ArticlePloS one2019
Social anxiety changes the way we move-A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Measuring implicit bias in height-fearful participants with the Approach-Avoidance Task.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Psychological distance affects real movements in virtual reality: distance to food in anorexia nervosa.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Exploring the association between adolescent psychotic-like experiences and components of social performance using a multi-level virtual reality paradigm.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Studying the influence of single social interactions on approach and avoidance behavior: A multimodal investigation in immersive virtual reality.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Altered representation of peripersonal and interpersonal space in psychopathology.Clinical psychology review · 2024Review
- I can't feel your face: callous-unemotional traits, social anxiety, and approach-avoidance behaviour in conduct disorder.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2024Article
- Impact of face trustworthiness on approach-avoidance behavior of adolescents with varied social anxiety traits.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Social threat avoidance depends on action-outcome predictability.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Rodent tests of depression and anxiety: Construct validity and translational relevance.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- Exploring the Nexus between Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity, Self-Disclosure, Social Anxiety, and Adolescent Social Avoidance: Insights from a Cross-Sectional Study in Central China.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Comparison of two reaction-time-based and one foraging-based behavioral approach-avoidance tasks in relation to interindividual differences and their reliability.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Recent advances in the understanding and psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder.Faculty reviews · 2023Review
- Value priorities and value conflicts in patients with mental disorders compared to a general population sample.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A circuit from dorsal hippocampal CA3 to parvafox nucleus mediates chronic social defeat stress-induced deficits in preference for social novelty.Science advances · 2022Article
- How to build a game for empirical bioethics research: The case of 'Tracing Tomorrow'.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2022Article
- Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Treating Social Anxiety: A Scoping Review of Treatment Designs and Adaptation to Stuttering.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Article
- Virtual Reality for Supporting the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety: Scoping Review.JMIR mental health · 2021Article
- The use of virtual reality in assessment and treatment of anxiety and related disorders.Clinical psychology & psychotherapy · 2021Review
- The Development of Explicit and Implicit Game-Based Digital Behavioral Markers for the Assessment of Social Anxiety.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Assessment of threat and negativity bias in virtual reality.Scientific reports · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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Abstract
Investigating approach-avoidance behavior regarding affective stimuli is important in broadening the understanding of one of the most common psychiatric disorders, social anxiety disorder. Many studies in this field rely on approach-avoidance tasks, which mainly assess hand movements, or interpersonal distance measures, which return inconsistent results and lack ecological validity. Therefore, the present study introduces a virtual reality task, looking at avoidance parameters (movement time and speed, distance to social stimulus, gaze behavior) during whole-body movements. These complex movements represent the most ecologically valid form of approach and avoidance behavior. These are at the core of complex and natural social behavior. With this newly developed task, the present study examined whether high socially anxious individuals differ in avoidance behavior when bypassing another person, here virtual humans with neutral and angry facial expressions. Results showed that virtual bystanders displaying angry facial expressions were generally avoided by all participants. In addition, high socially anxious participants generally displayed enhanced avoidance behavior towards virtual people, but no specifically exaggerated avoidance behavior towards virtual people with a negative facial expression. The newly developed virtual reality task proved to be an ecological valid tool for research on complex approach-avoidance behavior in social situations. The first results revealed that whole body approach-avoidance behavior relative to passive bystanders is modulated by their emotional facial expressions and that social anxiety generally amplifies such avoidance.
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