Wolf-Gero Lange | Radboud University Nijmegen (original) (raw)

Papers by Wolf-Gero Lange

Interacting with virtual reality agents (VR agents) becomes more and more common in the future. T... more Interacting with virtual reality agents (VR agents) becomes more and more common in the future. The present study investigated whether non-verbal mimicry leads to less resistance, and a more positive evaluation of the VR agent. Before evaluation of the VR agent, participants interacted with a VR agent which either mimicked or anti-mimicked their non-verbal behavior. Results showed that a mimicking VR agent was perceived as more convincing, and elicited less resistance. Possible explanations are discussed

Journal of Research on Adolescence, Feb 1, 2023

This study investigated the longitudinal bidirectional associations between likeability, populari... more This study investigated the longitudinal bidirectional associations between likeability, popularity, fear of negative evaluation, and social avoidance, to aid in preventing the negative consequences and persistent trajectories of low social status and heightened social anxiety. In total, 1741 adolescents in grades 7–9 participated at 3 yearly waves. A self‐report questionnaire measured fear of negative evaluation. Peer nominations assessed likeability, popularity, and social avoidance. Lower popularity predicted more avoidance, and vice versa. More avoidance was related to lower likeability over time. Being less popular and/or more liked by peers, increased fear of negative evaluation. Support for a transactional model between social anxiety and social status was found, but distinguishing different social status and social anxiety components is necessary.

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, May 31, 2023

Research Square (Research Square), Jan 27, 2023

Background: Threatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mech... more Background: Threatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mechanisms of childhood anxiety and aggression, respectively. However, it is unclear whether these interpretation biases are specific to distinct problems or whether they are general psychopathological phenomena. The specificity versus pervasiveness of interpretation biases could also differ depending on mental health status. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether social anxiety and callous-unemotional (CU) traits were uniquely related to threatening and hostile interpretation biases, respectively, in both a community and a clinical sample of adolescents. Methods: A total of 161 adolescents between 10 to 15 years of age participated. The community sample consisted of 88 participants and the clinical sample consisted of 73 inpatients with a variety of psychological disorders. Social anxiety and CU-traits were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Ambiguous Social Sce...

103rd Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC): Abstracts, 2020

Item does not contain fulltextMimicry is often labelled a 'social glue' between people. I... more Item does not contain fulltextMimicry is often labelled a 'social glue' between people. In this study, we explored if this notion is also true in human/non-human interactions. We tested if mimicry by a virtual agent leads to more concern about others, and changes concern about the self. Participants performed a photograph description task and were either mimicked or not. The results showed that being mimicked increased participants' orientation toward others but did not change their orientation toward self.AEJMC2020: 103rd Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (San Francisco, United States, 6-9 August 2020

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Background Cognitive biases are found to play a role in the onset and maintenance of social anxie... more Background Cognitive biases are found to play a role in the onset and maintenance of social anxiety. However, particularly in adolescence, the link between different biases and their role in predicting social anxiety is far from clear. This study therefore investigated the interplay between attention bias and interpretation bias in relation to social anxiety in adolescence across three years. Methods 816 adolescents in grade 7 to 9 participated at three yearly waves (52.8% boys, Mage grade7 = 12.60). Social anxiety was measured with a self-report questionnaire. Attention bias was measured with a visual search task with emotional faces. Textual vignettes assessed interpretation bias. Results Cross-lagged models showed that negative interpretation bias at grade 7 predicted an increase in social anxiety at grade 8. This effect was not found from grade 8 to 9. Attention bias did not predict social anxiety. Attention bias and interpretation bias were not longitudinally related to each ot...

