is based on the assumption that anger (e.g., seeing a frowning face) is the negative emotion most threatening to individuals with social anxiety. However, socially anxious individuals also fear being evaluated as incompetent or disgusting, rather than anger-provok-ing. While some studies have examined attention and identification processes for disgust expressions in social anxiety, to date no study has examined the fundamen-tal issue of perceived valence of disgust compared to anger. In the current study, we examined ratings of standardized disgust and anger facial expressions by socially anxious individuals, non-anxious controls, and a group of generally anxious and dysphoric participants who were matched to the socially anxious group on gen-eral anxiety and depression, but who were not socially anxious. Results showed that the socially anxious group rated disgust faces as more negative than the anger faces, whereas the non-anxious and generally anxious/dysphoric control groups did not rate the two emotions differently. However, in our sample of Caucasian par-ticipants, these effects were found only for pictures of Caucasian faces and not for Asian faces. Results are discussed in the context of an ingroup advantage in identi-fication of facial expressions.
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