Deductive Reasoning and Social Anxiety:Evidence for a Fear-confirming Belief Bias

This study investigated the relationship between belief bias and fear of negative evaluation. Belief bias refers to a bias in deductive reasoning that acts to confirm rather than falsify prior beliefs. Participants (N = 52) with varying levels of fear of negative evaluation completed a belief bias task by means of linear syllogisms, with stimuli covering both social anxiety convictions and factual neutral statements. A linear relationship was found between fear of negative evaluation and belief bias for the social anxiety conviction category. No differences in reasoning were found for the neutral syllogisms. These results support the view that highly socially anxious individuals do not have a reasoning abnormality, but do have difficulty judging anxiogenic information as false and reassuring convictions-contradicting information as true. Such belief bias logically prevents dysfunctional cognitions from being corrected, thereby sustaining phobic fear

Threat-confirming belief bias and symptoms of anxiety disorders

This study tested the hypothesis that a generally enhanced threat-confirming reasoning style would set people at risk for the development of anxiety disorders. Therefore, a non-clinical student sample (N = 146) was presented with a series of linear syllogisms referring to threatening and safety themes and with the anxiety subscale of the SCL-90 and trait anxiety in order to correlate reasoning with anxiety. Half of the syllogisms' conclusions were in line and half were in conflict with generally believable threat and safety related convictions (e.g., potassium cyanide is more toxic than tylenol; The Netherlands are safer than Afghanistan). For each type of syllogism, half was logically valid and half invalid. Overall, participants showed a clear interference of believability on logical reasoning, which is known as the belief bias effect. Furthermore, in line with the idea that people are generally characterized by a better safe than sorry strategy, the pattern indicated that the participants took more time to solve invalid threat related syllogisms as well as valid safety related syllogisms. This threat-confirming belief bias was however not especially pronounced in participants reporting relatively intense anxiety symptoms. Thus, the present findings do not lend support to the idea that a generally enhanced threat-confirming belief bias is a diathesis for the development of anxious psychopathology. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Reducing binge eating through behavioral-focused versus emotion-focused implementation intentions in patients with binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa:An experimental approach

Binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are characterized by recurrent binge eating, episodes of consuming large amounts of food in a discrete period of time associated with a loss of control. Implementation intentions are explicit if-then plans that engender goal-directed action, and rely less on cognitive control than standard treatment options. In a sample with BED and BN, we compared two implementation intention conditions to a control condition. In the behavior-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted binge eating behaviors. In the emotion-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted negative affect preceding binge eating. In the control condition, only goal intentions were set. Each condition comprised three sessions. Participants kept food diaries for four weeks. Compared to the control condition both implementation intention conditions showed significant and large reductions of binge eating that persisted for six months. Effects did not differ between the behavior-focused and emotion-focused implementation intention conditions. These results demonstrate that three sessions on implementation intention formation can lead to long-term reductions in binge eating in patients with BED or BN. Learning how to form implementation intentions seems a recommendable addition to the current standard treatment. Future research could investigate the added value of fully personalized implementation intentions

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Effects of implementation intentions on subthreshold binge eating

Binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are characterized by binge eating. Frequently related to negative affect, binge eating is considered unwanted eating behavior. It is often preceded by a shift away from the goal of a healthy eating pattern. Implementation intentions are 'if-then' plans that may prevent such shifts in goals. In a students' sample with subthreshold binge eating, two implementation intention conditions were compared to a control condition in which only goals were formed. In the behavior-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted binge eating; in the emotion-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted negative affect preceding binge eating. All participants received three sessions and kept food diaries for four weeks, followed by a post-test and a one-month, three-months, and six-months follow-up. Compared to the control condition, both implementation intention conditions showed significant and large reductions in binge eating lasting for six months. Effects did not differ between both implementation intention conditions. Three implementation intention sessions reduced subthreshold binge eating. This continued for six months after the final session. Contrary to expectations, behavior-focused and emotion-focused implementation intentions were equally effective, possibly due to other triggers than negative affect. Future research should address their usefulness in BED and BN

Effects of implementation intentions on subthreshold binge eating

Contains fulltext : 228160.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are characterized by binge eating. Frequently related to negative affect, binge eating is considered unwanted eating behavior. It is often preceded by a shift away from the goal of a healthy eating pattern. Implementation intentions are 'if-then' plans that may prevent such shifts in goals. In a students' sample with subthreshold binge eating, two implementation intention conditions were compared to a control condition in which only goals were formed. In the behavior-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted binge eating; in the emotion-focused condition, implementation intentions targeted negative affect preceding binge eating. All participants received three sessions and kept food diaries for four weeks, followed by a post-test and a one-month, three-months, and six-months follow-up. Compared to the control condition, both implementation intention conditions showed significant and large reductions in binge eating lasting for six months. Effects did not differ between both implementation intention conditions. Three implementation intention sessions reduced subthreshold binge eating. This continued for six months after the final session. Contrary to expectations, behavior-focused and emotion-focused implementation intentions were equally effective, possibly due to other triggers than negative affect. Future research should address their usefulness in BED and BN.04 januari 202115 p