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Experimentally induced and real-world anxiety have no demonstrable effect on goal-directed behaviour
- Source :
- Psychological Medicine
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- BackgroundGoal-directed control guides optimal decision-making and it is an important cognitive faculty that protects against developing habits. Previous studies have found some evidence of goal-directed deficits when healthy individuals are stressed, and in psychiatric conditions characterised by compulsive behaviours and anxiety. Here, we tested if goal-directed control is affected by state anxiety, which might explain the former results.MethodsWe carried out a causal test of this hypothesis in two experiments (between-subject N = 88; within-subject N = 50) that used the inhalation of hypercapnic gas (7.5% CO2) to induce an acute state of anxiety in healthy volunteers. In a third experiment (N = 1413), we used a correlational design to test if real-life anxiety-provoking events (panic attacks, stressful events) are associated with impaired goal-directed control.ResultsIn the former two causal experiments, we induced a profoundly anxious state, both physiologically and psychologically, but this did not affect goal-directed performance. In the third, correlational, study, we found no evidence for an association between goal-directed control, panic attacks or stressful life eventsover and above variance accounted for by trait differences in compulsivity.ConclusionsIn sum, three complementary experiments found no evidence that anxiety impairs goal-directed control in human subjects.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Adolescent
Library science
610 Medicine & health
Anxiety
3202 Applied Psychology
2738 Psychiatry and Mental Health
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Humans
Sociology
Erasmus+
Applied Psychology
Aged
Motivation
Original Articles
Middle Aged
Mental health
030227 psychiatry
Psychiatry and Mental health
Scholarship
Research centre
10054 Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics
Female
medicine.symptom
Goals
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Goal-directed control
Theme (narrative)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00332917
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Psychological Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e45a6e98e98b51195688dc0d01b9f8a4