Action Tendencies Research Articles

The attenuation of spider avoidance action tendencies in spider-fearful individuals and its impact on explicit evaluation of spider stimuli

Researchers have demonstrated that individuals with heightened levels of spider-fear, as compared to relatively lower levels of spider-fear, are characterised a pattern of action tendencies that facilitates the speed to complete ‘avoidance’ movements, as compared to ‘approach movements, in the face of spider-stimuli. However, research has not determined whether such tendencies are able to be manipulated, and the impact of their manipulation, in individuals with heightened spider-fear. Seventy-one participants who reported relatively high levels of spider-fear completed an action tendency manipulation procedure. The procedure was designed to attenuate avoidance action tendencies, by repeatedly requiring completion of approach actions in response to images of spiders (Approach Spider Condition), or to have no impact on action tendencies (Control Condition). Participants completed an assessment of approach and avoidance action tendencies to images of spiders and butterflies, and rated the unpleasantness and disgust of images of spiders and butterflies, before and after completion of the manipulation procedure. Analyses revealed that avoidance action tendencies to spider stimuli were attenuated in the Approach Spider Condition as compared to the Control Condition as intended. However, conditions did not differ in the evaluation of spider stimuli following the manipulation procedure. The findings demonstrate that avoidance action tendencies to spider stimuli can be manipulated amongst individuals with heightened spider-fear, though their manipulation does not lead to change in explicit evaluation of spider stimuli. The implications of these findings and avenues for future research are discussed.

Hate: Toward understanding its distinctive features across interpersonal and intergroup targets.

Is hate fundamentally different from other negative emotions? Despite a fair amount of theorizing about hate, there is little empirical evidence that helps to answer this basic question. The present research examines how people construe interpersonal and intergroup hate and provides an empirical analysis of how hate is conceptually different from dislike, anger, contempt, and disgust. In five preregistered studies, using exploratory (Pilot Study) and confirmatory (Studies 1, and 2a through 2c) within-subjects designs, we asked adult participants in the United States (Ntotal = 1,074) to describe examples of their interpersonal and intergroup targets of hate, dislike, anger, contempt, and disgust. We assessed their subjective experiences of each emotion by measuring the associated intensity, duration, arousal, valence, perceived threats, and action tendencies. Across studies, results revealed that participants feel consistently more emotionally aroused, personally threatened, and inclined toward attack-oriented behaviors when experiencing hate as compared with dislike, anger, contempt and disgust toward interpersonal targets. At the intergroup level, results revealed that participants experience hate as more arousing than the three moral emotions, more intense than dislike, anger and contempt, and feel more inclined toward attack-oriented behaviors than when they feel dislike and contempt. Results are in line with a general pattern of increasing differentiation suggesting that hate is conceptually closer to disgust and contempt than to anger and dislike. We discuss the specific differences and similarities between hate and these emotions across targets and their implications for future research on hate and negative emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Putting the past into action: How historical narratives shape participation in collective action

AbstractWhy do some people perceive more injustice, feel more anger, or hold higher collective efficacy beliefs, and thereby are readier to engage in collective action than others? Our understanding of collective action is incomplete without a better understanding of what shapes variation in its antecedents. In this article, we highlight and elaborate historical narratives’ role in driving engagement in collective action. By integrating research and theory on historical narratives and collective action, we propose a theoretical model specifying historical narratives’ impact on three main predictors of collective action—perceived injustice, group efficacy beliefs, and group identity—as well as on forms of collective action. We elaborate on how different dimensions of historical narratives (e.g., historical trajectories, historical attributions) influence each antecedent of collective action and shape action choice. This article contributes to literature by establishing a theoretical basis that explains how historical narratives can either impede or foster collective action tendencies.

Gamma Oscillations in the Temporal Pole Reflect the Contribution of Approach and Avoidance Motivational Systems to the Processing of Fear and Anger Words.

