Examining socioaffective processing biases in cigarette smokers with high versus low trait hostility

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Health Behavior

Background:

• Socioaffective processing is crucial for understanding emotional-interpersonal traits linked to health, such as hostility.
• Cigarette smokers often exhibit heightened hostility, suggesting potential alterations in socioaffective processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate socioaffective processing biases in cigarette smokers with varying levels of trait hostility.
• To introduce and validate the Emotional Interference Gender Identification Task (EIGIT) as a measure of socioaffective processing.

Main Methods:

• Participants: 49 low hostility (LH) and 43 high hostility (HH) cigarette smokers.
• Task: Emotional Interference Gender Identification Task (EIGIT) – categorizing gender of faces varying in emotional valence (angry, happy, neutral, sad).
• Measures: Reaction time and accuracy in gender categorization, assessing emotional interference.

Main Results:

• General finding: Participants were slower and less accurate identifying the gender of angry faces, indicating a socioaffective processing bias toward angry stimuli.
• Comparison: High hostility (HH) smokers showed diminished biases toward angry faces on error-based measures compared to low hostility (LH) smokers.
• Specifics: This diminished bias in HH smokers was observed in error rates, not reaction times, suggesting specific impairments in socioaffective processing.

Conclusions:

• The EIGIT effectively measures socioaffective processing biases, particularly toward angry facial affect.
• High trait hostility in smokers is associated with impaired socioaffective processing, specifically a reduced bias towards angry facial cues.
• The EIGIT shows promise for future research on socioaffective processing in health-related traits and conditions.