An incredible whirlwind of activity occurred in Washington amidst two weeks of holidays, and the happy result was an avoidance of the so-called fiscal cliff.
Hence, in future studies larger sample sizes are required to reliably detect associations between childhood maltreatment and avoidance of happy facial expressions.
For SMs in the highest-BDI group, happy faces evoked more avoidance tendencies than angry faces, t(42) = 2.65, P < .05, as well as sad faces, t(42) = 2.04, P < .05.05
That ambivalence — an avoidance of the purely happy ending — is another thing that characterized the Australian new wave, and it gives the series a weight that compensates for some wide variations in quality.
Indeed, Seidel et al. [26] have recently performed a well-controlled study of motor tendencies (approach and avoidance) in response to happy, sad, angry, and disgusted faces.
While the immediate impetus is risk avoidance, the better reason is happier customers and enhanced trust in the brand.
The avoidance group visualized being in a happy place, far away from the bully; in effect, they distracted themselves with positive thoughts.
Moreover, avoidance-approach paradigms have been utilized measuring the automatic action tendency responses to facial expressions while participants were instructed to avoid angry and approach happy faces14.
"People are not at all happy – particularly as it tars them with the tax avoidance brush," he said.
One may hypothesize that specifically the avoidance of positive social information (e.g., happy faces) by vulnerable sad individuals is a maladaptive automatic tendency which could be one of the determinants of the eventual development of depression.
