IF you’re anxious, you will see the world very differently to someone who isn’t anxious. One reason for this is the way the anxious brain processes and interprets information.
Anxiety researchers talk a lot about cognitive biases like selective attention and biased information processing, but don’t let the psychological jargon put you off. This is an important subject, but it’s pretty simple.
Let’s take the first part – selective attention towards threats. Selective attention is like a spotlight that shines on specific things. When you're anxious, that spotlight often focuses on potential threats. It's like your brain is always scanning for danger, even when there's none. This can make you feel overwhelmed and stressed.
Biased processing is how your brain interprets information. When you're anxious, your brain might have a tendency to see things in a negative or fearful light. For example, if someone doesn't respond to your text right away, you might assume they're angry with you, even though they could be busy.
Think of it like this: selective attention is about where your brain looks, and biased processing is about what it sees. Together, they can create a cycle of worry and fear that can make it hard to live a peaceful life.
For example, imagine an anxious woman, Kate, watching a movie with John, her non-anxious partner. Kate hears a noise; alert, she sits up. In contrast, the noise barely registers with John. Kate then comments on the noise; concerned, she immediately interprets the sound as a potential intruder. In contrast, John is uninterested and casual about it, saying it’s ‘probably nothing’.
Anxiety is also associated with a narrowing of attention, making it difficult to focus on anything other than the perceived threat. Thus, John may want to continue watching the movie, but Kate is edgy and asks him to check that no one has broken in.
In this example, Kate’s selective attention towards threats means she is alert to a potential danger that does not even register with John. Secondly, she processes the event in a biased manner. The noise may well have been the sound of a car backfiring, or something that has fallen in another room, or any number of harmless situations, but unlike John, Kate is not inclined to think it’s ‘probably nothing’.
These biases are not just quirks of perception; they play a crucial role in the maintenance of anxiety. When an anxious person constantly interprets neutral or ambiguous situations as threats, their brain becomes hyper-focused on fear, which perpetuates their anxiety.
Experiments
To further illustrate this point, I want to mention one study where researchers showed participants a series of images and words that included both threatening (e.g., spiders, angry faces) and neutral elements (e.g., everyday objects, calm faces). Eye-tracking technology was used to monitor participants' gaze and determine how long they focused on each word or image.
The researchers found anxious people spent much more time focusing on threatening stimuli than those without anxiety. This selective attention suggests a heightened sensitivity to potential threats, even when such threats are irrelevant to the situation at hand.
A second experiment focused on how participants interpreted ambiguous scenarios. For example, participants might read a sentence like, ‘The meeting was cancelled because...’ and then be presented with different endings – some neutral, such as ‘...the organiser was sick’, and some threatening, such as ‘...the project was failing’.
Anxious people were much more likely to interpret these ambiguous situations as threatening. For instance, a meeting cancellation might be seen as a sign of professional failure or rejection rather than a routine scheduling change.
In a third experiment, participants were asked to quickly categorise or respond to threatening and non-threatening stimuli. Their response times were measured to determine how quickly they reacted to different types of information.
Anxious people responded faster to threatening information than to neutral stimuli. This quick reaction time indicates that threatening information captures their attention more readily, reflecting a cognitive bias toward perceiving danger.
So, the next time you find yourself feeling anxious, take a moment to consider whether selective attention or biased processing might be at play. In my next column, I will delve deeper into strategies for overcoming these biases and breaking free from the cycle of vigilance and fear.
Linda Hamilton | Cognitive Behavioural Therapist | Kinsale CBT
086 3300807 | www.kinsalecbt.com | www.facebook.com/KinsaleCBT
