Itude of social information [1]. Eye contact is an important non-verbal signal in social interactions, e.g. it influences the degree of perceived intimacy and dominance, and it influences the perception of a person’s social competence [2]. Direct eye-contact is known to facilitate emotion recognition from facial expressions [3]. Fear and avoidance of eye-to-eye contact is a frequently reported clinical RG7666 web symptom of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). One explanation for reduced eye gaze in SAD relates to the need to avoid a possible source of threat, as the eyes convey socially evaluative information [4]. From an evolutionary perspective, gaze avoidance in SAD could be an adaptive behavior to avoid competition or social threat related to expected scrutiny [5?]. Since individuals with SAD tend to perceive themselves as inferior, they are less motivated to compete with others, and are more likely to appease their counterpart by avoiding direct eye-contact, thereby expressing submissiveness [5,7,8]. In using systematic observer ratings, some studies indeed reported inadequate eye contact in SAD TAK-385 manufacturer compared to healthy controls [9?1]. The largest effects were found under conditions involving social evaluative threat and interactions with the opposite sex [10]. Another set of studies used eye tracking to measure gaze behavior in SAD and reported reduced fixations on the faces’ eye region, while the strongest effects were fpsyg.2016.01503 detected for faces expressing negative emotions [4,12,13]. Symptom severity in SAD is associated with gaze avoidance [4,13,14], and gaze avoidance is associated with self-reported negative affect fpsyg.2016.01448 [8]. However, several other studies could not replicate these findings [15,16]. Despite this growing evidence for reduced eye gaze in SAD relying on objective experimental data, less is known about the subjective experience of eye contact in SAD. Schneier et al. [17] recently published the Gaze Aversion Rating Scale (GARS) as a self-report measure of fear and avoidance of eye gaze. Preliminary results demonstrate good reliability of the GARS and support the hypothesis that patients with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) report significantly higher levels of fear and avoidance of eye gaze in various social situations than matched healthy controls. A follow-up study employing a factor analysis of GARS ratings distinguished two categories of social situations assessed with the GARS: (1) everyday social situations and (2) those characterized by social threat or interactions with dominant others [18]. We aimed in this study to assess the psychometric properties of the German translation of the GARS (its reliability, convergent and discriminant validity), to replicate the factorial structure of the GARS, and to further assess self-reported fear and avoidance of eye gaze in a sample of socially anxious individuals and matched healthy controls.Methods ParticipantsThe first sample of participants for evaluating reliability and factorial structure of the GARS comprised n = 353 adults recruited via local on-campus advertising. This sample mainly comprised students (n = 234; 66.3 ), and employees from different professions (n = 89; 27.1 ) aged a mean 29.4 years (+/- s.d. = 10.9; min-max = 18?8 years). About two-thirds of the sample were women (n = 216; 61.2 ) and most had higher education (n = 301; 85.3 ). Psychology students were excluded, as were participants reporting a lifetime history of mental illness or current severe somatic illness. To d.Itude of social information [1]. Eye contact is an important non-verbal signal in social interactions, e.g. it influences the degree of perceived intimacy and dominance, and it influences the perception of a person’s social competence [2]. Direct eye-contact is known to facilitate emotion recognition from facial expressions [3]. Fear and avoidance of eye-to-eye contact is a frequently reported clinical symptom of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). One explanation for reduced eye gaze in SAD relates to the need to avoid a possible source of threat, as the eyes convey socially evaluative information [4]. From an evolutionary perspective, gaze avoidance in SAD could be an adaptive behavior to avoid competition or social threat related to expected scrutiny [5?]. Since individuals with SAD tend to perceive themselves as inferior, they are less motivated to compete with others, and are more likely to appease their counterpart by avoiding direct eye-contact, thereby expressing submissiveness [5,7,8]. In using systematic observer ratings, some studies indeed reported inadequate eye contact in SAD compared to healthy controls [9?1]. The largest effects were found under conditions involving social evaluative threat and interactions with the opposite sex [10]. Another set of studies used eye tracking to measure gaze behavior in SAD and reported reduced fixations on the faces’ eye region, while the strongest effects were fpsyg.2016.01503 detected for faces expressing negative emotions [4,12,13]. Symptom severity in SAD is associated with gaze avoidance [4,13,14], and gaze avoidance is associated with self-reported negative affect fpsyg.2016.01448 [8]. However, several other studies could not replicate these findings [15,16]. Despite this growing evidence for reduced eye gaze in SAD relying on objective experimental data, less is known about the subjective experience of eye contact in SAD. Schneier et al. [17] recently published the Gaze Aversion Rating Scale (GARS) as a self-report measure of fear and avoidance of eye gaze. Preliminary results demonstrate good reliability of the GARS and support the hypothesis that patients with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) report significantly higher levels of fear and avoidance of eye gaze in various social situations than matched healthy controls. A follow-up study employing a factor analysis of GARS ratings distinguished two categories of social situations assessed with the GARS: (1) everyday social situations and (2) those characterized by social threat or interactions with dominant others [18]. We aimed in this study to assess the psychometric properties of the German translation of the GARS (its reliability, convergent and discriminant validity), to replicate the factorial structure of the GARS, and to further assess self-reported fear and avoidance of eye gaze in a sample of socially anxious individuals and matched healthy controls.Methods ParticipantsThe first sample of participants for evaluating reliability and factorial structure of the GARS comprised n = 353 adults recruited via local on-campus advertising. This sample mainly comprised students (n = 234; 66.3 ), and employees from different professions (n = 89; 27.1 ) aged a mean 29.4 years (+/- s.d. = 10.9; min-max = 18?8 years). About two-thirds of the sample were women (n = 216; 61.2 ) and most had higher education (n = 301; 85.3 ). Psychology students were excluded, as were participants reporting a lifetime history of mental illness or current severe somatic illness. To d.