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

This pre-registered study focused on developing a new social picture task to assess interpretatio... more This pre-registered study focused on developing a new social picture task to assess interpretation bias related to social fears in adolescents. Using such a pictorial task may increase ecological validity and readily trigger emotional processes compared to more traditional verbal tasks that are often used. In the picture task, ambiguous social pictures were presented, followed by a positive and negative interpretation. In this study, we examined how the new task relates to an already existing interpretation bias task and how the new pictorial task relates to social fears in adolescents. The sample consisted of 329 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Interpretation bias was assessed with the newly developed pictorial task and with more traditional verbal vignettes. Social fears were measured with self-report questionnaires. The results suggest that the pictorial task was able to assess interpretation bias comparable to the verbal vignettes, suggesting appropriate convergent validity. In...

Interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining factors of several childhood psychopatho... more Interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining factors of several childhood psychopathologies. Many studies show that threatening interpretations of ambiguous situations are related to anxiety, whereas hostile interpretations of ambiguous situations are related to aggression (see for reviews Stuijfzand et al., 2018; Verhoef et al., 2019). However, threatening and hostile thoughts have also been found to correlate with each other, as well as with both anxiety and aggression (Barrett et al., 1996; Bell-Dolan, 1995; Leung & Poon, 2001; Schniering & Rapee, 2004). This might suggest that these interpretation biases are not disorder-specific, but rather general psychopathological problems or even transdiagnostic mechanisms of internalizing and externalizing problems. It is challenging to disentangle symptoms and accompanying biases, though, given the high comorbidity rates of internalizing and externalizing problems in children (Achenbach et al., 2016). Recent research indicates...

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00205 To be or not to be threatening, but what was the question? Biased f... more doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00205 To be or not to be threatening, but what was the question? Biased face evaluation in social anxiety and depression depends on how you frame the query

Computers & Education, 2021

British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2021

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2020

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019

Social dysfunctions, such as social anxiety and psychopathy, largely influence an individual'... more Social dysfunctions, such as social anxiety and psychopathy, largely influence an individual's functioning and pose significant problems to the individual and society as a whole. Social anxiety is characterised by high levels of fear in social situations and avoidance behaviour, whereas psychopathy is defined by a lack of fear and aggressive behaviour. Social anxiety is the most common anxiety disorder (Kessler et al., 2005), whereas only 1% of the general population is affected by psychopathy (Coid et al., 2009). The same social situation triggers very different responses in those disorders. The link is possibly the way such a situation is interpreted. Yet, it has not been possible to compare socially anxious and socially callous interpretations due to a lack of paradigms. Using the same paradigm in order to disentangle interpretations of social situations would allow us to better understand the underlying mechanisms explaining why individuals feel and behave differently in the...

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

Interacting with virtual reality agents (VR agents) becomes more and more common in the future. T... more Interacting with virtual reality agents (VR agents) becomes more and more common in the future. The present study investigated whether non-verbal mimicry leads to less resistance, and a more positive evaluation of the VR agent. Before evaluation of the VR agent, participants interacted with a VR agent which either mimicked or anti-mimicked their non-verbal behavior. Results showed that a mimicking VR agent was perceived as more convincing, and elicited less resistance. Possible explanations are discussed

Journal of Research on Adolescence, Feb 1, 2023

This study investigated the longitudinal bidirectional associations between likeability, populari... more This study investigated the longitudinal bidirectional associations between likeability, popularity, fear of negative evaluation, and social avoidance, to aid in preventing the negative consequences and persistent trajectories of low social status and heightened social anxiety. In total, 1741 adolescents in grades 7–9 participated at 3 yearly waves. A self‐report questionnaire measured fear of negative evaluation. Peer nominations assessed likeability, popularity, and social avoidance. Lower popularity predicted more avoidance, and vice versa. More avoidance was related to lower likeability over time. Being less popular and/or more liked by peers, increased fear of negative evaluation. Support for a transactional model between social anxiety and social status was found, but distinguishing different social status and social anxiety components is necessary.

