UC Berkeley

Do people habituate faster to positively than to negatively-valenced emotional triggers? We performed 2 studies to examine whether rate of affective habituation is moderated by stimuli valence (manipulated within-subjects) with the hypothesis that habituation would be faster for positive than for negative stimuli. Additionally, we tested whether the hypothesized effect of stimuli valence on habituation was stronger among people higher in anxiety. In the first study, participants (N = 105) were presented with negative and positive images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al., 2008). Images were matched ideographically across subjects in their intensity and were presented in random order with 10 repetitions (trials) per image. In the second study which was pre-registered, participants performed a similar task after their state anxiety levels were experimentally manipulated (N experimental group = 103; N control group = 106). Results from both studies indicated that habituation was faster for positive than for negative stimuli and anxiety was positively associated with the magnitude of differences in positive vs. negative habituation rates. This effect was primarily due to differences in positive habituation as people who reported experiencing higher levels of anxiety (chronic and situational) habituated to positively-valenced elicitors significantly faster. Overall, these results suggest that positive habituation, both on its own and vis-à-vis negative habituation might be an important mechanism that underlies emotional functioning and enhancing our understanding of the building blocks of emotional disorders in non-clinical populations.