The effect of simulated threat on task performance during emotion recognition

Abstract

Being able to de-escalate aggressive behavior during face-to-face interactions is an important skill for employees in a variety of domains. To do this effectively, employees should learn to recognize the emotional state of their conversation partner. However, this task can be seriously hindered by the stress triggered by the aggressive encounter. To gain more insight in the impact of threat on task performance during emotion recognition, 30 participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task using pictures of virtual characters. Each participant performed the task two times, once under normal circumstances, and once in a 'stress' condition in which threatening stimuli were presented whenever a wrong answer was given. Additionally, all 30 participants performed a second, mathematical task, also under a normal and a 'stress' condition. Counterbalancing was used to control for order effects. The results indicate that there was a negative impact of the (simulated) threat on performance in the emotion recognition task, but not in the mathematical task. In follow-up research, these results will be used to develop an adaptive serious game for public service workers, with which they can train their aggression de-escalation skills in a personalized manner.