Does natural disaster exposure affect interpersonal interactions? Threat appraisal bias, emotion recognition alterations and trustworthiness in survivors of natural disasters.

Abstract

Natural disasters have occurred since the beginning of time. However, with the growth of civilizations and increase in population, as well as the effects of climate change, the number of people affected by these disasters is rising. It is important to understand how these events can affect survivors in the long-term. These disasters could lead to changes in the way survivors perceive others and could affect their emotional recognition ability and their perceptions of interpersonal threats. My study, conducted in Trujillo, Peru, explored how natural disasters affect interpersonal perceptions. The study had 110 participants and investigated whether experiencing natural disasters changes how people perceive threats, recognize emotions, and trust others. The study used a variety of methods, including questionnaires, emotion recognition tasks, and physiological arousal measures. The results showed that exposure to natural disasters was linked to increased PTSD symptoms. The study also found a significant relationship between PTSD symptom severity and emotion recognition accuracy, with higher PTSD symptoms predicting poorer emotion recognition. Interestingly, emotion recognition bias was towards fearful expressions and generated an increased threat perception towards this emotion. This study provides valuable insights into the long-term psychological effects of natural disasters. It highlights the need for a better understanding of the possible outcomes this type of traumatic event might generate for the increasing number of affected individuals.