Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2025
08:24
The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
735
Personal task choice attenuates implicit happiness effects on effort: A study on cardiovascular response
David Framorando1, Johanna R Falk1, Peter M Gollwitzer2
1Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Section of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Summary
Personal task choice can protect against negative emotions influencing cardiovascular responses during challenging tasks. This action shielding effect was observed in participants who chose their task, unlike those assigned one.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Cardiovascular Psychophysiology
Background:
- The Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort model suggests affect primes influence cardiovascular responses during challenging tasks.
- Action shielding, through personal task choice, can mitigate affective influences on action execution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if action shielding applies to affect primes' influence on cardiovascular responses.
- To examine the role of personal task choice in modulating affective impacts on physiological effort.
Main Methods:
- 136 participants completed a cognitive task with masked emotional facial expressions (sadness vs. happiness).
- Participants were randomly assigned to either choose their task (attention vs. memory) or be assigned one.
- Cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity were measured.
Main Results:
- Task choice significantly shielded participants from the implicit affective influence on cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP).
- Cardiovascular responses (PEP and SBP reactivity) aligned with effort expectations in a self-determined difficulty context.
- An affective influence on PEP was evident in the externally assigned task condition.
Conclusions:
- Personal task choice acts as a protective mechanism against implicit affect primes' influence on cardiovascular effort.
- Findings extend the action shielding concept to the regulation of physiological responses to affective stimuli.
- Self-determination in task selection can modulate psychophysiological responses to emotional primes.
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