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Negative affective reactions reduce perceived likelihood of risk

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Abstract

This investigation examined the influence of negative affective reactions on the perceived likelihood of experiencing a health risk. Concepts related to formaldehyde exposure were paired with negative stimuli to create affective reactions. In Study 1, perceived risk was reduced when the thought of formaldehyde exposure elicited negative affective reactions compared to a control condition and participants were less interested in information on the risk and recommended spending less money to alleviate the hazard. The potential boundary condition of emotional states was examined in Study 2. Sad or neutral emotion was elicited before learning about the hazard, which was again paired with negative stimuli or no affective stimuli. Sadness increased perceived risk; negative affective reactions reduced perceived risk only when participants were in a neutral incidental state. These findings suggest that negative affective reactions reduce the perceived likelihood of risk, but only in the absence of alternative emotional information.

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Notes

  1. Participants were given an additional option that the university spend “whatever it costs” to address the problem and conditions differed in how often participants chose this option, χ 2(1) = 8.87, p = .003. It was recommended that the university spend “whatever it costs” less often by participants in the negative condition (6 %) than participants in the control condition (29 %). This option was converted to the next highest option for the main analysis.

  2. This comparison is conceptually similar to the methods used in past studies that have demonstrated sadness increases the perceived likelihood of risk. Participants in these studies typically judge the likelihood that they will experience a number of negative outcomes (i.e., outcomes that elicit negative affective reactions). No findings suggest that sadness increases likelihood judgments for neutral events. Therefore the relevant comparison in this study was between participants in the sad conditions and participants in the neutral condition with negative affective reactions to the event, and the findings were consistent with past research in that sadness increased the perceived likelihood of risk.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Sarah Flores for comments on earlier drafts and Alok Menon-Vaid, Ashley Babjack, and Alexandra Sweeney for data collection and entry.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4235, USA

    Heather C. Lench & Kathleen E. Darbor

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  1. Heather C. Lench
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  2. Kathleen E. Darbor
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Correspondence to Heather C. Lench.

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Lench, H.C., Darbor, K.E. Negative affective reactions reduce perceived likelihood of risk. Motiv Emot 38, 569–577 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9398-1

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