Prior reports suggest that affective effects in visual word processing cannot be fully explained by a dimensional perspective of emotions based on valence and arousal. In the current study, we focused on the contribution of approach and avoidance motivational systems that are related to different action components to the processing of emotional words. To this aim, we compared frontal alpha asymmetries and brain oscillations elicited by anger words associated with approach (fighting) motivational tendencies, and fear words that may trigger either avoidance (escaping), approach (fighting) or no (freezing) action tendencies. The participants’ task was to make decisions about approaching or distancing from the concepts represented by words. The results of cluster-based and beamforming analyses revealed increased gamma power band synchronization for fear words relative to anger words between 725 and 750 ms, with an estimated neural origin in the temporal pole. These findings were interpreted to reflect a conflict between different action tendencies underlying the representation of fear words in semantic and emotional memories, when trying to achieve task requirements. These results are in line with the predictions made by the fear-hinders-action hypothesis. Additionally, current data highlights the contribution of motivational features to the representation and processing of emotional words.

Perceptions of Emotional Functionality: Similarities and Differences Among Dignity, Face, and Honor Cultures

Emotions are linked to wide sets of action tendencies, and it can be difficult to predict which specific action tendency will be motivated or indulged in response to individual experiences of emotion. Building on a functional perspective of emotion, we investigate whether anger and shame connect to different behavioral intentions in dignity, face, and honor cultures. Using simple animations that showed perpetrators taking resources from victims, we conducted two studies across eleven countries investigating the extent to which participants expected victims to feel anger and shame, how they thought victims should respond to such violations, and how expectations of emotions were affected by enacted behavior. Across cultures, anger was associated with desires to reclaim resources or alert others to the violation. In face and honor cultures, but not dignity cultures, shame was associated with the desire for aggressive retaliation. However, we found that when victims indulged motivationally-relevant behavior, expected anger and shame were reduced, and satisfaction increased, in similar ways across cultures. Results suggest similarities and differences in expectations of how emotions functionally elicit behavioral responses across cultures.

Avoidance tendencies toward cannabis stimuli in a college sample

Individuals with addictions often exhibit approach bias, or the relatively automatic action tendency to approach rather than avoid addiction-related stimuli. The current study used a cannabis-Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) to assess approach-avoidance tendencies toward cannabis stimuli among 211 undergraduate college students with varying levels of cannabis use. Frequency and severity of cannabis use was assessed using the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test – Short Form (CUDIT-R). The sample did not demonstrate a significant approach or avoidance bias toward cannabis stimuli; instead, participants were significantly slower to approach and avoid cannabis stimuli relative to neutral stimuli. Individuals with problematic cannabis use who met criteria for a possible cannabis use disorder (CUD) based on CUDIT-R criteria were significantly slower to avoid but not to approach cannabis stimuli compared to individuals with nonuse and non-problematic use. Moreover, increased frequency and severity of cannabis use was significantly associated with increased reaction times to avoid cannabis stimuli. Findings appear to differ from some previous studies examining approach-avoidance tendencies toward cannabis, suggesting that the role of cognitive biases in cannabis use is complex and should be further investigated.

THE HEDONIST’S EMOTIONS

This paper explores the compelling hedonistic intuition that emotions affect happiness because they are states of pleasure and displeasure. The discussion focusses on two constraints on a plausible version of hedonism and explains which accounts of the emotions satisfy these constraints. Section 1 revolves around the nonalienation constraint: the constituents of a subject’s happiness must engage him or her. We argue that the intuition that emotions have prudential value presupposes that emotions are forms of engagement, a condition that only some accounts of the emotions satisfy. Section 2 centres around the unity constraint: if we acknowledge a great variety of (dis)pleasures, we still need to understand what makes all of them (dis)pleasures. Conceiving of the emotions as forms of engagement, we contend, allows us to resolve the difficulties concerning the variety and unity of (dis)pleasures that weigh on traditional hedonism. In section 3, we defend the form of affective hedonism that has emerged. We argue that the approach can be extended from emotions to other affective states and that the central role we give to action tendencies in our conception of affectivity does not call into question the idea that emotions contribute to happiness because of their hedonic value.

