Facial expressions are important threat cues that can induce attentional biases, particularly among anxious individuals, facilitating precautionary behaviour. However, no study has assessed earthquake victims for attentional bias related to emotional facial expressions. In this study, we set out to bridge this gap by testing biases for emotional facial expressions in relation to psychopathological symptoms in a group of victims of the 2009 L’Aquila (Italy) earthquake. In a between-subjects design, 14 earthquake victims and 14 controls completed an exogenous cueing task to assess attentional biases in respect of seven facial expressions (happy, sad, angry, disgust, surprise, fearful and neutral). In each trial, one face was briefly presented on the right or left side of the screen as a cue and was followed by a target (a small dot). Participants had to indicate the position of the target shown on the same side as the emotional face (valid trials) or the opposite side (invalid trials). MANOVA performed on the engagement and disengagement scores demonstrated that earthquake victims and controls differed only in the engagement scores for fearful expression. Moreover, single-sample t-tests demonstrated that victims showed attentional avoidance of both fearful and happy expressions. Finally, in earthquake victims, avoidance of fearful expressions negatively correlated with anxiety-related cognitive concerns. Although the results are preliminary, we provide evidence of attentional avoidance of emotional faces among earthquake victims that is present years after the traumatic event. Cognitive mechanisms underlying such a bias and their implications are discussed.

面部表情是重要的威胁提示，可以引起注意偏见，尤其是在焦虑的人群中，有助于预防行为。但是，没有研究评估地震受害者与情绪面部表情有关的注意偏见。在这项研究中，我们着手测试2009年拉奎拉（意大利）地震受害者的心理面部表情与心理病理症状相关的偏见，以弥合这一差距。在受试者之间的设计中，14位地震受害者和14位控制人员完成了一项外部提示任务，以评估针对七个面部表情（开心，悲伤，愤怒，厌恶，惊讶，恐惧和中立）的注意偏见。在每项试验中，屏幕的右侧或左侧都会短暂地出现一张脸作为提示，然后跟随一个目标（一个小圆点）。参与者必须指出目标的位置与情感面孔在同一侧（有效试验）或在另一侧（无效试验）。MANOVA对参与度和脱离度得分进行的分析表明，地震受害者和控制者的参与度得分仅因恐惧表达而有所不同。此外，单样本t检验表明受害者表现出注意避免恐惧和快乐的表情。最后，在地震受害者中，避免恐惧表达与焦虑相关的认知问题负相关。尽管结果是初步的，但我们提供了在创伤事件发生后数年内避免地震受害者注意避免情绪表情的证据。讨论了这种偏见及其潜在含义的认知机制。