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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 30, 2026

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Published on: September 12, 2014

Expectancy bias in anxious samples.

Cindy M Cabeleira¹, Shari A Steinman², Melissa M Burgess¹

¹Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)

|May 7, 2014

Summary

Anxious individuals show a less positive outlook on future events, particularly concerning physical worries. This cognitive bias, known as expectancy bias, may differ based on the situation and individual anxiety levels.

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Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults

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Published on: October 19, 2014

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Psychopathology

Background:

Anxious individuals often exhibit negative future expectations, a phenomenon termed expectancy bias.
The underlying cognitive mechanisms driving this expectancy bias remain incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the cognitive processes contributing to expectancy bias in anxiety.
To assess expectancy bias using the novel Expectancy Task in individuals with varying anxiety levels.

Main Methods:

The Expectancy Task was employed to evaluate future event expectations following exposure to valenced scenarios (positive, negative, or conflicting).
Study 1 involved 32 individuals categorized by trait anxiety (low vs. high).
Study 2 included 138 individuals assessed for anxiety sensitivity.

Main Results:

Both high trait anxious and anxiety-sensitive individuals demonstrated a less positive expectancy bias concerning physical concerns.
High trait anxious individuals exhibited a negative expectancy bias in social contexts only after encountering negative information.

Conclusions:

Anxious individuals generally display a less positive expectancy bias.
The cognitive processes underlying expectancy bias appear to be context-dependent, varying with situational type (social vs. physical) and individual anxiety characteristics.