Who wants to wash away their sins? Guilt and shame proneness and behavioral moral cleansing endorsement: a pilot study

In our pilot cross-sectional study, we aimed to explore the associations between guilt and shame proneness and moral cleansing endorsement. Our sample consisted of 484 adults (73.3% females), aged 18 and 53 (M=24.09, SD=7.32). We used a novel approach to explore moral cleansing mechanisms, i.e., a two-item scale assessing behavioral cleansing endorsement (one's agreement with the idea that people must "wash away" their immoral acts by acting in ethical ways that would "clean" their moral debt). In addition to the significant associations that we found between moral cleansing endorsement and the guilt and shame proneness dimensions (i.e., negative behavior evaluation, repair action tendencies, negative self-evaluation, and withdrawal action tendencies), results also suggested that moral cleansing endorsement was significantly predicted by overall guilt and shame proneness. More specifically, we found that higher levels of guilt and shame proneness might account for higher moral cleansing endorsement levels. We also found important associations with participants' age: our findings suggested that the higher the age, the higher the endorsement for moral actions aimed to "clean" immoral deeds. Results are discussed in relation to cultural-related factors.

Toward a Theory of Emotions in Competitive Sports.

In this article, we introduce a theory on the dynamic development of affective processes, affect regulation, and the relationship between emotions and sport performance. The theory focusses on how affective processes emerge and develop during competitive sport involvement. Based on Scherer’s component process model, we postulate six components of emotion that interact with each other in a circular fashion: (I) triggering processes, (II) physiological reactions, (III) action tendencies, (IV) expressive behaviors, (V) subjective experience, and (VI) higher cognitive processes. The theory stresses the dynamics of affective processes and describes the consequences for performance in competitive sports. It assumes that the peculiarities of different sports must be taken into account in order to understand the affective processes, and offers starting points on which strategies can be used to effectively regulate affective states. Consequences for research and practice are derived and discussed. To study the development of affective processes, future research should test the assumptions in ecologically valid contexts, such as real competitions or competition-like situations, using multi-component measures of emotions.

Associations between anger and chronic primary pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Anger is a negative emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something, is rooted in an appraisal or attribution of wrongdoing, and is accompanied by an action tendency to undo the wrongdoing. Anger is prevalent in individuals with chronic pain, especially those with chronic primary pain. The associations between anger and pain-related outcomes (e.g., pain intensity, disability) have been examined in previous studies. However, to our knowledge, no systematic review or meta-analysis has summarized the findings of anger-pain associations through a focus on chronic primary pain. Hence, we sought to summarize the findings on the associations ofanger-related variables with pain and disability in individuals with chronic primary pain. All studies reporting at least one association between anger-related variables and the two pain-related outcomes in individuals with chronic primary pain were eligible. We searched electronic databases using keywords relevant to anger and chronic primary pain. Multiple reviewers independently screened for study eligibility, data extraction, and methodological quality assessment. Thirty-eight studies were included in this systematic review, of which 20 provided data for meta-analyses (2,682 participants with chronic primary pain). Of the included studies, 68.4% had a medium methodological quality. Evidence showed mixed results in the qualitative synthesis. Most anger-related variables had significant positive pooled correlations with small to moderate effect sizes for pain and disability. Through a comprehensive search, we identified several key anger-related variables associated with pain-related outcomes. In particular, associations with perceived injustice were substantial.

Factor structure of audiences' physical experience while watching dance.

The aim of this study is to explore factor structure of audiences' physical experience and their related bodily sensations when watching dance choreographies. This study also includes the process of developing an instrument for measuring the observers' physical experience of dance choreographies and their related kinesthetic responses to watching dance. In the main study, participants rated their physical experiences and kinesthetic responses when watching 16 different dance choreographies of various dance forms, including contemporary dance, jazz, tango, and hip-hop. Three factors of the observers' physical experiences when watching dance were identified: Action Tendency, Arousal, and Relaxation. Furthermore, the results show that the structure of the observers' kinesthetic responses when watching dance consisted of three factors: Focus, Excitement and Embodied Anticipation. The spectators' physical experiences and bodily sensations in response to an observed dance are the result of their engagement in the dance, the pleasure they draw from the dance, the emotions provoked in them, and their admiration for the performance. These findings are in line with the concept of kinesthetic empathy, which can be understood as the experience of sharing a dancer's movements.

