Attentional biases for angry faces: Relationships to trait anger and anxiety

In two experiments selective attention to angry faces was investigated in r elation to trait anger and anxiety. A pictorial emotional Stroop task compa ring colour-naming latencies for neutral and angry faces was employed. In E xperiment 1 using an unmasked task, individuals scoring high on trait anger showed an attentional bias for angry faces. In Experiment 2, unmasked and masked versions of the task were used. Individuals were selected on low and high trait anxiety, but there was no indication of a relation between atte ntional bias scores and anxiety. When individuals were subsequently realloc ated to groups on the basis of trait anger scores, the high anger group sho wed an attentional bias for angry faces in the unmasked and the masked task . Results are discussed in relation to recent neurobiological findings from our laboratory, as reflecting an evolutionary-evolved, content-specific re sponse to the facial expression of anger.