Greater attention to trauma-related information in refugees

This study examined emotional Stroop interference and attentional processing in refugees using an Emotional Stroop Task. The final analysed sample comprised 42 refugees and 39 non-refugees in the United Kingdom, who completed the task alongside the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Refugees reported significantly higher levels of trauma-related stress compared to non-refugees. To control for baseline differences in response speed, interference scores were calculated by subtracting reaction times in neutral conditions from emotional conditions. Results showed that refugees exhibited significantly greater emotional Stroop interference than non-refugees, particularly for refugee-specific negative stimuli. No group differences were observed in neutral-condition reaction times. These findings suggest heightened emotional interference and altered attentional processing for emotionally salient information in refugees. The results highlight the cognitive impact of trauma and underscore the importance of further research on attentional processing in this population.