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Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Smith, NK; Larsen, JT; Chartrand, TL; Cacioppo, JT; Katafiasz, HA; Moran, KE
Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology
February 2006

Research has demonstrated that people automatically devote more attention to negative information than to positive information. The authors conducted 3 experiments to test whether this bias is attenuated by a person's affective context. Specifically, the authors primed participants with positive and negative information using traditional (e.g., subliminal semantic priming) and nontraditional (e.g., social interactions) means and measured the amount of attention they allocated to positive and negative information. With both event-related brain potentials (Experiment 1) and the Stroop task (Experiments 2 and 3), results suggest that the attention bias to negative information is attenuated or eliminated when positive constructs are made accessible. The implications of this result for other biases to negative information and for the self-reinforcing nature of emotional disorders are discussed.

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Published In

Journal of personality and social psychology

DOI

EISSN

1939-1315

ISSN

0022-3514

Publication Date

February 2006

Volume

90

Issue

2

Start / End Page

210 / 220

Related Subject Headings

  • Subliminal Stimulation
  • Social Psychology
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Set, Psychology
  • Semantics
  • Reinforcement, Psychology
  • Personal Construct Theory
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Interpersonal Relations
 

Citation

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Smith, N. K., Larsen, J. T., Chartrand, T. L., Cacioppo, J. T., Katafiasz, H. A., & Moran, K. E. (2006). Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(2), 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.210
Smith, N Kyle, Jeff T. Larsen, Tanya L. Chartrand, John T. Cacioppo, Heather A. Katafiasz, and Kathleen E. Moran. “Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90, no. 2 (February 2006): 210–20. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.210.
Smith NK, Larsen JT, Chartrand TL, Cacioppo JT, Katafiasz HA, Moran KE. Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2006 Feb;90(2):210–20.
Smith, N. Kyle, et al. “Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 90, no. 2, Feb. 2006, pp. 210–20. Epmc, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.210.
Smith NK, Larsen JT, Chartrand TL, Cacioppo JT, Katafiasz HA, Moran KE. Being bad isn't always good: affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2006 Feb;90(2):210–220.

Published In

Journal of personality and social psychology

DOI

EISSN

1939-1315

ISSN

0022-3514

Publication Date

February 2006

Volume

90

Issue

2

Start / End Page

210 / 220

Related Subject Headings

  • Subliminal Stimulation
  • Social Psychology
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Set, Psychology
  • Semantics
  • Reinforcement, Psychology
  • Personal Construct Theory
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Interpersonal Relations