Differences in facial expressions, cardiovascular activity, and self-reported levels of emotion between anxious and non-anxious people.

Stress and anxiety can play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Differences in peoples' behavioral, cardiovascular, and self-reported emotional reactions to an interpersonally challenging task were measured. Two groups, highly anxious people (n = 17) and less anxious people (n = 15) were defined by scores on the trait form of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. They then underwent two interview conditions. One condition was a non-challenging control interview (CI) and the other condition was the socially challenging favorable impressions interview (FI) (Borkovec et al., 1974). Analyses attempted to describe difference between highly anxious and less anxious participants' facial expressions, cardiovascular activity and self-reported experience of emotion. Self-reported emotional responses differed between high and low anxiety groups. There were also cardiovascular differences between high and low anxiety participants in their reactions to stressful tasks. Findings show that highlyanxious people tended to increase the intensity of their facial expressions during the stressful condition, whereas low anxious people did not change the intensity of their facial expressions between the interviews. These findings suggest that differences between high and low anxious people may provide useful information for identifying these individuals, which may be helpful in preventing later health problems.