Dynamic negativity effects in emotional responding: Onsets, peaks, and influences from repetition

Emotional responses to aversive stimuli may be more mandatory than emotional responses to appetitive stimuli, and extant theorizing suggests that negative reactions may be more peaked at maximum intensity. Parameters of this type were investigated within two experiments (total N = 198) in which emotional images were presented and re-presented as participants indicated their moment-to-moment feeling changes in response to both appetitive and aversive images. Negative emotional reactions were more detectable, with more definitive onsets and peaks, and peak amplitudes were systematically higher in the context of aversive stimuli. Furthermore, stimulus repetition enhanced negative emotional responding in terms of both faster onset times and more pronounced peak amplitudes. Although behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition motivation modulated the emotional onset and peak reactivity metrics, such individual differences did not interact with the repetition effects that were observed. These results highlight several dynamic negativity effects that distinguish positive versus negative emotional reactivity processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).