The role of Anxiety and Anxiety-related goals in influencing Evaluative Conditioning effects

Recent research showed that personality traits can influence evaluative conditioning (EC), that is the change in the evaluation of a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) due to its previous pairings with another positively or negatively valenced stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US). Neuroticism and its Anxiety facet have already been found to increase the EC effect. Thus, we hypothesised that goals related to personality traits of anxiety could also influence the EC effect. A first study provided correlational evidence that an anxiety-related goal (i.e., Avoiding feeling uncomfortable) moderates the EC effect. The present study experimentally investigates whether and how anxiety (state, trait, and goal-related) influences the EC effect. The participants (N=553), before performing the EC procedure, underwent an anxiety induction procedure and completed questionnaires assessing anxiety and goals before and after the manipulation. Multilevel analyses show interesting results on the different ways in which Anxiety can influence the EC effect.