Linear and non-linear relationships among the dimensions representing the cognitive structure of emotion

ABSTRACT While dimensional models play a key role in emotion psychology, no consensus has been reached about their number and nature. The current study sheds a new light on this central issue by examining linear and non-linear relationships among the dimensions in the cognitive emotion structure. The meaning of 80 emotion terms was evaluated on 68 features representing appraisals, action tendencies, bodily reactions, expressions, and subjective experiences by 213 English-speaking US, 156 French-speaking Swiss, and 194 Indonesian-speaking Indonesian students. In a two-dimensional valence and arousal representation, neither linear nor non-linear relationships were observed. In a four-dimensional valence, power, arousal, and novelty representation, both linear (e.g. a positive relationship between valence and power) and non-linear (e.g. a strong positive correlation between valence and power found only for positively valenced emotion terms) relationships were observed. Joy- and sadness-related emotion terms where about as well represented by the two- than by the four-dimensional representation. However, especially anger- and surprise-related terms were only adequately represented by the four-dimensional representation. These findings were generalisable across the three languages. Even though a two-dimensional structure fits the data well in general, four dimensions are needed to sufficiently represent the cognitive structure of the whole gamut of human emotions.

Positive emotion enhances conflict processing in preschoolers.

The rapid detection and resolution of conflict between opposing action tendencies is crucial for our ability to engage in goal-directed behavior. Research in adults suggests that emotions can serve as a "relevance detector" that alarms attentional and sensory systems, thereby leading to more efficient conflict processing. In contrast, previous research in children has almost exclusively stressed the impeding influence of emotion on the attentional system, as suggested by the protracted development of performance in "hot" executive function tasks. Do preschool children show a facilitative effect of emotion on conflict processing? We addressed this question applying a modified version of a color flanker task that either involved or did not involve positive emotional stimuli in preschool children (N=43, with preregistered Bayesian sequential design, aged 2.8-7.0 years). Our results show a robust conflict effect with higher error rates in incongruent compared to congruent trials. Crucially, conflict resolution was faster in emotional compared to neutral conditions. Furthermore, while efficient conflict processing increases with age, we find evidence against an age-related change in the influence of positive emotion on conflict processing. Taken together, these findings provide indication that positive emotion can trigger efficient control processes already from early on in life. In contrast to the predominant view in developmental psychology, this indicates that, depending on the role that emotion has in conflict processing, emotion may show a facilitative or impeding effect already in the preschool period.

Moral impressions and presumed moral choices: Perceptions of how moral exemplars resolve moral dilemmas

Previous research suggests that individuals who prefer deontological over utilitarian choices in moral dilemmas are perceived to have stronger moral character than individuals who show the reverse preference. To gain deeper insights into the link between moral choices and moral impressions, the current research used a formal modeling approach to examine whether morally exceptional figures are perceived to differ from others in their sensitivity to consequences, sensitivity to moral norms, or general action tendencies when resolving moral dilemmas. Findings from four studies (N = 980) suggest that perceived morality is associated with greater presumed adherence to moral norms in the resolution of moral dilemmas. For sensitivity to consequences and general action tendencies, findings were mixed and attributable to characteristics confounded with perceived morality. The findings suggest a hitherto unexplored mechanism underlying moral-dilemma judgments by which moral judgments are based on mental simulations of decisions by morally exceptional figures.

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Maladaptive blame-related action tendencies are associated with vulnerability to major depressive disorder

Biases towards self-blaming emotions, such as self-contempt/disgust, were previously associated with vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD). Self-blaming emotions are thought to prompt specific action tendencies (e.g. “feeling like hiding”), which are likely to be more important for psychosocial functioning than the emotions themselves. Systematic investigations, however, of these action tendencies in MDD are lacking. Here, we investigated the role of blame-related action tendencies for MDD vulnerability and their relationship with blame-related emotions. 76 participants with medication-free remitted MDD and 44 healthy control (HC) participants without a history of MDD completed the value-related moral sentiment task, which measured their blame-related emotions during hypothetical social interactions and a novel task to assess their blame-related action tendencies (feeling like hiding, apologising, creating a distance from oneself, attacking oneself, creating a distance from other, attacking other, no action). As predicted, the MDD group showed a maladaptive profile of action tendencies: a higher proneness to feeling like hiding and creating a distance from themselves compared with the HC group. In contrast, feeling like apologising was less common in the MDD than the HC group. Apologising for one's wrongdoing was associated with all self-blaming emotions including shame, guilt, self-contempt/disgust and self-indignation. Hiding was associated with both shame and guilt. Our study shows that MDD vulnerability was associated with specific maladaptive action tendencies which were independent of the type of emotion, thus unveiling novel cognitive markers and neurocognitive treatment targets.