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, May 31, 2023

Research Square (Research Square), Jan 27, 2023

Background: Threatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mech... more Background: Threatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mechanisms of childhood anxiety and aggression, respectively. However, it is unclear whether these interpretation biases are specific to distinct problems or whether they are general psychopathological phenomena. The specificity versus pervasiveness of interpretation biases could also differ depending on mental health status. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether social anxiety and callous-unemotional (CU) traits were uniquely related to threatening and hostile interpretation biases, respectively, in both a community and a clinical sample of adolescents. Methods: A total of 161 adolescents between 10 to 15 years of age participated. The community sample consisted of 88 participants and the clinical sample consisted of 73 inpatients with a variety of psychological disorders. Social anxiety and CU-traits were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Ambiguous Social Sce...

103rd Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC): Abstracts, 2020

Item does not contain fulltextMimicry is often labelled a 'social glue' between people. I... more Item does not contain fulltextMimicry is often labelled a 'social glue' between people. In this study, we explored if this notion is also true in human/non-human interactions. We tested if mimicry by a virtual agent leads to more concern about others, and changes concern about the self. Participants performed a photograph description task and were either mimicked or not. The results showed that being mimicked increased participants' orientation toward others but did not change their orientation toward self.AEJMC2020: 103rd Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (San Francisco, United States, 6-9 August 2020

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Background Cognitive biases are found to play a role in the onset and maintenance of social anxie... more Background Cognitive biases are found to play a role in the onset and maintenance of social anxiety. However, particularly in adolescence, the link between different biases and their role in predicting social anxiety is far from clear. This study therefore investigated the interplay between attention bias and interpretation bias in relation to social anxiety in adolescence across three years. Methods 816 adolescents in grade 7 to 9 participated at three yearly waves (52.8% boys, Mage grade7 = 12.60). Social anxiety was measured with a self-report questionnaire. Attention bias was measured with a visual search task with emotional faces. Textual vignettes assessed interpretation bias. Results Cross-lagged models showed that negative interpretation bias at grade 7 predicted an increase in social anxiety at grade 8. This effect was not found from grade 8 to 9. Attention bias did not predict social anxiety. Attention bias and interpretation bias were not longitudinally related to each ot...

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

This pre-registered study focused on developing a new social picture task to assess interpretatio... more This pre-registered study focused on developing a new social picture task to assess interpretation bias related to social fears in adolescents. Using such a pictorial task may increase ecological validity and readily trigger emotional processes compared to more traditional verbal tasks that are often used. In the picture task, ambiguous social pictures were presented, followed by a positive and negative interpretation. In this study, we examined how the new task relates to an already existing interpretation bias task and how the new pictorial task relates to social fears in adolescents. The sample consisted of 329 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Interpretation bias was assessed with the newly developed pictorial task and with more traditional verbal vignettes. Social fears were measured with self-report questionnaires. The results suggest that the pictorial task was able to assess interpretation bias comparable to the verbal vignettes, suggesting appropriate convergent validity. In...

Interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining factors of several childhood psychopatho... more Interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining factors of several childhood psychopathologies. Many studies show that threatening interpretations of ambiguous situations are related to anxiety, whereas hostile interpretations of ambiguous situations are related to aggression (see for reviews Stuijfzand et al., 2018; Verhoef et al., 2019). However, threatening and hostile thoughts have also been found to correlate with each other, as well as with both anxiety and aggression (Barrett et al., 1996; Bell-Dolan, 1995; Leung & Poon, 2001; Schniering & Rapee, 2004). This might suggest that these interpretation biases are not disorder-specific, but rather general psychopathological problems or even transdiagnostic mechanisms of internalizing and externalizing problems. It is challenging to disentangle symptoms and accompanying biases, though, given the high comorbidity rates of internalizing and externalizing problems in children (Achenbach et al., 2016). Recent research indicates...

