Reflecting on Existential Threats Elicits Self-Reported Negative Affect but No Physiological Arousal

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Existential Psychology

Background:

• Mixed evidence exists regarding whether existential threats increase negative affect and arousal.
• Systematic comparisons of arousal responses to different existential and non-existential threats are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore affective, subjective, and physiological arousal responses to various existential threats compared to a non-existential threat and a control condition.
• To systematically compare arousal responses across different threat types.

Main Methods:

• 171 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to mortality salience, freedom restriction, uncontrollability, uncertainty, social-evaluative threat, or a TV salience control condition.
• Measured self-reported positive/negative affect pre- and post-reflection.
• Measured subjective arousal and physiological activation (electrodermal, cardiovascular, respiratory) during baseline and reflection.

Main Results:

• All existential threat conditions showed increased negative affect compared to the control.
• No significant differences were found in positive affect, subjective arousal, skin conductance, respiratory rate, or respiratory sinus arrythmia between threat and control conditions.
• Subtle differences in affective responses were observed between existential and non-existential threat conditions.

Conclusions:

• Reflecting on existential threats significantly impacts negative affect but not positive affect, subjective arousal, or physiological activation compared to a control.
• Trait avoidance positively correlated with subjective arousal.
• This study provides the first systematic comparison of arousal responses to diverse existential and non-existential threats.