Smile judgment in substance use disorders and its relationship to interpersonal and emotional functioning: an eye-tracking investigation

Abstract

The current study explored the judgments individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) make regarding the authenticity of enjoyment smile expressions and masking smile expressions containing traces of negative emotions. Accuracy at identifying the masked negative emotions were also examined. Eye-movements were recorded to observe relationships between attentional processes and smile judgment. Additionally, the relationship between smile judgment, emotion dysregulation, and interpersonal problems were also investigated. Twenty individuals with SUDs being treated from a local treatment center and twenty individuals matched on gender/age participated in the smile judgment task, which involved a smile expression characteristic of enjoyment and six smile expressions containing traces of either fear, disgust, anger in eyes, anger in mouth, sadness in eyes, and sadness in mouth. Results indicated that individuals with SUDs were no different in their categorization of the smiles. The lack of difference may be due to their previously observed biases at interpreting expressions as negative, as the results indicated that individuals with SUDs were significantly more likely to report the presence of negative emotions in the expressions. They were also more often incorrect in their identification of the masked emotions. No link was observed between smile judgment and attentional processes. Emotional and interpersonal functioning were related more to the ability to distinguish smile authenticity than the ability to identify masked emotions.