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The Contribution of Negative Expectancies to Emotional Resilience
James Tough1, Ben Grafton1, Colin MacLeod1
1Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|April 26, 2025
Summary
Negative expectancy bias, a tendency to anticipate negative outcomes, is linked to anxiety reactivity and anxiety perseveration. Targeting this bias may enhance emotional resilience before and after stressful events.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Emotional Resilience
Background:
- Anxiety reactivity measures emotional resilience before stressful events and correlates with negative expectancy bias.
- Emotional resilience after events is less understood, with anxiety perseveration as a potential indicator.
Purpose of the Study:
- To replicate the correlation between negative expectancy bias and anxiety reactivity.
- To investigate the association between negative expectancy bias and anxiety perseveration.
- To explore negative expectancy bias as a factor in emotional resilience.
Main Methods:
- Undergraduate students chose between negative or benign information before a film.
- Anxiety and negative expectancy bias were measured before and after information access.
- Anxiety perseveration was assessed after viewing the film montage.
Main Results:
- Negative expectancy bias predicted anxiety reactivity.
- Negative expectancy bias indirectly predicted anxiety perseveration via perceived event negativity.
- Findings suggest a link between negative expectancy bias and emotional resilience.
Conclusions:
- Negative expectancy bias is associated with both anxiety reactivity and perseveration.
- Interventions targeting negative expectancy bias may improve emotional resilience.
- Further research is needed to confirm these findings and explore therapeutic applications.
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