The study investigates attentional bias for threat in anxiety, focusing on delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Three experiments were conducted to explore how valence (neutral, happy, angry) of facial cues influences attentional effects and how trait anxiety affects attentional dwell-time on emotional stimuli. Experiment 1 found that high trait anxious participants took longer to respond to targets on invalid trials when the cue was angry or happy, compared to neutral. Experiment 2 showed that angry face cues reduced the inhibition of return (IOR) effect, which is typically slower responses on valid trials. Experiment 3 found that threat-related and jumbled facial stimuli reduced the magnitude of IOR for high trait anxious participants but not for low trait anxious ones. These results suggest that attentional bias in anxiety may reflect difficulty in disengaging from threat-related stimuli, and that threat-related cues can influence the magnitude of the IOR effect. The study also highlights that state anxiety, rather than trait anxiety, was a stronger predictor of increased dwell-time on threat-related stimuli. The findings support the idea that attentional mechanisms are closely linked to fear processing, and that anxious individuals may be particularly sensitive to threat-related stimuli. The results have implications for understanding the role of attention in anxiety disorders and the mechanisms underlying attentional bias.The study investigates attentional bias for threat in anxiety, focusing on delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Three experiments were conducted to explore how valence (neutral, happy, angry) of facial cues influences attentional effects and how trait anxiety affects attentional dwell-time on emotional stimuli. Experiment 1 found that high trait anxious participants took longer to respond to targets on invalid trials when the cue was angry or happy, compared to neutral. Experiment 2 showed that angry face cues reduced the inhibition of return (IOR) effect, which is typically slower responses on valid trials. Experiment 3 found that threat-related and jumbled facial stimuli reduced the magnitude of IOR for high trait anxious participants but not for low trait anxious ones. These results suggest that attentional bias in anxiety may reflect difficulty in disengaging from threat-related stimuli, and that threat-related cues can influence the magnitude of the IOR effect. The study also highlights that state anxiety, rather than trait anxiety, was a stronger predictor of increased dwell-time on threat-related stimuli. The findings support the idea that attentional mechanisms are closely linked to fear processing, and that anxious individuals may be particularly sensitive to threat-related stimuli. The results have implications for understanding the role of attention in anxiety disorders and the mechanisms underlying attentional bias.