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Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic

Exposure to stressful life events involving threat and uncertainty often results in the development of anxiety. However, the factors that confer risk and resilience for anxiety following real world stress at a computational level remain unclear. We identified core components of uncertainty aversion...

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Autores principales: Wise, Toby, Zbozinek, Tomislav D, Charpentier, Caroline J., Michelini, Giorgia, Hagan, Cindy C, Mobbs, Dean
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9942526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35666908
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0001088
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author Wise, Toby
Zbozinek, Tomislav D
Charpentier, Caroline J.
Michelini, Giorgia
Hagan, Cindy C
Mobbs, Dean
author_facet Wise, Toby
Zbozinek, Tomislav D
Charpentier, Caroline J.
Michelini, Giorgia
Hagan, Cindy C
Mobbs, Dean
author_sort Wise, Toby
collection PubMed
description Exposure to stressful life events involving threat and uncertainty often results in the development of anxiety. However, the factors that confer risk and resilience for anxiety following real world stress at a computational level remain unclear. We identified core components of uncertainty aversion moderating response to stress posed by the COVID-19 pandemic derived from computational modelling of decision making. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, we investigated both immediate effects at the onset of the stressor, as well as medium-term changes in response to persistent stress. 479 subjects based in the United States completed a decision-making task measuring risk aversion, loss aversion, and ambiguity aversion in the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020). Self-report measures targeting threat perception, anxiety, and avoidant behavior in response to the pandemic were collected at the same time point and 8 weeks later (May 2020). Cross-sectional analyses indicated that higher risk aversion predicted higher perceived threat from the pandemic, and ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted perceived threat and pandemic-related anxiety. In longitudinal analyses, ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted greater increases in perceived infection likelihood. Together, these results suggest that individuals who have a low-level aversion towards uncertainty show stronger negative emotional reactions to both the onset and persistence of real-life stress.
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spelling pubmed-99425262023-04-21 Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic Wise, Toby Zbozinek, Tomislav D Charpentier, Caroline J. Michelini, Giorgia Hagan, Cindy C Mobbs, Dean Emotion Article Exposure to stressful life events involving threat and uncertainty often results in the development of anxiety. However, the factors that confer risk and resilience for anxiety following real world stress at a computational level remain unclear. We identified core components of uncertainty aversion moderating response to stress posed by the COVID-19 pandemic derived from computational modelling of decision making. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, we investigated both immediate effects at the onset of the stressor, as well as medium-term changes in response to persistent stress. 479 subjects based in the United States completed a decision-making task measuring risk aversion, loss aversion, and ambiguity aversion in the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020). Self-report measures targeting threat perception, anxiety, and avoidant behavior in response to the pandemic were collected at the same time point and 8 weeks later (May 2020). Cross-sectional analyses indicated that higher risk aversion predicted higher perceived threat from the pandemic, and ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted perceived threat and pandemic-related anxiety. In longitudinal analyses, ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted greater increases in perceived infection likelihood. Together, these results suggest that individuals who have a low-level aversion towards uncertainty show stronger negative emotional reactions to both the onset and persistence of real-life stress. 2023-04 2022-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9942526/ /pubmed/35666908 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0001088 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) International license.
spellingShingle Article
Wise, Toby
Zbozinek, Tomislav D
Charpentier, Caroline J.
Michelini, Giorgia
Hagan, Cindy C
Mobbs, Dean
Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title_full Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title_fullStr Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title_short Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
title_sort computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9942526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35666908
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0001088
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