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A negativity bias in evaluative counter-conditioning.

Taylor Benedict¹, Jehan Sparks¹, Jasmin Richter²

¹Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology and Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

Cognition & Emotion

|December 11, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Evaluative counter-conditioning is more effective when positive stimuli are reversed to negative than vice versa. This study found no negativity bias in initial evaluative conditioning or memory effects.

Keywords:

Negativity bias attitude change evaluative conditioning

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Social Psychology

Background:

Evaluative conditioning involves pairing neutral stimuli with valenced stimuli.
Evidence for a negativity bias in evaluative conditioning is limited.
Negativity bias describes the tendency to react more strongly to negative stimuli.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate negativity bias in evaluative counter-conditioning.
To determine if counter-conditioning is asymmetric, favoring negativity.
To examine if memory differences explain potential biases.

Main Methods:

Three experiments (N=100, 362, 120) used evaluative conditioning followed by counter-conditioning.
Conditioned stimuli (CSs) were paired sequentially with positive and negative stimuli.
Effectiveness of reversing positive-to-negative vs. negative-to-positive conditioning was compared.

Main Results:

Counter-conditioning was more effective when positively conditioned CSs were subsequently negatively counter-conditioned.
No evidence of a negativity bias in initial evaluative conditioning was found.
Memory differences did not account for the observed asymmetry in counter-conditioning.

Conclusions:

A negativity bias exists in evaluative counter-conditioning, but not in initial evaluative conditioning.
The findings suggest an asymmetry in how valenced information is updated.
Implications for understanding emotional learning and cognitive biases are discussed.