Urgency forces stimulus-driven action by overcoming cognitive control.

Intelligent behavior requires to act directed by goals despite competing action tendencies triggered by stimuli in the environment. For eye movements, it has recently been discovered that this ability is briefly reduced in urgent situations (Salinas et al., 2019). In a time-window before an urgent response, participants could not help but look at a suddenly appearing visual stimulus, even though their goal was to look away from it. Urgency seemed to provoke a new visual-oculomotor phenomenon: A period in which saccadic eye movements are dominated by external stimuli, and uncontrollable by current goals. This period was assumed to arise from brain mechanisms controlling eye movements and spatial attention, such as those of the frontal eye field. Here, we show that the phenomenon is more general than previously thought. We found that also in well-investigated manual tasks, urgency made goal-conflicting stimulus features dominate behavioral responses. This dominance of behavior followed established trial-to-trial signatures of cognitive control mechanisms that replicate across a variety of tasks. Thus together, these findings reveal that urgency temporarily forces stimulus-driven action by overcoming cognitive control in general, not only at brain mechanisms controlling eye movements.

Testing the Biophilia theory: Automatic approach tendencies towards nature

It seems as if modern urban lifestyle disconnects people from nature, this may be associated with adverse health effects. In line with this notion it has been consistently shown that psychiatric diagnoses are more frequent in urban compared to rural regions. Most of the studies addressing potential causal mechanisms of this urban-rural difference focus on detrimental aspects of city living. In contrast, biophilia theory has posited an automatic, potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature. Acting against this proposed tendency to seek contact to natural environments may affect mental health. As scientific evidence for this psycho-evolutionary biophilia theory is lacking by now, we utilized implicit test strategies developed to assess automatic associations between mental representations and action tendencies to put this theory to test. In an online study (N = 109), we administered three reaction time paradigms: the dot probe task (DPT), the implicit association test (IAT) and the approach avoidance task (AAT). All tasks reveal a tendency to approach nature and avoid cities (DPT: F(1,105) = 11.15, p = .001, ƞ2 = 0.096; IAT: F(1,107) = 17.10, p = 7.068E-5, ƞ2 = 0.138; AAT: F(1,103) = 4.36, p = .039, ƞ2 = 0.041). Interestingly, the results of the AAT, the only test that allows this differentiation, suggest that the tendency to approach nature seems to play a more important role than the avoidance of built environments. The present findings provide clear evidence in support of biophilia theory and can therefore inspire and foster further studies investigating whether acting against an automatic and potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature, by living in cities e.g., may contribute more prominently to the emergence of mental health problems than (or at least in addition to) environmental or societal stressors individuals are exposed to in cities.

Miten kuvailla vihaa? Viron ja suomen idiomien vertailu kognitiivisen kielitieteen näkökulmasta