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00205 To be or not to be threatening, but what was the question? Biased f... more doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00205 To be or not to be threatening, but what was the question? Biased face evaluation in social anxiety and depression depends on how you frame the query

Computers & Education, 2021

British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2021

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2020

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019

Social dysfunctions, such as social anxiety and psychopathy, largely influence an individual'... more Social dysfunctions, such as social anxiety and psychopathy, largely influence an individual's functioning and pose significant problems to the individual and society as a whole. Social anxiety is characterised by high levels of fear in social situations and avoidance behaviour, whereas psychopathy is defined by a lack of fear and aggressive behaviour. Social anxiety is the most common anxiety disorder (Kessler et al., 2005), whereas only 1% of the general population is affected by psychopathy (Coid et al., 2009). The same social situation triggers very different responses in those disorders. The link is possibly the way such a situation is interpreted. Yet, it has not been possible to compare socially anxious and socially callous interpretations due to a lack of paradigms. Using the same paradigm in order to disentangle interpretations of social situations would allow us to better understand the underlying mechanisms explaining why individuals feel and behave differently in the...

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

[Chapter] Het Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatri... more [Chapter] Het Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000 [APA]) onderscheidt zeven angststoornissen: specifieke fobie,
paniekstoornis met of zonder agorafobie, agorafobie zonder geschiedenis van paniekstoornis, gegeneraliseerde angststoornis, obsessief-compulsieve stoornis, posttraumatische stressstoornis en sociale fobie (ofwel sociale angststoornis [SAS]). Maar ondanks de inhoudelijke verschillen tussen deze angststoornissen kan een onderliggende gemeenschappelijke basis gedestilleerd worden. Deze gemeenschappelijke basis wordt hier besproken om duidelijk te
maken dat een interactie van fysiologie en cognitie ooit evolutionair waardevol was en hoe fysiologie en cognitie nu samen de diverse vormen van pathologische angst kunnen
veroorzaken en instant houden. In dit hoofdstuk zullen de evolutionaire oorsprong, neurobiologische achtergrond en de invloed van cognitie op angst en angststoornissen plus het onderzoek hiernaar worden toegelicht.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate in how far differential processing of emotional faces i... more The aim of this thesis was to investigate in how far differential processing of emotional faces is mediated by the degree of social anxiety. Specifically, we addressed different facets of potentially biased cognitive processes such as visual attention, attentional disengagement, attentional narrowing, emotion recognition, eye movements, approach-avoidance behavior and explicit ratings. Cognitive theories and extensive experimental psychopathological research so far could only unequivocally evidence the extraordinary role of emotional (angry) facial expressions in the maintenance and maybe even etiology of social anxiety disorder. The results presented throughout this work give rise to the notion that emotional facial expressions, and especially angry faces, might play a prominent though not necessarily threat-related role in the face processing of socially anxious individuals. Based on our findings we suggested that angry faces are solely seen as unreasonably negative, and as such do not compellingly interfere with threat-related (covert) attentional processes. Although anxiety research still lacks a clear distinction between determinants of “threat-“ and “non-threat but negative” evaluations, it seems as if even angry faces are not intrinsically threatening to all socially anxious participants. If our assumptions about how threat evaluations influence cognitive processes and related behavior are correct, we have to assume that in our social anxious participants, angry faces are “only” evaluated as disproportionally negative. As a result, socially anxious individuals consistently show behaviors related to automatic negative evaluation or aversion such as avoidance tendencies. This does not necessarily imply that they display responses related to the presence of threat in the visual field such as diminished IOR or constriction of the attentional focus. Additionally, it has become evident that angry, but also happy facial expressions are evaluated differently from non-anxious controls, but only when responded to indirectly. Taken together, we conclude that in social anxiety, facial expressions such as anger and happiness may acquire, due to a general anxiety-prone genetic predisposition and learning history, a prominent negative evaluation. Such an evaluation eventually becomes automated and ignites aversion-related, reflex-like behavioral tendencies such as avoidance. These evaluative processes, however, do not tab into conscious face evaluation processes. It is very likely, though yet to be investigated, that such behavior is sensed by an interlocutor and interpreted on his part as rejection. Consequently, the interlocutor might behave more unfriendly or unsocially, which the socially anxious individual sees as fulfilling his or her own prophecy of social rejection.