Title |
Mental Contrasting of a Negative Future with a Positive Reality Regulates State Anxiety
|
---|---|
Published in |
Frontiers in Psychology, September 2017
|
DOI | 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01596 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Gunnar Brodersen, Gabriele Oettingen |
Abstract |
Mental contrasting of a desired future with impeding reality is a self-regulatory strategy fostering goal pursuit. However, there is little research on mental contrasting of a negative future with a positive reality. We conducted two experiments, each with four experimental conditions, investigating the effects of mental contrasting a negative future with a positive reality on state anxiety: participants who mentally contrasted a negative future regarding a bacterial epidemic (Study 1, N = 199) or an idiosyncratic negative event (Study 2, N = 206) showed less state anxiety than participants who imagined the negative future only or who reverse contrasted; participants who mentally elaborated on the positive reality also showed less state anxiety. Our findings suggest that mental contrasting of a negative future helps people reduce disproportional anxiety regarding a negative future. |
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