Tässä artikkelissa vertailemme vihan emootiota välittäviä viron- ja suomenkielisiä kuvaannollisia ilmauksia. Selitämme niiden erikoislaatua idiomien merkityspiirteillä ja analysoimme ilmauksia metaforateorian viitekehystä käyttäen. Sekä suomen että viron vihaidiomien kielikuvat perustuvat laajalti ruumiilliseen metonymiaan; lisäksi näissä kielissä on käytössä kansainvälisesti levinneitä käsitemetaforia kuten viha on kuuma neste astiassa, vihan intensiivisyys on kuumuutta, viha on tulta. Molemmissa kielissä ilmenee vihatilanteen käsitteistämisen vaiheittaisuus (vihan synty, sen vaikutus kokijaan, pyrkimys kontrolloida vihaa, kontrollin menetys, vihainen käyttäytyminen). Suomen kielessä vihaa käsitteistetään aivoihin ja päähän liittyvän toiminnan kautta, kun taas virossa kokija kuvaillaan astiana ja viha nesteenä. Molemmissa kielissä esiintyy hyperbolista kuvaannollisuutta. Virossa vihaista ihmistä karrikoidaan eläinten ruumiinosiin viittaamalla, suomessa korostuu autoaggressiivinen käyttäytymismalli. *** How to describe anger? A comparison of Estonian and Finnish idioms from the perspective of cognitive linguistics This study focuses on a comparison of two sister languages, Estonian and Finnish. The purpose is to compare the idiomatic expressions which describe the emotion of anger in order to find out the similarities and differences in its conceptualisation and lexicalisation. The findings are interpreted by using the framework of cognitive metaphor theory. The idioms of both languages fit onto the five-stage scenario like folk model of anger (the offense and beginning of anger; the (physiological) effects of anger on Self; the attempt to control the emotion; losing the control; retribution i.e. aggressive behaviour). The cognitive model represents these aspects of the anger event which are conceptualised by using figurative expressions. Both languages provide a rich array of expressions motivated by cognitive metonymies. The emotion is described by referring to its bodily symptoms, i.e. the expected changes in the position or function of one’s body parts (both internal and external). The descriptions vary from realistic (e.g., rusikat näitama (Est) ‘to demonstrate aggressivity’, lit. ‘to show one’s fist’) to unrealistic and even absurd ones (e.g., vetää herneet nenään (Fin) ‘to become angry’, lit. ‘to aspirate peas into one’s nose’). The differences lie in particular elements of the (human) body or physiological processes these languages focus on: Finnish idioms refer also to the (negative) activation of the brain and to a pattern of autoaggressive behaviour while the Estonian idioms pay more attention to the feeling of pressure in one’s chest and – on the other hand – also refers to the body parts of (domestic) animals. The latter expressions mix the metonymies with metaphoric mapping man is an animal and subject the (intensity of) emotional reaction to ridicule. In regard to the cognitive metaphors, some widespread ones could be detected in both of the languages, namely anger is hot fluid in a container, the intensity of anger is heat and anger is fire. Estonian tends to exploit the metaphor anger is fluid in a container more widely, by specifying the nature of fluids (such as poison and beer/alcohol) and the nature of containers such as one’s heart and spirit. In Estonian also the metaphor anger is a natural force is used in order to conceptualise one’s inability to control the emotion. The reifying metaphor experiencer is a machine seems to be a Finnish peculiarity. The results were found to reinforce the results of a previous study into the literal concepts of anger by Estonians and Finns in which the concepts were found to be very similar with only minor differences in respect of the action tendencies. The Estonians interviewed in the previous study stated that they would prefer staying passive while angry. Similarly, the Estonian idioms in the present study reflect the aspects of containing the emotion and its effects on the experiencing Self. The Finns, in contrast, believed that they would prefer being active or moving, and the Finnish idioms reflect some interesting patterns of autoaggressive behaviour (e.g. polttaa hihansa , lit. ‘to burn one’s sleeves’ or repiä pelihousunsa , lit. ‘to shred one’s game shorts’.

Multiple action options in the context of time: When exams approach, students study more and experience fewer motivational conflicts

University students’ study motivation in a particular moment is shaped by contextual factors such as upcoming exams and conflicts between different action tendencies. We investigated how these two contextual factors are related. Based on the theoretical assumption that students’ in-the-moment study motivation increases relative to their motivation for other activities as exams approach, we investigated how students’ study activities and their experience of motivational action conflicts develop when exams come closer in time. Using the experience sampling method, we tracked the in-situ activities and conflict experience of 134 first-semester university students over one week and a total of 4995 measurement points just before exams. Multilevel logistic regression revealed that the probability to study increased by 13.9% and the probability to experience a motivational conflict decreased by 17.5% each day the exam came closer in time. Multilevel regression showed that motivational conflicts were more intense the closer the exam was in time. Students were generally less likely to experience conflicts while studying and experienced more intense conflicts when the conflicting activity was study related. We discuss that both multiple goals and the temporal distance of relevant events should be considered as relevant contexts shaping the situated motivation of university students.