Racially invariant stimuli may bias outcomes in assessment of emotion processing.
Psychol Addict Behav
; 36(5): 499-504, 2022 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34410755
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Difficulties identifying emotional facial expressions are commonly observed in alcohol use disorder (AUD). Critically, this work utilizes single-race stimulus sets, although study samples are not similarly constrained. This is particularly concerning given evidence among community samples showing the impact of racial incongruity, giving rise to interpretative caveats.METHOD:
Community controls (n = 55, 12 Black) and individuals with AUD (n = 46, 9 Black) completed a two-choice emotion judgment task. A similar nonaffective sex judgment task was employed as a covariate. Repeated measures mixed-model analyses were conducted with race, AUD status (AUD vs. control), and their interaction as fixed effects. Accuracy and reaction time (RT) were primary dependent measures. A post hoc analysis was conducted on efficiency (accuracy/RT).RESULTS:
In addition to lower accuracy by individuals with AUD (p = .02), Black participants were less accurate than White participants (p = .0001) overall. Significant interactions between race and AUD were also detected for accuracy (p = .002), RT (p = .05), and efficiency (p = .01), wherein Black participants with AUD identified emotional expressions most poorly. This latter finding suggests that AUD-associated differences may be biased under racial incongruity.CONCLUSION:
Taken together, these preliminary findings do not reflect a deficit among Black respondents. Instead, our results reflect the need for greater attention to stimulus diversity and sensitivity to respondent demographics in emotion-processing examinations. Given the purported role of emotion processing in alcohol-related problems and the increase in racial minority representation in the U.S., elucidating these differences remains critical. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Álcool
/
Alcoolismo
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article