Why is there no negativity bias in evaluative conditioning? A cognitive-ecological answer

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Learning and Memory
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Evaluative conditioning (EC) typically involves pairing a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to alter its evaluation.
• Existing research often suggests a negativity bias in learning, where negative information is prioritized.
• A reanalysis of meta-analytic EC data revealed no consistent negativity bias.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the cognitive-ecological factors influencing valence asymmetries in evaluative conditioning.
• To test the hypothesis that differential frequency of evaluative information underlies negativity biases.
• To explain the absence of negativity bias in typical EC experiments.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of existing meta-analytic EC data.
• Conducted five preregistered experiments (N=785) with laboratory and online participants.
• Manipulated the frequency of positive and negative unconditioned stimuli (USs) during conditioning.

Main Results:

• No negativity bias was observed when positive and negative USs were equally frequent.
• A negativity bias emerged when negative USs were rare.
• Positivity biases were observed when positive USs were rare.

Conclusions:

• Findings support a cognitive-ecological explanation for valence asymmetries in EC.
• The absence of negativity bias in EC experiments may be due to designs lacking ecological information structures.
• Valence asymmetries are influenced by the relative frequency of evaluative information encountered.