INTERPRETATION OF HOMOPHONES RELATED TO THREAT - ANXIETY OR RESPONSE BIAS EFFECTS

Three studies investigated the relationship between anxiety, social desirability, and an interpretative bias favoring threat in nonclinical subjects. Interpretative bias was assessed with Mathews, Richards, and Eysenck's (1989) homophone task. In Study 1, the tendency to produce threatening interpretations Of ambiguous words was associated with lower social desirability, rather than anxiety. In Study 2, the interpretative bias measure correlated with trait anxiety, but not with social desirability. In Study 3, trait anxiety and social desirability had independent effects on interpretative bias, which were different in the first and second halves of the homophone task. The predicted effect of trait anxiety was only apparent in the first half of the task. Possible reasons for the discrepant results, and the importance of assessing the influence of social desirability on cognitive bias measures, are discussed.