The unique cognitive and attentional biases in the anxious reaction to cyberterrorism

1. By Violet Cheung-Blunden and JiarunJu University of San Francisco The unique cognitive and attentional biases in the anxious reaction to cyberterrorism

2. Outline • four criteria of terrorism • the last criterion • two empirical studies

3. Crenshaw’s (2010) four criteria • Terrorism is manifested in acts of social and politically unacceptable violence. • There is a consistent pattern of symbolic or representative selection of victims or targets. • Terrorism is part of a revolutionary strategy – a method used by insurgents to seize political power from an existing government. Cheung-Blunden, V. & Blunden (in press). Cyber-terrorism: Fear, anger and anxiety as agents of change, In T. Walters et al. (Eds.) Radicalization, Terrorism, and Conflict. Cambridge Scholars Press: Cambridge: UK.

4. A set of actions are used by the movement to create a psychological effect on specific groups in order to change their political behavior and attitudes.

5. What psychological effect and why? fear • flight, comply anger • retaliate, counter attack anxiety • ? Cheung-Blunden, V., & Blunden, B. (2008a) Paving the road to war with group membership, appraisal antecedents and anger. Aggressive Behavior, 34, 175-189.. Cheung-Blunden, V., & Blunden, B. (2008b). The emotional construal of war: Anger, fear, and other negative emotions. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 14, 123-150.

6. The behavioral outcomes of anxiety • hypervigilance(Helbig-Lang & Petermann, 2010) • other safety behaviors, e.g. risk avoidance, prevention, checking, threat elimination (Helbig-Lang & Petermann, 2010; Maner, 2006) • cost insensitivity – better safe than sorry (DeKay et al., 2009)

7. What psychological effect and why? fear • flight, comply, hide anger • retaliate, counter attack anxiety • hypervigilance, surveillance etc. Cheung-Blunden, V. & Blunden (in press). Cyber-terrorism: Fear, anger and anxiety as agents of change, In T. Walters et al. (Eds.) Radicalization, Terrorism, and Conflict. Cambridge Scholars Press: Cambridge: UK.

8. Symptoms of anxiety • unrealistic worry and the inability to control it (McLaughlin et al., 2007) • increased tension, nervousness and stress • physically and mentally exhausting • abnormal attention focus and poor cognitive processing

9. Cognitive biases of anxiety Cognitive Interference Theory (CIT) • anxiety impairs information processing because worry introduces task irrelevant thoughts that highjack cognitive resources (Sarason, 1988) • same impairment was found when worry or anxiety were activated (Cheie & Visu-Petra, 2012; Watts & Weems, 2006)

10. Attention biases of anxiety Attention Control Theory (ACT) • greater activation in the ventrolateral and prefrontal cortex during recall of words (Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007; Fales et al., 2008) • poorer attention control

11. faster latencies or vigilance to threats (Cheie & Visu-Petra, 2012) • two stage vigilance-avoidance model was proposed (Mogg et al., 2004)

12. Hypotheses H1: Anxiety is a unique emotion in its ability to cause cognitive deficits. H2: The deficit is more pronounced for details that appear towards the end of the news story.

13. Study 1 • A cross sectional study of 155 college students (M = 19.3 years, SD = 1.6 years) • Demographics, multimedia news report of an incident of cyber terrorism, 9 multiple choice questions to gauge levels of understanding , State Anxiety (Spielberger, et al.,1983), State Anger (Forgays et al., 1997), State Fear (written for present study) scales

14. Results • Results showed that anxiety was a significant predictor (r(147)=-.24, p=.009) for poor information processing, while anger (r(145)=-.14, p=.135) and fear (r(144)=-.13, p=.177) were not.

15. In terms of time course, anxiety showed significant negative correlations with the number of correct answers to the last three multiple choice questions (r(147)=-.24, p=.009) and the middle three questions (r(147)=-.22, p=.013), but not with the first three questions (r(147)=-.05, p=.580).

16. Study 2 • An experiment with 392 American adults between 18 and 75 years of age (M = 34.7 years, SD = 12.4 years) • Demographics, mood manipulation procedure (Lerner et al., 2003; Ruscio & Borkovec, 2004) • Multimedia news report, 9 multiple choice questions • First set of manipulation check included State Anxiety (Spielberger, et al.,1983a), State Anger (Forgays et al., 1997), State Fear (written for present study) scales • Second set of manipulation check was single items of a range of emotions

17. Table 1. Factor loadings of the emotion items on a rotated component matrix Results

18. Cont’d

19. Cont’d

21. Time course was not apparent - participants in the experimental group were less accurate in recalling details from the middle segment of the news story (t(390)=-1.98, p=.049), but the two groups were marginally different when recalling details from the first (t(390)=-1.66, p=.097) and last segments (t(390)=-1.76, p=.079).

22. Conclusions • Anxiety seems unique in its ability to cause information deficit • A 3-minute stimulus may be enough to elicit the time-course effect

23. General implications • Given that anxiety obscures threat analysis and prompts inappropriate responses, the emotional reaction must be kept in check. • Sensational news reporting (of threats) fuels anxiety which then prevents the absorption of information. • Fomenting anxiety must be avoided in democratic decision-making where an informed public is vital to policy debates. Blunden, B.& Cheung-Blunden, V. Cyberwar:Hyperbole and Reality.

24. References • American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revision). Washington, DC: Author • Britton, J. C., Lissek, S., Grillon, C., Norcross, M. A., & Pine, D. S. (2011). Development of anxiety: The role of threat appraisal and fear learning. Depression and Anxiety, 28(1), 5-17. doi:10.1002/da.20733 • Cheung-Blunden, V. & Blunden, B. (2008). The emotional construct of war: Anger, fear and other negative emotions. Peace and Conflict, 14, 123-149. doi: 10.1080/10781910802017289 • Dekay, M.L., Patino-Echeverri, D., & Fishbeck, P.S.(2009). Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 22, 338-361. doi: 10.1002/bdm.630 • Helbig-Lang, S., & Petermann, F. (2010). Tolerate or eliminate? A systematic review on the effects of safety behavior across anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 17(3), 218-233. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.2010.01213.x • Kvaal, K., Laake, K., & Engedal, K. (2001). Psychometric properties of the state part of the Spielberger State- Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in geriatric patients. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16, 980-986. doi: 10.1002/gps.458 • Mennin, D. S., McLaughlin, K. A., & Flanagan, T. J. (2009). Emotion regulation deficits in generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and their co-occurrence. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23(7), 866-871. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.04.006 • Stapinski, L. A., Abbott, M. J., & Rapee, R. M. (2010). Fear and perceived uncontrollability of emotion: Evaluating the unique contribution of emotion appraisal variables to prediction of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48(11), 1097-1104. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.07.012 • Sylvers, P., Lilienfeld, S. O., & LaPrairie, J. L. (2010). Differences between trait fear and trait anxiety: Implications for psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.08.004 • Wegman, C. (1987). Emotion and argumentation in expressions of opinion. Cognitive Perspectives on Emotion and Motivation Dordrecht Netherlands. Kluwer Academy Publishers.