Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Anxiety: Overview

Anxiety: Overview

Anxiety is a common mental disorder featuring excessive worry, fear, and apprehension, significantly affecting daily life. People with anxiety disorders experience persistent and intense anxiety, interrupting their everyday functioning.
Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.

The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic

The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic

In order to make good decisions, we use our knowledge and our reasoning. Often, this knowledge and reasoning is sound and solid. However, sometimes, we are swayed by biases or by others manipulating a situation. For example, let’s say you and three friends wanted to rent a house and had a combined target budget of $1,600. The realtor shows you only very run-down houses for $1,600 and then shows you a very nice house for $2,000. Might you ask each person to pay more in rent to get the...

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic condition characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry that persists for at least six months, significantly interfering with daily functioning. Unlike situational anxiety, which arises in response to specific stressors, GAD often occurs without a clear cause. Individuals may experience disproportionate worry about work, health, or relationships. For instance, a person might continuously fear poor health despite normal medical evaluations or...

Psychological Responses to Stress

Psychological Responses to Stress

Psychological responses to stress encompass the various cognitive and emotional reactions individuals experience when faced with challenging or threatening situations, such as a job loss. Prolonged exposure to stressors can disturb emotional balance, increasing negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and sadness) and diminishing positive emotions (e.g., joy and satisfaction). These persistent emotional shifts are associated with an increased risk of both physical illness and mental health issues, such...

The Availability Heuristic

The Availability Heuristic

A heuristic is a general problem-solving framework (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). You can think of these as mental shortcuts that are used to solve problems. Different types of heuristics are used in different types of situations, and the impulse to use a heuristic occurs when one of five conditions is met (Pratkanis, 1989):

Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent and sudden minutes-long episodes of intense fear, known as panic attacks. These attacks may feel like heart attacks and often happen without warning or a specific cause. They can include symptoms such as rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, chest pain, trembling, sweating, dizziness, and a sense of helplessness. During a panic attack, individuals may feel as though they are experiencing a heart attack or are in a...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

A reporting checklist for large language models in behavioural science.

Nature human behaviour·2026

Same author

Contributions of insula and superior temporal sulcus to interpersonal guilt and responsibility in social decisions.

eLife·2026

Same author

Rethinking misinformation through plausibility estimation and confidence calibration.

Communications psychology·2026

Same author

Information uncertainty influences learning strategy from sequentially delayed rewards.

PLoS computational biology·2026

Same author

Estimating the effect size of moral contagion in online networks: A pre-registered replication and meta-analysis.

PNAS nexus·2025

Same author

Variability and stability of autistic traits in the general population: A systematic comparison between online and in-lab samples.

Personality neuroscience·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance

Published on: July 19, 2017

Anxiety increases information-seeking in response to large changes.

Caroline J Charpentier^1,2, Irene Cogliati Dezza^3,4,5, Valentina Vellani^3,4

¹Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ccharpen@caltech.edu.

Scientific Reports

|May 5, 2022

Summary

Anxiety does not increase general information seeking but amplifies seeking information during significant environmental changes. This may help anxious individuals adapt to challenging situations.

More Related Videos

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

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Published on: September 16, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance

Published on: July 19, 2017

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

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Published on: September 16, 2015

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Behavioral Science

Background:

Information seeking can alleviate uncertainty and guide decisions.
Anxiety can influence information gathering, with potentially beneficial or detrimental outcomes.
Previous research suggests anxiety may alter information-seeking behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether anxiety globally increases information seeking or selectively alters information-seeking patterns.
To determine if anxiety influences the type or context of information sought.
To explore the adaptive role of information seeking in anxious individuals.

Main Methods:

Two controlled laboratory experiments were conducted.
Trait anxiety and induced anxiety were measured and manipulated.
Information-seeking behavior was assessed in response to varying environmental changes.

Main Results:

Anxiety did not increase the overall tendency to seek information.
The valence (positive or negative) of information sought was not altered by anxiety.
Anxiety significantly amplified information seeking in response to large environmental changes, irrespective of the anxiety's cause.

Conclusions:

Anxiety selectively alters information-seeking, prioritizing information during periods of significant environmental flux.
This heightened information seeking in changing environments may serve as an adaptive compensatory mechanism for individuals with anxiety.
Understanding these anxiety-driven information-seeking patterns is crucial for developing targeted interventions.